Author: admin

***

Gospel: Matthew 13: 54-58

Jesus came to his native place and taught the people in their synagogue.
They were astonished and said,
“Where did this man get such wisdom and mighty deeds?
Is he not the carpenter’s son?
Is not his mother named Mary
and his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas?
Are not his sisters all with us?
Where did this man get all this?”
And they took offense at him.
But Jesus said to them,
“A prophet is not without honor except in his native place
and in his own house.”
And he did not work many mighty deeds there
because of their lack of faith.

The Gospel of the Lord.

***

***

Mother Teresa used to run a school for street children in downtown Calcutta. Written on the wall outside the school’s entrance was a set of teachings everyone was encouraged to follow, including the following: 

People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.

The good you do today will often be forgotten. Do good anyway.

In the end, what you do is between you and God. It’s never between you and them anyway.

***

That last rule, in particular, speaks to the heart of today’s Gospel. Jesus returns to his hometown, where he begins preaching in the synagogue, sharing with the locals how he is the fulfillment of God’s promises. 

He is not only the local carpenter; he is also the Messiah, the Son of God.

In the words of the prophet Isaiah, “Here is your God, he comes with vindication; he comes to save you. The eyes of the blind shall see, and the ears of the deaf be opened.”

As his listeners’ rolled their eyes and huffed and puffed in disbelief, they cried out, “Where did this man get such wisdom? … Is he not the carpenter’s son?”

I’d imagine the disciples chimed in, leaning into their budding faith, by assuring the crowds they saw the Lord perform these miracles with their very own eyes!

***

Still, the wool of familiarity had been pulled over these locals’ eyes, preventing them from seeing that God was doing something marvelous in their midst.

So, “he did not work many mighty deeds there because of their lack of faith.”

While such disbelief must’ve felt like a dagger in the Lord’s heart, his inner peace was never dependent upon other people’s approval, even from those who thought they knew him best.

His sole focus was doing the will of his Father, in this case, scattering the seed of God’s Word upon hardened hearts.

***

So, it can be with us. We live to love and serve the Lord. Yet sometimes the hardest place to share our faith is at home, with those who’ve known us since birth. 

But as Mother Teresa reminded those school children in Calcutta, “What you do is between you and God. It’s never between you and them anyway.”

Be yourself. 

Share the Gospel. 

***

***

Image credits: (1) Fearless Motivation (2) JC 1st UMC (3) The Jenkins Center

***

Gospel: Matthew 13: 47-53

Jesus said to the disciples:
“The Kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea,
which collects fish of every kind.
When it is full they haul it ashore
and sit down to put what is good into buckets.
What is bad they throw away.
Thus it will be at the end of the age.
The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous
and throw them into the fiery furnace,
where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”

“Do you understand all these things?”
They answered, “Yes.”
And he replied,
“Then every scribe who has been instructed in the Kingdom of heaven
is like the head of a household who brings from his storeroom
both the new and the old.”
When Jesus finished these parables, he went away from there.

The Gospel of the Lord.

***

***

“The kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea.”

***

Some of the Apostles like Peter and his brother, Andrew, were fishermen. There would’ve been two different types of nets at their disposal. One was a casting net. The other was a drag net. 

A casting net was tied to a fisherman’s arm while standing along the shoreline; from shallow waters, he’d cast it into the sea, collecting a minimal number of fish with a minimal amount of effort. 

A drag net, on the other hand, was capable of collecting a far greater number of fish, because it was released from the back of a fisherman’s boat. 

Once he started accelerating, the drag net would slowly sink into the water, gathering whatever was in its path – big fish, small fish, twigs, brush, etc. Only after the net was hauled ashore, would the fisherman separate what was good from what was rotten. 

***

Jesus likens the Church to a large drag net thrown into the sea by the hands of Peter, “which collects fish of every kind. When it is full, they haul it ashore.”

Until Christ returns, the Church remains at sea. 

It is not our mission to judge or to separate those caught in our nets; rather, to continue collecting people – “fish” – of every kind. At the end of time, the Lord will haul the nets ashore, allowing his angels to separate those who belong from those who don’t – if any.

***

Until then, “The kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea… collecting fish of every kind.”

May we cast our nets far and wide.

Onward.

***

***

Image credits: (1) LDS Scripture Teachings (2) Novo, Make New (3) The Food of Champions, WordPress

***

Gospel: Luke 10: 38-42

Jesus entered a village 
where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him.
She had a sister named Mary
who sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak. 
Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him and said,
“Lord, do you not care
that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? 
Tell her to help me.” 
The Lord said to her in reply,
“Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. 
There is need of only one thing. 
Mary has chosen the better part
and it will not be taken from her.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

***

***

Imagine the scene in today’s Gospel. Perhaps we’ve experienced something similar before.

I imagine Martha’s hair up in a bun, beads of sweat forming on her forehead, her waist wrapped in an apron, her joints inflamed from standing too long, and flour covering her hands and the floor. Meanwhile, water is boiling – and so is she. 

Storming into the living room, Martha accuses Jesus of not caring about her burdens while she blames her sister for being the cause of her anxiety. Have we ever done that, blamed God for our suffering?

Jesus, the divine physician, diagnoses the root cause of Martha’s stress. “You are worried and anxious about many things,” he says. The root of the verb, “worry,” means, “to strangle; to seize by the throat; to tear.” 

***

At least that day, Martha took her work and seized it by the throat, squeezing all of the grace out of it.

In her kitchen, all she saw a giant mess. Water boiling over; vegetables half cut; flour everywhere; and a whole lot of “stuff” to get done with a lazy, absentee sister.

Instead, she could’ve imagined:

The Lord’s voice humming beneath that boiling water; his empty stomach soon to be filled; his gratitude for a hot meal, a labor of Martha’s love; even Mary’s heart being filled with wisdom as she learned from Jesus.

The entire scene was sacred.

Her work was sacred. Their home was sacred. Most importantly, their guest was sacred. But Martha was too focused on “what” she was doing, as opposed to “why” she was doing it, ruining a beautiful meal in the process.

***

How often are we like Martha? We forget to see the deeper dimensions of reality, the God within our homes and our selves, to the point that – in the words of TS Eliot – “We had the experience, but missed the meaning.”

May everything we do today be a labor of love, making our yoke easy and our burdens light.

***

***

Image credits: (1) Eater (2) Christ Inside the House of Martha and Mary, Velazquez (3) A Heart for God, WordPress