January 14: Daily Readings & Quote

Don't you know that only those who are thoughtless and crazy consider the faithful departed to be dead?

-St. John Eudes

Today's readings are:

Genesis 31-32

Mark 5:21-43

1

Jacob learned that Laban's sons were saying, "Jacob has taken everything that belonged to our father, and he has accumulated all this wealth of his by using our father's property."

2

Jacob perceived, too, that Laban's attitude toward him was not what it had previously been.

3

Then the LORD said to Jacob, "Return to the land of your fathers, where you were born, and I will be with you."

4

So Jacob sent for Rachel and Leah to meet him where he was in the field with his flock.

5

There he said to them: "I have noticed that your father's attitude toward me is not as it was in the past; but the God of my father has been with me.

6

You well know what effort I put into serving your father;

7

yet your father cheated me and changed my wages time after time. God, however, did not let him do me any harm.

8

¹ Whenever your father said, 'The speckled animals shall be your wages,' the entire flock would bear speckled young; whenever he said, 'The streaked animals shall be your wages,' the entire flock would bear streaked young.

9

Thus God reclaimed your father's livestock and gave it to me.

10

Once, in the breeding season, I had a dream in which I saw mating he-goats that were streaked, speckled and mottled.

11

In the dream God's messenger called to me, 'Jacob!' 'Here!' I replied.

12

Then he said: 'Note well. All the he-goats in the flock, as they mate, are streaked, speckled and mottled, for I have seen all the things that Laban has been doing to you.

13

I am the God who appeared to you in Bethel, where you anointed a memorial stone and made a vow to me. Up, then! Leave this land and return to the land of your birth.'"

14

Rachel and Leah answered him: "Have we still an heir's portion in our father's house?

15

² Are we not regarded by him as outsiders? He not only sold us; he has even used up the money that he got for us!

16

All the wealth that God reclaimed from our father really belongs to us and our children. Therefore, do just as God has told you."

17

Jacob proceeded to put his children and wives on camels,

18

and he drove off with all his livestock and all the property he had acquired in Paddan-aram, to go to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan.

19

³ Now Laban had gone away to shear his sheep, and Rachel had meanwhile appropriated her father's household idols.

20

⁴ Jacob had hoodwinked Laban the Aramean by not telling him of his intended flight.

21

Thus he made his escape with all that he had. Once he was across the Euphrates, he headed for the highlands of Gilead.

22

On the third day, word came to Laban that Jacob had fled.

23

⁵ Taking his kinsmen with him, he pursued him for seven days until he caught up with him in the hill country of Gilead.

24

But that night God appeared to Laban the Aramean in a dream and warned him, "Take care not to threaten Jacob with any harm!"

25

When Laban overtook Jacob, Jacob's tents were pitched in the highlands; Laban also pitched his tents there, on Mount Gilead.

26

⁶ "What do you mean," Laban demanded of Jacob, "by hoodwinking me and carrying off my daughters like war captives?

27

Why did you dupe me by stealing away secretly? You should have told me, and I would have sent you off with merry singing to the sound of tambourines and harps.

28

You did not even allow me a parting kiss to my daughters and grandchildren! What you have now done is a senseless thing.

29

I have it in my power to harm all of you; but last night the God of your father said to me, 'Take care not to threaten Jacob with any harm!'

30

Granted that you had to leave because you were desperately homesick for your father's house, why did you steal my gods?"

31

"I was frightened," Jacob replied to Laban, "at the thought that you might take your daughters away from me by force.

32

But as for your gods, the one you find them with shall not remain alive! If, with my kinsmen looking on, you identify anything here as belonging to you, take it." Jacob, of course, had no idea that Rachel had stolen the idols.

33

Laban then went in and searched Jacob's tent and Leah's tent, as well as the tents of the two maidservants; but he did not find the idols. Leaving Leah's tent, he went into Rachel's.

34

Now Rachel had taken the idols, put them inside a camel cushion, and seated herself upon them. When Laban had rummaged through the rest of her tent without finding them,

35

Rachel said to her father, "Let not my lord feel offended that I cannot rise in your presence; a woman's period is upon me." So, despite his search, he did not find his idols.

