REFLECTION FOR THE SIXTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (YEAR A), Week beginning 12TH FEBRUARY 2023
The theme of Sunday Mass, this weekend, is The Law of Christ. This Law is unlike any man-made law – rather it has within it the hidden wisdom of God. It is a Law given by love. It can only be fulfilled by genuine love and true concern for others.
Ever since Monday, we have all surely been horrified by the TV pictures from southern Turkey and northern Syria, following upon the triple earthquakes and aftershocks. Before co-ordinated international rescue aid could even begin to arrive, so many people were forming human chains for the passing of rubble they had lifted with their bare hands. Many locations were also beset with severe snow, and many displaced people were out in the open overnight. Obviously many bodies were extracted but there were also successful individual rescues.
What was particularly poignant was when the local people would all fall silent from time to time, listening for voices under the rubble – this was such a contrast to the onlookers’ cries of despair, machinery noise etc.
The geographical setting for this appalling unfolding natural disaster is the Near East in ancient times – the Land of the Bible – in a nutshell, Asia Minor, leading all the way down from Turkey, through Syria, thence to Israel-Palestine (and on to Egypt).
So, from earliest history it is essentially holy land, with a clear claim for the designation “God’s Country” – for in nearby Israel, the Wisdom of God was revealed 2,000 years ago in the visible Person of His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ- the Love of God personified.
TV coverage from Turkey and Syria will show horrified people of a world faith different from ours. Yet in all the stark horror, we see them responding to others with undeniably real love.
Good Shepherd Catholic Church 