STS. CYRIL, MONK & METHODIUS, Bishop, Missionaries
The liturgy celebrates today two great missionaries from the Eastern Church, the monk Cyril and his brother, Methodius, bishop. Born in Thessalonica in Greece, they evangelized the Bulgarians, Moravians and Bohemians in the 9th Century. They created the Slavonic (Slavic) alphabet – called “Cyrillic” – translated the scriptures and prepared liturgies in Slavonic. On account of this inculturation of the liturgy, they met with much opposition, but Rome approved what they had done.
Reading 1 Gn 6:5-8; 7:1-5, 10
God saw that human evil was out of control. People thought evil, imagined evil—evil, evil, evil from morning to night. God was sorry that he had made the human race in the first place; it broke his heart. God said, “I’ll get rid of my ruined creation, make a clean sweep: people, animals, snakes and bugs, birds—the works. I’m sorry I made them.”
But Noah was different. God liked what he saw in Noah.
Next God said to Noah, “Now board the ship, you and all your family—out of everyone in this generation, you’re the righteous one.
“Take on board with you seven pairs of every clean animal, a male and a female; one pair of every unclean animal, a male and a female; and seven pairs of every kind of bird, a male and a female, to insure their survival on Earth. In just seven days I will pour rain on Earth for forty days and forty nights. I’ll make a clean sweep of everything that I’ve made.”
Noah did everything God commanded him.
Noah was 600 years old when the floodwaters covered the Earth. Noah and his wife and sons and their wives boarded the ship to escape the flood. Clean and unclean animals, birds, and all the crawling creatures came in pairs to Noah and to the ship, male and female, just as God had commanded Noah. In seven days the floodwaters came.
Gospel Mk 8:14-21
He then left them, got back in the boat, and headed for the other side. But the disciples forgot to pack a lunch. Except for a single loaf of bread, there wasn’t a crumb in the boat. Jesus warned, “Be very careful. Keep a sharp eye out for the contaminating yeast of Pharisees and the followers of Herod.”
Meanwhile, the disciples were finding fault with each other because they had forgotten to bring bread. Jesus overheard and said, “Why are you fussing because you forgot bread? Don’t you see the point of all this? Don’t you get it at all? Remember the five loaves I broke for the five thousand? How many baskets of leftovers did you pick up?”
They said, “Twelve.”
“And the seven loaves for the four thousand—how many bags full of leftovers did you get?”
“Seven.”
He said, “Do you still not get it?”
Prayer
Lord our God,
you inspired your missionaries
Saints Cyril and Methodius
to be inventive and adaptive
in proclaiming your good news to people.
Make all Christians aware, we pray you,
that your Son Jesus Christ
should be recognizable in us
and help us to renew ourselves again and again
that we may bear the true face of Christ,
who is your Son and our Lord for ever.
Reflection:
14 February 2023
Mark 8:14-21
Beware of the yeast of the political power centres.
Today’s Gospel warns against the yeast of the Pharisees and Herodians. Mark was writing his text of the Gospel for the Catechumens in Rome. He wanted to communicate a specific message to those receiving baptism and coming into Faith: The Good News of Jesus spreads and multiplies. But not everything that multiplies is good news! In the previous chapters, Mark portrayed the Pharisees as hypocrites and power-mongers.
In every miracle story of Jesus, there were opposing voices from the religious leaders. They opposed the forgiveness of God. Observation of the Sabbath was imposed as a burden on people; they sought recognition in public places. They were jealous of the extraordinary powers and popularity that Jesus was gaining. Jealousy, hypocrisy, and all the evil tendencies work like yeast and contaminate society.
Mark’s sense of the leaven of Herod had been masterfully outlined in his dramatisation of the execution of John the Baptist. Herod wanted political security at any cost and could not accept criticism. He valued personal “honour” more than the life of another. To look good was more important than to do good, and doing good was irrelevant. He could feast and make merry while his subjects were exploited beyond endurance.
Mark’s reference to the one loaf of bread with the disciples on the boat out on the waters was significant. The boat was perhaps a symbol of Mark’s community on mission. Within the community of disciples, there was to be only one loaf, the leaven of God – that is, Jesus. It was spectacularly more than enough for everyone, Jew and Gentile.
Later in the narrative, Jesus takes a loaf in his hands and invites his disciples to eat it, declaring it to be his body broken for all. In Jesus’ mind, Eucharist would be the celebration of the all-inclusive vision of God, of God’s universal offer of forgiveness and life to the full. The Eucharistic bread would allow no place for the leaven of Pharisees or Herod. The pandemic in the past year had forced the closure of churches, depriving the faithful of access to sacraments. In these moments of trials, pay attention to the warning in today’s Gospel: Let’s not be deceived by the leaven of the modern-day Herodians – political power centres that keep the faithful away from the life of the Church.
Mark recorded Jesus’ profound sadness that even the disciples had not understood the mind of Jesus. Yet Jesus did not withdraw from his mission. He continued to work with his hard-hearted disciples. Despite all their limitations, he loved them and had hope for them. Let us be united around the life-giving Word and the bread on board – the Word of God and the Eucharist in the Church.
Beware of the yeast of the political power centres – Youtube