Thursday of the First Week in Ordinary Time

Today's Mass Readings

The story in the first reading, of the defeat of Israel and the capture of the Ark of the Covenant, can prompt us to give some thought to how we use sacramentals, such as medals or holy water.

The Church tells us in her Catechism (#1670) that the “Sacramentals, …by the Church’s prayer, prepare us to receive grace and dispose us to cooperate with it. (We use them to dispose ourselves to receive) …. the divine grace which flows from the Paschal mystery of the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Christ.” (Catechism #1670)

All saving grace in our lives comes from the Mystery of Christ’s obedient love which was supremely shown on the cross and bore fruit in his Resurrection. When we bless ourselves with holy water or pray using a medal, we join the prayer of the Church, much like the leper in today’s Gospel: “kneeling down (he) begged him and said, “If you wish, you can make me clean.” We walk with Mother Church in her pilgrimage to heaven, frequently joining her prayer to God for her children and trusting that in God’s own way, we will be “healed.”

We do not use sacramentals as magic, as if in themselves salvation could be “worked”. We use them to activate our faith in God’s redeeming mystery which comes to us through the physical flesh of Jesus who became, through his dying and rising, a life-giving Spirit.

Reflection by Fr. Xavier Nacke, OSB