Author: admin

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Gospel: Mark 3:1-6

Jesus entered the synagogue.
There was a man there who had a withered hand.
They watched Jesus closely
to see if he would cure him on the sabbath
so that they might accuse him.
He said to the man with the withered hand,
“Come up here before us.”
Then he said to the Pharisees,
“Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil,
to save life rather than to destroy it?”
But they remained silent.
Looking around at them with anger
and grieved at their hardness of heart,
Jesus said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.”
He stretched it out and his hand was restored.
The Pharisees went out and immediately took counsel
with the Herodians against him to put him to death.

The Gospel of the Lord.

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I’m sure we’ve all met someone who’s said, “I’m spiritual, but not religious.”

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It’s become quite the popular approach to faith. “Away with all of the rules and boundaries of religion,” they say. “Do good and good will come to you.”

Much like karma. You get what you give.

But such an approach ignores the truth of divine justice. God becomes more like a hippie than a judge. 

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In the Gospel, we find the opposite approach.

The scribes and the Pharisees are religious, but not spiritual.

They treat religion in a very rigid sense – God gives us rules to be followed. If you follow them, then you can earn your salvation. You cannot work on the Sabbath, for example, even if you perform an act of mercy like Jesus did. 

To them, God is strictly a judge. You get what you deserve.

Such an approach leaves no room for mercy.

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Catholics take the middle of the road; we’re both spiritual and religious.

God is merciful, but he’s also our judge.

The one criterion by which we’ll be judged, Jesus says, is love. This is why the final question Jesus asks Peter after his resurrection is:

“Peter, do you love me?”

It’s the same question the Lord asks us today. “Do you love me?” And by extension, “Do you love your neighbor?”

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May all of our words and actions today answer that question with a resounding, YES!

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Gospel: Mark 2: 23-28

As Jesus was passing through a field of grain on the sabbath,
his disciples began to make a path while picking the heads of grain.
At this the Pharisees said to him,
“Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?”
He said to them,
“Have you never read what David did
when he was in need and he and his companions were hungry?
How he went into the house of God when Abiathar was high priest
and ate the bread of offering that only the priests could lawfully eat,
and shared it with his companions?”
Then he said to them,
“The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath.
That is why the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

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There’s only one group of people whom Jesus cannot stomach: 

It isn’t sinners, tax collectors, or prostitutes. He forgave them all.

The only ones Jesus condemns are the religious authorities of his day. Specifically, those who were hard of heart. He calls them everything from hypocrites to “whitewashed tombs,” clean on the outside but filthy within.

They were obsessed with rules, convinced that if they followed all 613 commandments (many of which they made themselves), then they would be pleasing to God. 

But what good is it to avoid eating grain on the Sabbath, as we hear in today’s Gospel, if you hate your neighbor and avoid charity?

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Like the Jews in Jesus’ day, Catholics also follow a series of rules. 

We attend Mass on Sundays. We say our prayers. We avoid eating meat on Fridays during Lent.

But if we avoid being charitable – or if we hate our neighbors, including people who are different from us or who disagree with us – then following these rules means little.

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This is true religion: loving God by serving your neighbor. 

As Saint John tells us, “Whoever does not love a brother or sister whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.”

Think of a neighbor. And find a way to love them.

That will be pleasing to God.

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These are some of the most honest, humbling words I’ve read about priesthood in scripture. In our first reading from the Letter to the Hebrews it is written:

“Every high priest is taken from among men and made their representative before God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He is able to deal patiently with the ignorant and erring, because he himself is beset by weakness” (Hebrews 5:1-2).

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He himself is beset by weakness.

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Before a priest is ordained, he makes three promises: prayer, celibacy, and obedience.

Some also make the promise of life-long poverty.

Why don’t priests promise something easily achievable? Or something that requires less sacrifice? 

These promises are sown into fields of human weakness.

And that’s precisely the point.

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One of the first lessons learned in the spiritual life is that we cannot become holy – or pleasing to God – on our own. We must depend entirely upon the Lord.

But with God’s grace, every priest can live out his promises faithfully, even joyfully.

And by extension, every Christian can live a joyful life pleasing to God. We can live as devoted spouses, generous servants, faithful friends, and holy intercessors, even though we are beset by weakness.

Faith is not trusting in what we can do on our own; faith is trusting that we can do all things, even what seems impossible, through Christ who strengthens us.

This is the transformation Jesus is talking about in the Gospels – taking old wineskins and transforming them into something new.

So, where am I weak? Or, where do I need to be transformed by the Lord?

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With God’s grace, the newly ordained priest can become a saint by the end of his life. The newly wedded couple will pray together and stay together. The person beset by grief will find peace. The friend whose trust has been lost will learn to trust again.

With the Lord, all things are possible. May this Eucharist – or our own private time spent in prayer – strengthen us to continue loving and serving the Lord.

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