"Jesus was mobbed by people who approached him in faith; they trusted and knew that he could cure."

１kings 8:1-7, 9-13

 Then Solomon assembled

Before him in Jerusalem the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, as well as the leaders of the ancestral houses of the Israelites, to bring up the ark of the covenant of Yahweh from the city of David, which is Zion.

 All the Israelites assembled near King Solomon in the month of Ethanim, the seventh month.  When all the elders of Israel arrived, the priests carried the ark of Yahweh   and brought it up together with the Tent of Meeting and all the holy vessels that were in the tent.

After the priests and Levites had brought them up,   King Solomon with the entire congregation of Israel that had assembled before him and were with him before the Ark, sacrificed so many sheep and oxen that they could neither be counted nor numbered.   Then the priests laid the ark of the covenant of Yahweh in its place in the inner sanctuary of the House – the Most Holy Place – underneath the wings of the cherubim. The cherubim had their wings spread out over the place of the ark, providing a covering above the ark and its poles. 

 There was nothing in the ark except the two tables of stone which Moses placed there at Horeb, where Yahweh made a covenant with the Israelites when they came out of the land of Egypt.   And when the priests came out of the Holy Place, such a cloud filled Yahweh’s House   that the priests could not continue to minister. Indeed, the glory of Yahweh filled his House. Then Solomon said, “Yahweh has said that he would dwell in thick dark­ness.   So the House I have built you will be your House, a place for you to dwell in forever.”

 

Ps 132:6-7, 8-10

Lord, go up to the place of your rest!

 

＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊     

Mark 6:53-56

 Having crossed the lake, they came ashore at Gennesaret where they tied up the boat.  As soon as they landed, people recognized Jesus   and ran to spread the news throughout the countryside. Where­­ver he was they brought to him the sick lying on their mats.  And wherever he went, to villages, towns or farms, they laid the sick in the marketplace and begged him to let them touch just the fringe of his cloak. And all who touched him were cured.

 

 Gospel Reflection：

Ark in the Flesh

Compare the majesty, grandeur, and the awe-inspiring presence of God in the Ark that Solomon brought to Jerusalem, with the simplicity, ordinariness, familiarity, down-to-earthiness Jesus displays in rubbing shoulders with the people around him!

If the Ark evoked fear and trembling, and no one dared to touch the Ark because touching the Ark could get them killed, as in the case of Uzzah (2 sam6:6-7), we see people milling around Jesus pleading him to touch them and reaching out and touching him and getting cured!

What we witness is the true kenosis (Phil. 2:6-8) of God for the sake of us, human beings: the “I-Am-Who-Am” becoming Emmanuel, “God-with-Us”, the Ark becoming Flesh, to dwell amidst us as one among us. The fear-evoking presence of God in the Ark becomes the love-inspiring touch of God in Christ. How has this kenosis transformed our lives?