36

Jacob, now enraged, upbraided Laban. "What crime or offense have I committed," he demanded, "that you should hound me so fiercely?

37

Now that you have ransacked all my things, have you found a single object taken from your belongings? If so, produce it here before your kinsmen and mine, and let them decide between us two.

38

"In the twenty years that I was under you, no ewe or she-goat of yours ever miscarried, and I have never feasted on a ram of your flock.

39

⁷ I never brought you an animal torn by wild beasts; I made good the loss myself. You held me responsible for anything stolen by day or night.

40

How often the scorching heat ravaged me by day, and the frost by night, while sleep fled from my eyes!

41

Of the twenty years that I have now spent in your household, I slaved fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flock, while you changed my wages time after time.

42

If my ancestral God, the God of Abraham and the Awesome One of Isaac, had not been on my side, you would now have sent me away empty-handed. But God saw my plight and the fruits of my toil, and last night he gave judgment."

43

⁸ Laban replied to Jacob: "The women are mine, their children are mine, and the flocks are mine; everything you see belongs to me. But since these women are my daughters, I will now do something for them and for the children they have borne.

44

Come, then, we will make a pact, you and I; the LORD shall be a witness between us."

45

Then Jacob took a stone and set it up as a memorial stone.

46

Jacob said to his kinsmen, "Gather some stones." So they got some stones and made a mound; and they had a meal there at the mound.

47

⁹ Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha, but Jacob named it Galeed.

48

"This mound," said Laban, "shall be a witness from now on between you and me." That is why it was named Galeed--

49

¹⁰ and also Mizpah, for he said: "May the LORD keep watch between you and me when we are out of each other's sight.

50

If you mistreat my daughters, or take other wives besides my daughters, remember that even though no one else is about, God will be witness between you and me."

51

Laban said further to Jacob: "Here is this mound, and here is the memorial stone that I have set up between you and me.

52

This mound shall be witness, and this memorial stone shall be witness, that, with hostile intent, neither may I pass beyond this mound into your territory, nor may you pass beyond it into mine.

53

May the God of Abraham and the god of Nahor (their ancestral deities) maintain justice between us!" Jacob took the oath by the Awesome One of Isaac.

54

He then offered a sacrifice on the mountain and invited his kinsmen to share in the meal. When they had eaten, they passed the night on the mountain.

1

Early the next morning, Laban kissed his grandchildren and his daughters goodbye; then he set out on his journey back home,

2

while Jacob continued on his own way. Then God's messengers encountered Jacob.

3

¹ When he saw them he said, "This is God's encampment." So he named that place Mahanaim.

4

Jacob sent messengers ahead to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom,

5

with this message: "Thus shall you say to my lord Esau: 'Your servant Jacob speaks as follows: I have been staying with Laban and have been detained there until now.

6

I own cattle, asses and sheep, as well as male and female servants. I am sending my lord this information in the hope of gaining your favor.'"

7

When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, "We reached your brother Esau. He is now coming to meet you, accompanied by four hundred men."

8

Jacob was very much frightened. In his anxiety, he divided the people who were with him, as well as his flocks, herds and camels, into two camps.

9

"If Esau should attack and overwhelm one camp," he reasoned, "the remaining camp may still survive."

10

Then he prayed: "O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac! You told me, O LORD, 'Go back to the land of your birth, and I will be good to you.'

11

I am unworthy of all the acts of kindness that you have loyally performed for your servant: although I crossed the Jordan here with nothing but my staff, I have now grown into two companies.

12

Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau! Otherwise I fear that when he comes he will strike me down and slay the mothers and children.

13

You yourself said, 'I will be very good to you, and I will make your descendants like the sands of the sea, which are too numerous to count.'"

14

After passing the night there, Jacob selected from what he had with him the following presents for his brother Esau:

15

two hundred she-goats and twenty he-goats; two hundred ewes and twenty rams;

16

thirty milch camels and their young; forty cows and ten bulls; twenty she-asses and ten he-asses.

