Reading I
1 Sm 15:16-23
Samuel said to Saul:
“Stop! Let me tell you what the LORD said to me last night.”
Saul replied, “Speak!”
Samuel then said: “Though little in your own esteem,
are you not leader of the tribes of Israel?
The LORD anointed you king of Israel and sent you on a mission, saying,
‘Go and put the sinful Amalekites under a ban of destruction.
Fight against them until you have exterminated them.’
Why then have you disobeyed the LORD?
You have pounced on the spoil, thus displeasing the LORD.”
Saul answered Samuel: “I did indeed obey the LORD
and fulfill the mission on which the LORD sent me.
I have brought back Agag, and I have destroyed Amalek under the ban.
But from the spoil the men took sheep and oxen,
the best of what had been banned,
to sacrifice to the LORD their God in Gilgal.”
But Samuel said:
“Does the LORD so delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
as in obedience to the command of the LORD?
Obedience is better than sacrifice,
and submission than the fat of rams.
For a sin like divination is rebellion,
and presumption is the crime of idolatry.
Because you have rejected the command of the LORD,
he, too, has rejected you as ruler.”
Gospel
Mk 2:18-22
The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were accustomed to fast.
People came to Jesus and objected,
“Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast,
but your disciples do not fast?”
Jesus answered them,
“Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?
As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast.
But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them,
and then they will fast on that day.
No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak.
If he does, its fullness pulls away,
the new from the old, and the tear gets worse.
Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins.
Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins,
and both the wine and the skins are ruined.
Rather, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins.”
Meditation: Mark 2:18-22
Today begins the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, and today’s Gospel reading certainly is appropriate.
Jesus wanted to show the people that he was doing something new and exciting, even though it didn’t quite fit what some observant Jews were expecting. Surely many people wondered who this upstart was to upset the status quo. But Jesus simply went about his business preaching the good news, healing the sick, and delivering the oppressed.
Jesus wasn’t trying to upset anyone by breaking with the practice of rigorous fasting that was common among the more devoted Jews. No, he was demonstrating what life should be like now that he, the “Bridegroom,” had come and ushered in the kingdom of God. Sure, it seemed risky not to rely on observations like fasting. Many people preferred to stick with the “safe” way they had learned from their ancestors. Better that than take a chance on an uncharted path of deeper faith and greater intimacy with God.
In a similar way, God has been doing something new recently in the body of Christ: He has been drawing together the divided churches and helping them overcome painful, centuries-old prejudices and animosities. Catholics, Lutherans, and Methodists are coming to agreement on the term “justification by faith.” Orthodox and Catholics are beginning to talk about the Eucharist and the role of the pope. Even Catholics and Evangelicals are putting aside their suspicions of each other and working together to promote a culture of life. So much has changed in the past couple of decades, and God is inviting all of us to embrace these changes as part of his wonderful plan.
As members of the body of Christ, we may still disagree with each other on issues like the papacy, the role of Mary, and the nature of the Eucharist. But we all agree on so much more: a loving, Trinitarian God; salvation in Christ; the gift of the Holy Spirit; the call to conversion and baptism; and the promise of heaven. Instead of focusing on what divides us, let’s focus on what we have in common.
All this week, as representatives from the different churches meet to pray together, let’s ask the Lord to soften our hearts and to help open us up to this new way that the Holy Spirit is moving.
“Lord, may we all be one!”
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