Meditation: James 1:1-11

The Seven Holy Founders of the Servite Order (Optional Memorial)

Let perseverance be perfect. (James 1:4)

Perseverance is one of those character traits that everyone values. Being able to stay the course when things get difficult is often the deciding factor between success or failure. Clearly, James thinks perseverance is crucial to our faith—so important that he equates it with perfection. He even writes that we should “consider it all joy” when we encounter trials because these trials give us the opportunity to grow in our ability to persevere (James 1:2).

But we know how hard it can be to persevere, especially in our walk with the Lord. We get tired of fighting temptation. We grow weary of sacrifice. We wonder if God is really hearing our prayers. We don’t know if we can keep loving people who don’t return our love.

So how do we stay the course? How do we keep moving forward in trust and confidence when our faith is tested and we are ready to give up?

We can take our cue from Jesus. He must have grown weary walking from village to village, with nowhere to lay his head. He must have grown tired of being jostled by crowds who wanted only to touch him and be healed. He must have been frustrated by the constant attacks from some of the religious leaders. But he just kept going. Every day was hard and demanding, but the Father gave him the grace to endure—all the way to the end, to his death on the cross.

We too can rely on God’s grace to persevere. His grace doesn’t necessarily mean that things will get easier; sometimes we just have to keep going, as Jesus did. But we can trust that somehow we’ll find the strength we need to keep pressing on. That “somehow,” of course, is the power of God’s grace flowing into us.

Every one of us has challenges we must persevere through, whether that’s a difficult relationship, a strong temptation, or a chronic health issue. So as you pray for the grace to persevere through your own trial, pray too for all the other readers of The Word Among Us who need that same grace. Then take comfort in knowing that many people are lifting you up right now, just as you are doing for them!

“Jesus, help me to persevere through all the difficulties I encounter today.”

Psalm 119:67-68, 71-72, 75-76
Mark 8:11-13

Homily of the Day

February 17, 2020

Monday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

In Jesus’ day in Palestine there was a noticeable tendency among the people to look for God in the extraordinary. The people believed that the advent of the Messiah would be accompanied by startling happenings in the heavens and on the earth. When false messiahs arose, they lured the people by promising astonishing signs.

This was the sort of sign that the Pharisees were demanding of Jesus. Jesus clearly and forcefully refused to give such a sign to the Pharisees: “I assure you, no such sign shall be given to this generation!”

Why did Jesus refuse to give a sign? The Gospel doesn’t provide a clear answer. However, there does seem to be a note of annoyance and even anger in Jesus’ refusal. His immediate departure from the place can also be interpreted as an expression of his disgust with the Pharisees. Furthermore, this line of reasoning is supported by Jesus’ conviction that the Pharisees were blinding themselves to the truth that he spoke, and that their self-imposed blindness was the cause of their lack of faith.

Undoubtedly, Jesus saw the demand for a sign as an expression of their lack of faith, a refusal to see the hand of God at work in the ordinariness of the world and in the less startling signs that he had been offering them through the power of his preaching and of his miracles.