Monday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time
How do we respond to the presence of God? Our readings today offer us two images.
In today's first reading, we hear of how King Solomon led the whole assembly of Israel in worship as the ark of the covenant of the Lord is brought into the newly constructed Temple. At the climax of the scene, the text tells us that the cloud of God's glory filled the temple of the Lord, symbolizing God presence to his people. It is an event which inspires awe and reverence in the people, as evidenced by how the priests sacrificed before the ark sheep and oxen too many to number or count.
In today's Gospel reading, the presence of Jesus provokes a somewhat different reaction among the people, although it is the same God present in Christ who revealed himself through the cloud centuries earlier. As Mark tells us, the people scurried about the surrounding country and began to bring in the sick on mats to wherever they heard Jesus was. In Jesus, God's incarnate presence attracts and heals: even those who touch only the tassel on Jesus's cloak are healed.
We believe that Christ is present to us in the word of the Scriptures, in the assembly of believers, in the Church's ministers, and in the sacraments (see Sacrosanctum Concilium, no. 7). Do we respond to these forms of God's presence with awe and reverence, like Solomon? Do we believe, as the crowds do in the Gospel, that God's presence can heal us from our wounds, both spiritual and physical? Perhaps today we can ask the Lord to increase our awe, reverence, and faith in the power of his presence to us.