Category: Uncategorized

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Gospel: Mark 6: 1-6

Jesus departed from there and came to his native place,
accompanied by his disciples.
When the sabbath came he began to teach in the synagogue,
and many who heard him were astonished.
They said, “Where did this man get all this?
What kind of wisdom has been given him?
What mighty deeds are wrought by his hands!
Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary,
and the brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon?
And are not his sisters here with us?”
And they took offense at him.
Jesus said to them,
“A prophet is not without honor except in his native place
and among his own kin and in his own house.”
So he was not able to perform any mighty deed there,
apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them.
He was amazed at their lack of faith.

The Gospel of the Lord.

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I think we often get caught up in the routine, ordinariness of daily life, so much so that we take the truest form of beauty for granted. We live in a way whereby God becomes invisible. And yet, it’s his desire to be seen. 

How often do we ask someone, “How are you?” To which they respond, “It’s good to be seen.” Doesn’t God also want to be seen, acknowledged? 

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In today’s Gospel, Jesus returns to his hometown. Word of what he’s doing – and who he might actually be – is spreading. But those who know him best fail to see.

Stuck in their preconceived ideas and ordinary routines, they box Jesus in and reduce him to the stature of an ordinary man. They’re used to living with him, conversing with him, watching him work.

The weight of ordinary time has pulled the wool over their eyes so much so that they take their time with God for granted.

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How often do we do the same? We move so quickly that we begin to take life – and the presence God around us – for granted. 

For example, in the “breaking of the bread,” it’s him. In the voice of concern from a friend, it’s him. In the gift of human touch, it’s him.. In a random word of encouragement, it’s him. In the splendor of the sun, the gift of night, the joy of silence, it’s him.

God wants to be seen.

Sometimes it’s a matter of slowing down and seeing. Before the day ends, look around. God is waiting to be seen.

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Image credits: (1) Redbubble (2) Desiring God (3) United in the Word

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Gospel: Mark 5: 21-43

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.
One of the synagogue officials, named Jairus, came forward.
Seeing him he fell at his feet and pleaded earnestly with him, saying,
“My daughter is at the point of death.
Please, come lay your hands on her
that she may get well and live.”
He went off with him
and a large crowd followed him.

There was a woman afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years.
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.
She had heard about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd
and touched his cloak.
She said, “If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured.”
Immediately her flow of blood dried up.
She felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction.
Jesus, aware at once that power had gone out from him,
turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who has touched my clothes?”
But his disciples said to him,
“You see how the crowd is pressing upon you,
and yet you ask, Who touched me?”
And he looked around to see who had done it.
The woman, realizing what had happened to her,
approached in fear and trembling.
She fell down before Jesus and told him the whole truth.
He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has saved you.
Go in peace and be cured of your affliction.”

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?”
Disregarding the message that was reported,
Jesus said to the synagogue official,
“Do not be afraid; just have faith.”
He did not allow anyone to accompany him inside
except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James.
When they arrived at the house of the synagogue official,
he caught sight of a commotion,
people weeping and wailing loudly.
So he went in and said to them,
“Why this commotion and weeping?
The child is not dead but asleep.”
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.
He took the child by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum,”
which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise!”
The girl, a child of twelve, arose immediately and walked around.
At that they were utterly astounded.
He gave strict orders that no one should know this
and said that she should be given something to eat.

The Gospel of the Lord.

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This poor woman in today’s Gospel is at her wit’s end. She has not only been hemorrhaging for the last twelve years; she’s also penniless, having spent all that she has on doctors, who’ve been unable to find her a cure.

So, she approaches Jesus as a last resort.

However, there’s one major obstacle preventing her healing. Because she’s bleeding, she’s considered ritually impure and, therefore, cannot touch another human being, nor can she enter the Temple to pray. 

Yet her desperation inspires her to reach out and touch the tassel of the Lord’s cloak. Suddenly, she’s healed.

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The same dynamics are found in the second story we’re given, the healing of Jairus’ daughter.

Because she’s dead, anyone who touches her is considered ritually impure. But just as the hemorrhaging woman broke the Law by touching Jesus, so the Lord breaks the Law by grabbing this dead girl by the hand, then he raises her up. 

Nowhere else in the Gospels are two stories of healing sandwiched together, both of which require breaking the Law in order to be healed.

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So, what might Mark be saying to us?

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Sometimes mercy demands that we expand our hearts, our minds, even our laws, in order to allow for people to come into contact with Christ.

Because a little bit of faith, even from an impure or an imperfect person, can go a long way.

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Image credits: (1) SlideShare (2) Missio Dei (3) brady, mark a.

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Gospel: Mark 5: 1-20

Jesus and his disciples came to the other side of the sea,
to the territory of the Gerasenes.
When he got out of the boat,
at once a man from the tombs who had an unclean spirit met him.
The man had been dwelling among the tombs,
and no one could restrain him any longer, even with a chain.
In fact, he had frequently been bound with shackles and chains,
but the chains had been pulled apart by him and the shackles smashed,
and no one was strong enough to subdue him.
Night and day among the tombs and on the hillsides
he was always crying out and bruising himself with stones.
Catching sight of Jesus from a distance,
he ran up and prostrated himself before him,
crying out in a loud voice,
“What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?
I adjure you by God, do not torment me!”
(He had been saying to him, “Unclean spirit, come out of the man!”)
He asked him, “What is your name?”
He  replied, “Legion is my name.  There are many of us.”
And he pleaded earnestly with him
not to drive them away from that territory.

Now a large herd of swine was feeding there on the hillside.
And they pleaded with him,
“Send us into the swine.  Let us enter them.”
And he let them, and the unclean spirits came out and entered the swine.
The herd of about two thousand rushed down a steep bank into the sea,
where they were drowned.
The swineherds ran away and reported the incident in the town
and throughout the countryside.
And people came out to see what had happened.
As they approached Jesus,
they caught sight of the man who had been possessed by Legion,
sitting there clothed and in his right mind.
And they were seized with fear.
Those who witnessed the incident explained to them what had happened
to the possessed man and to the swine.
Then they began to beg him to leave their district.
As he was getting into the boat,
the man who had been possessed pleaded to remain with him.
But Jesus would not permit him but told him instead,
“Go home to your family and announce to them
all that the Lord in his pity has done for you.”
Then the man went off and began to proclaim in the Decapolis
what Jesus had done for him; and all were amazed.

The Gospel of the Lord.

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Thirteen out of the eighteen miracles Jesus performs in Mark’s Gospel are miracles of healing, including four exorcisms.

With each miracle, the Lord moves further and further from the center of society to its very fringes, which is where we find him today.

Jesus enters a cemetery in Gentile territory, which for the Jews, was the most defiled place to be, a type of hell on earth.

Here, there’s a man who’s being tortured by evil. With the mere power of his voice, Jesus casts the entire legion of demons out, sending them into a group of pigs who then charge into the sea.

This miracle reveals that Christ has absolute power over evil; there’s nowhere the devil or his minions can hide.

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It’s unsurprising that this man “pleaded” to stay with Jesus after he set him free. But what does the Lord say to him?

No.

“Go home to your family and announce to them all that the Lord in his pity has done for you.”

Because that’s where most of the Gospel work is done – not in roaming from town to town as the disciples did with Jesus, but at home, in our families, in our own community, in the ordinary circumstances of daily life.

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As Mother Teresa once said, “If you want to change the world, go home and love your family.”

It was true for this man.

It’s also true for us.

After spending a few precious moments with the Lord, go home and love your family.

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Image credits: (1) A-Z Quotes (2) Deep Sea News (3) The Meadows Outpatient Center