Travels of Jesus

Greetings on this the Memorial of Saint Agatha, Virgin and Martyr
Readings: 1 Kgs 8:1-7, 9-13; PS 132:6-7, 8-10; MK 6:53-56

Notes

Our responsorial says: Lord, go up to the place of your rest!

Where is the Lord’s place of rest?

In our first reading today, King Solomon builds a temple for the Ark containing the scrolls (“The Word”) and nothing else. Missing from the Ark are the Aaron’s staff, the Omar of Manna, and the living stone. These are ‘rolled up’ (literary sense, not literal) into “The Word”. This temple is not just a temple but contains the Holy of Holies, the windowless place where the mystery of God resides. There “The Word” dwells or sits at rest. The very heart of the temple.

Summary

It is in the heart of the temple where the Lord resides, presides, judges, and comes to our aid. Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? (1 COR 3:16).

Reflection

The throne of the Lord, his temple, his in your heart. There he finds rest. Not rest as if being tired. That is our state of being not his. Rest as in deciding this is the place for me. God has decided, you are his resting place. Rest in him as he rests in you.

Personal Reflection

There is much coming and going in the Gospel books. We could, in a way, say the gospels are the Travels of Jesus. But he wants to travel to one resting place: In the Heart. The people seeking Jesus to heal the sick and cure the possessed is the outward sign of the inward reality. We find our rest in Jesus who rests in us.

First Reading

Dedication of the Temple

When the priests left the holy place, the cloud filled the temple of the LORD so that the priests could no longer minister because of the cloud, since the LORD’s glory had filled the temple of the LORD. Then Solomon said, “The LORD intends to dwell in the dark cloud; I have truly built you a princely house, a dwelling where you may abide forever.”

Responsorial

Lord, go up to the place of your rest!

Gospel Acclamation

Jesus preached the Gospel of the Kingdom and cured every disease among the people.

Gospel

As they were leaving the boat, people immediately recognized him. They scurried about the surrounding country and began to bring in the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. Whatever villages or towns or countryside he entered, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak; and as many as touched it were healed.

Peace be with you,
Deacon Gerry