17

He put these animals in charge of his servants, in separate droves, and he told the servants, "Go on ahead of me, but keep a space between one drove and the next."

18

To the servant in the lead he gave this instruction: "When my brother Esau meets you, he may ask you, 'Whose man are you? Where are you going? To whom do these animals ahead of you belong?'

19

Then you shall answer, 'They belong to your brother Jacob, but they have been sent as a gift to my lord Esau; and Jacob himself is right behind us.'"

20

He gave similar instructions to the second servant and the third and to all the others who followed behind the droves, namely: "Thus and thus shall you say to Esau, when you reach him;

21

and be sure to add, 'Your servant Jacob is right behind us.'" For Jacob reasoned, "If I first appease him with gifts that precede me, then later, when I face him, perhaps he will forgive me."

22

So the gifts went on ahead of him, while he stayed that night in the camp.

23

In the course of that night, however, Jacob arose, took his two wives, with the two maidservants and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.

24

After he had taken them across the stream and had brought over all his possessions,

25

² Jacob was left there alone. Then some man wrestled with him until the break of dawn.

26

When the man saw that he could not prevail over him, he struck Jacob's hip at its socket, so that the hip socket was wrenched as they wrestled.

27

The man then said, "Let me go, for it is daybreak." But Jacob said, "I will not let you go until you bless me."

28

"What is your name?" the man asked. He answered, "Jacob."

29

³ Then the man said, "You shall no longer be spoken of as Jacob, but as Israel, because you have contended with divine and human beings and have prevailed."

30

Jacob then asked him, "Do tell me your name, please." He answered, "Why should you want to know my name?" With that, he bade him farewell.

31

⁴ Jacob named the place Peniel, "Because I have seen God face to face," he said, "yet my life has been spared."

32

At sunrise, as he left Penuel, Jacob limped along because of his hip.

33

That is why, to this day, the Israelites do not eat the sciatic muscle that is on the hip socket, inasmuch as Jacob's hip socket was struck at the sciatic muscle.

21

⁷ When Jesus had crossed again (in the boat) to the other side, a large crowd gathered around him, and he stayed close to the sea.

22

One of the synagogue officials, named Jairus, came forward. Seeing him he fell at his feet

23

and pleaded earnestly with him, saying, "My daughter is at the point of death. Please, come lay your hands on her ⁸ that she may get well and live."

24

He went off with him, and a large crowd followed him and pressed upon him.

25

There was a woman afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years.

26

She had suffered greatly at the hands of many doctors and had spent all that she had. Yet she was not helped but only grew worse.

27

She had heard about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak.

28

⁹ She said, "If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured."

29

Immediately her flow of blood dried up. She felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction.

30

Jesus, aware at once that power had gone out from him, turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who has touched my clothes?"

31

But his disciples said to him, "You see how the crowd is pressing upon you, and yet you ask, 'Who touched me?'"

32

And he looked around to see who had done it.

33

The woman, realizing what had happened to her, approached in fear and trembling. She fell down before Jesus and told him the whole truth.

34

He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be cured of your affliction."

35

¹⁰ While he was still speaking, people from the synagogue official's house arrived and said, "Your daughter has died; why trouble the teacher any longer?"

36

Disregarding the message that was reported, Jesus said to the synagogue official, "Do not be afraid; just have faith."

37

He did not allow anyone to accompany him inside except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James.

38

When they arrived at the house of the synagogue official, he caught sight of a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly.

39

¹¹ So he went in and said to them, "Why this commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but asleep."

40

And they ridiculed him. Then he put them all out. He took along the child's father and mother and those who were with him and entered the room where the child was.

41

¹² He took the child by the hand and said to her, "Talitha koum," which means, "Little girl, I say to you, arise!"

42

The girl, a child of twelve, arose immediately and walked around. (At that) they were utterly astounded.

43

He gave strict orders that no one should know this and said that she should be given something to eat.