Daily Mass Reading Reflection (Nov 13, 2024)

Washing and Resting

The first of the two combinations of themes this reading provides is that of washing and cleansing. In Titus, St. Paul refers to the “bath of rebirth” and ties it to the “renewal by the Holy Spirit.” This is a classic verse to refer to the intrinsic, not simply symbolic, power of baptism. It is significant that it is followed immediately by a description of how this washing leads to our justification “by his grace” and our inheritance “of eternal life.” 

The Psalm, everyone’s favorite, refers to the “restful waters” where the Good Shepherd leads us (Psalm 23:2). It is not just a place of peace, but actually refers again to the connection between God’s presence and the water. The first time “rest” is used the Bible is not any action of ours, the sheep, but by God Himself, the Good Shepherd. We are commanded to rest of the Sabbath because God did first. When we rest we participate in the action of God. When we are led to restful waters, they are waters that are too participating in God’s action. This is also reminiscent of the Spirit hovering over the waters at Creation in Genesis 1. Our resting at the end of the week is also about renewal, just as the waters themselves we “by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5).

Thanksgiving and Faith

At the end of Psalm 23, we are told that this Good Shepherd will “spread the table” before us. There will be a banquet offered to the sheep, but what kind. The alleluia sheds some light on this by instructing us to “give thanks” in “all circumstances” (1 Thessalonians 5:8). A thanksgiving meal, especially when it is offered in “the house of the Lord” to refer back to the Psalm 23:6, is a Eucharist. Psalm 23 as a whole is a movement from Baptism to the Eucharist, a washing of the feet to the Last Supper like we see in John 13. What is required for this movement but faith, which we see in the Gospel. 

When Jesus heals the lepers in Luke 17, he too tells them, like the sheep from Psalm 23, to go the “house of the Lord,” when he says to “show themselves to the priests” as he does in Luke 17:14. It is in this movement, done in “faith” as Jesus says at the end of the reading in Luke 17:19, that the healing happens. It is not a physical washing, but a spiritual one, which ultimately prepares them, and us, for the banquet of thanksgiving at the table of the Lord.