Tuesday - February 09, 2021
"Only those who set aside their own knowledge and walk in God's service like unlearned children receive wisdom from God"
-John of The Cross
TODAY'S READINGS
February 9, 2021
Tuesday of the Fifth
Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 329
God said,
“Let the water teem with an abundance of living creatures,
and on the earth let birds fly beneath the dome of the sky.”
And so it happened:
God created the great sea monsters
and all kinds of swimming creatures with which the water teems,
and all kinds of winged birds.
God saw how good it was, and God blessed them, saying,
“Be fertile, multiply, and fill the water of the seas;
and let the birds multiply on the earth.”
Evening came, and morning followed–the fifth day.
Then God said,
“Let the earth bring forth all kinds of living creatures:
cattle, creeping things, and wild animals of all kinds.”
And so it happened:
God made all kinds of wild animals, all kinds of cattle,
and all kinds of creeping things of the earth.
God saw how good it was.
Then God said:
“Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.
Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea,
the birds of the air, and the cattle,
and over all the wild animals
and all the creatures that crawl on the ground.”
God created man in his image;
in the divine image he created him;
male and female he created them.
God blessed them, saying:
“Be fertile and multiply;
fill the earth and subdue it.
Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air,
and all the living things that move on the earth.”
God also said:
“See, I give you every seed-bearing plant all over the earth
and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit on it to be your food;
and to all the animals of the land, all the birds of the air,
and all the living creatures that crawl on the ground,
I give all the green plants for food.”
And so it happened.
God looked at everything he had made, and he found it very good.
Evening came, and morning followed–the sixth day.
Thus the heavens and the earth and all their array were completed.
Since on the seventh day God was finished with the work he had been doing,
he rested on the seventh day from all the work he had undertaken.
So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy,
because on it he rested from all the work he had done in creation.
Such is the story of the heavens and the earth at their creation.
Responsorial Psalm
R.
(2ab) O Lord, our God, how
wonderful your name in all the earth!
When I behold your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars which you set in place—
What is man that you should be mindful of him,
or the son of man that you should care for him?
R. O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!
You have made him little less than the angels,
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him rule over the works of your hands,
putting all things under his feet.
R. O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!
All sheep and oxen,
yes, and the beasts of the field,
The birds of the air, the fishes of the sea,
and whatever swims the paths of the seas.
R. O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Incline my heart, O
God, to your decrees;
And favor me with
your law.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
When the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem
gathered around Jesus,
they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals
with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands.
(For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews,
do not eat without carefully washing their hands,
keeping the tradition of the elders.
And on coming from the marketplace
they do not eat without purifying themselves.
And there are many other things that they have traditionally observed,
the purification of cups and jugs and kettles and beds.)
So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him,
“Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders
but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?”
He responded,
“Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites,
as it is written:
This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines human precepts.
You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.”
He went on to say,
“How well you have set aside the commandment of God
in order to uphold your tradition!
For Moses said,
Honor your father and your mother,
and Whoever curses father or mother shall die.
Yet you say,
‘If someone says to father or mother,
“Any support you might have had from me is qorban”’
(meaning, dedicated to God),
you allow him to do nothing more for his father or mother.
You nullify the word of God
in favor of your tradition that you have handed on.
And you do many such things.”
You are a Masterpiece of God!
In today's first reading, God reaches the high point of his handiwork by creating you and me and every human person who was ever conceived. We are his masterpieces! Yes, even the unborn human who dies in miscarriage or abortion -- God created each one as a masterpiece whom he treasures and wants to live with forever.
Do you feel like a piece of junk? That's not his opinion of you. Okay, so you're not perfect; big deal. When God looks at you, he doesn't see the crud that tarnishes you; he sees the gem underneath -- a beautiful, bright, multi-hued gem. Even when he looks at the most evil person on earth, he sees the goodness that he created, where it lies buried inside.
And he says, "This is very good!"
When Jesus took our crud with him to the cross, he made it easier for our gems to get cleaned up and polished. Baptism and Confession are sacraments that wash the crud from us as we give it all to Jesus. When our Father looks at you and me, he looks at us through these sacraments to see the masterpieces that he created.
So why do we have a hard time believing that God likes us? Why do we have a hard time liking ourselves? It's because we project onto God the image and likeness of humans, specifically the people who've disliked us when we failed to live up to their expectations.
Our prayer life is affected by this. The Person of the Trinity to whom we entrust our prayers is Our Father. Yet, because our human fathers and other authority figures could not be trusted all the time (none are perfectly trustable), we assume that God will disappoint us, too. It's not that we think God is incapable of answering our prayers; we just think we're not good enough.
In truth, being "good enough" has nothing to do with it. We can't earn his help and he doesn't even want us to try. He gives his help freely and generously, simply because he loves us and, in the first place, because he cared enough to create us. The real reason why prayers don't get answered is either because we're blocking the help we need or because God is doing something far better for us and we can't see it yet.
You're not junk. You're God's masterpiece, and to deny that is to deny what Jesus did on the cross for you. It also denies that the Father said, "This is very good!" when he formed you in your mother's womb. The Father's creative genius is seen in all of nature, but you're his ultimate creation!
Today's Prayer
My Lord, please heal my heart of all doubt and indifference to Your
Fatherly love. Thank You for giving me the gift of life. Amen.
The mother of Jesus promised St. Dominic that, “one day through the rosary & the scapular I shall save the world!”
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