Wednesday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Today's Mass Readings

Marking with a mark or a sign is a very common theme in the Old Testament. This in the book of Genesis, The Lord placed on Cain a mark so that no one who met him would strike him (Gen 4:15). This mark or the sign indicates that Cain is under the jurisdiction of the Lord, and that no one else will be able to harm him. A similar kind of thing is the mark of blood on the lintels and posts of doors and posts, when the angel of death passed through the roads of Egypt lamb (Exodus 12:7). Today’s first reading adds further significance to this theme. As we shall see later there is great Christian significance and meaning here as well. Coming back to the first reading, the Lord asked Elijah to “Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem: and mark Thau upon the foreheads of the men that sigh, and mourn for all the abominations that are committed in the midst thereof” (Ez 9:4). As a result all those marked with the Thau were spared and the rest faced destruction. Thau, or Tau, is the last letter in the Hebrew alphabet, and signifies a sign, or a mark. In ancient Hebrew, the way the Thau was formed looked like a cross.

This made St. Jerome, and other interpreters, conclude that in some way this marking Elijah is a foretelling of the cross of Christ by which we are saved. Just as the people marked with Thau are saved by God, those marked with the sign of the cross are also saved by Christ. In other words, a Christian is incorporated in Christ through faith and remains permanently sealed with the mark of God. Baptism is a sign, a life-giving mark that cannot be wiped out. This mark is nothing less than the mark of the Holy Spirit imposed by God. And since we get baptized ‘In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit’, the true meaning is that of a total dedication, a consecration, a putting in the name, getting into the possession of, getting possessed by the Holy Trinity.

Let us remember that the cross also means to mark ourselves with the sign of the cross? The cross means sacrifice for love; it is death for resurrection. The sign of the cross over actions means wiping away our selfishness and freeing us for love; it means renouncing what is empty, renouncing prestige, and the longing to possess and to dominate in order to consecrate the work to Christ. To wipe out the selfish meaning of an action is to mark it with a cross.

Today, let us be conscious of the power of the mark of the cross we place upon ourselves each day. Even now, let us make the sign of the cross upon ourselves and experience the power, the protection and grace of Christ. Today, let us live everything the cross stands for.

Fr. Satish Joseph