Today’s Thoughts: There are many ways to look at the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ which we celebrate today. The most obvious is the gift of the Eucharist, the institution of which we encounter in the account we hear in today Gospel. We encounter that special moment just before Jesus Passion and Death when he gathered his disciples together and gave them the central focus for the rest of their lives. The Eucharist is our most cherished gift, it is the center of our lives as people of faith, as Church. The Eucharist offers us, like it offered the first disciples, the physical and spiritual nourishment needed to live this life of faith. The real presence of Christ in the Eucharist that we receive demands our lives, it demands that we bring Christ’s real presence to the world.
Another way of looking at this feast comes from another Gospel story. Fr. James Martin, S.J. writes, “God can do a lot with what we think is a little.” Just think of what Jesus did along the Sea of Galilee when he multiplied the loaves and fishes. His disciples wanted to give up. They said all they had were five loaves and a few fish. As we have learned God makes possible the impossible while doing a lot with little; or as Teresa Whalen Lux put it, “God often takes something small and insignificant and turns it into the extraordinary.” When you think about the Last Supper and the story of the Multiplication of the Loaves you think of Jesus taking simple ordinary things and doing extraordinary things with them. Along the Sea of Galilee, he fed many and at the table of the Eucharist each Sunday, each day, Jesus feds many. Day in and day out Jesus takes something small, insignificant and ordinary, bread and wine, and does the extraordinary. I have often in my preaching reflected on receiving the Eucharist as a moment when God, when Jesus says to us, I demand your life! I have given you mine so now go and give it to the world. Our celebration of the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ today reminds us of just how blessed we are, of just what God can do and of our challenge each day to live, to trust in God and bring the real presence of God to the world! Have a blessed, holy, and healthy Sunday everyone!
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Today’s Thoughts: Once again, in our Gospel from Mark, we find Jesus in conflict with the religious leaders of his time. Jesus seems to always be hard on the religious leaders of his day. The long robes, the honors they receive so willingly, clashes with Jesus' view of leadership. For Jesus their leadership is a shame, they “recite lengthy prayers” while at the same time, devour the houses of widows." Jesus’ vision of leadership, of being a religious person is about kindness, compassion, and authenticity.
We might ask what has gone wrong for the religious leaders? What is the temptation that takes them to self-righteousness and the externals of religious practice, and away from a heart like Jesus’ rich in mercy and hearing the cry of the poor? When our story moves to Jesus' sitting across from the temple treasury, he becomes the teacher who gives us an image to remember for life. Jesus observes, "many rich people put in large sums," but then, "a poor widow also came and put in two small coins worth a few cents." Jesus contrasts those who "contributed from their surplus wealth" and the widow who "from her poverty, has contributed all she had." Jesus offers us an honest challenging and liberating message. Having many things makes it difficult to depend upon God alone. Letting go of things, placing our lives in God's hands, allows us to keep everything in perspective and to give generously, "and not to count the cost." Have a blessed, holy, and healthy Saturday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: Sometimes when we encounter the daily scriptures, they create certain emotional responses. Take todays Gospel of Mark, we encounter a situation that might produce an emotional response within us. In the Gospel of Mark, we are presented with a perplexing little riddle that is part of Jesus’ ongoing tension with the religious leaders of his time – we might say our Gospel present us with the reason for ongoing conflict in life and in our Church.
Our Gospel continues the back and forth between Jesus and the religious leadership of his time. Today, Jesus challenges them with a little riddle about David and the people listening are delighted with Jesus’ mastery over those who are in charge. Throughout this exchange that takes place in Chapter Twelve of Mark, Jesus seem to constantly reinforce the fundamental qualities of life like compassion, love, forgiveness, generosity, and prayer. We might say that Jesus is saying you cannot just hold up a bible or take a picture in from of a statue and be Christian. Being a Christian is an act of living life in the presence of God. Jesus refuses to get caught up in “when,” “where,” or “how,” Jesus is concerned about the now! It is the act of living in the now that is most important. In our first reading Tobit and Anna had hope in the future but their lives of patience and love were firmly grounded in the present and in the end, they found new sight and life-giving love. Let’s not look too far ahead. Let us not make things too complicated. Let’s be watchful, loving, compassionate, forgiving, generous and prayerful so that we don’t miss those wonderful moments of God’s presence that come to our doorstep! Have a blessed, holy, and healthy Friday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: I have always liked the story that we find in today’s Gospel (Mark 12: 28-34). I especially like the end when Jesus looks at the scribe and says, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.” It is perhaps the only moment in the Gospels when Jesus and the scribes are on the same page. There is a mutual understanding, a mutual respect at this moment in the struggle between Jesus and the religious leaders of his time. It is a nice thing to see. Would that this kind of understand and respect would happen between leaders of all kinds during our time.
The respect and understanding centers around the two great commandments, love of God and love of neighbor and we might say there is a third, love of self, because Jesus says we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. As Jesus teaches and the scribe comes to understand, these are the two or three great commandments and everything else flows from them, which might explain why we find ourselves in the struggles that we are in today. If we just look around at our world, our culture, our society, our church the problems that we find relate to the way we live out or perhaps better said, do not live out these commandments. Our struggles can be directly related to how we do not value God and perhaps more importantly how we do not value others or ourselves. We might even say that our struggles as a culture, society, church, and a world can be traced to the lack of love that we have for ourselves. If we do not love ourselves how can we love others, how can we love God? Love is not just wanting the best for ourselves, others, and God. Love is a respect, a reverence for life, for who we are as individuals, as a culture, as a society, as a church, as a world. Love is finding the good in ourselves, others, and God. Love is seeing God in others and in ourselves. Love is seeing, acknowledging, and accepting the differences in ourselves and others but most importantly still being able to find God. Our challenge today and every day is to put into practice these three great commandments. Our challenge is to wake up each day in love with God, our neighbor and ourselves! Have a blessed, holy, and healthy Thursday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: In today's Gospel reading, Mark considers the problem of life after death and its implications. Jesus takes the side of the Pharisees, believing in resurrection from the dead, as opposed to the view of the Sadducees. This is one of the reasons why Jesus frustrated the Pharisees so much: although he seemed to be one of them according to this criterion, he refused to interpret Scripture as literally as they did or to put as much importance on a strict and literal interpretation of the Law. He goes beyond (not against) what many Old Testament texts seem to assume concerning both life after death.
The wider question which Jesus is addressing here is how we are to interpret Scripture. A literal interpretation is easy for us to understand and so to follow, at least insofar as our having confidence in doing the right thing is concerned. Anyone who is willing to come to grips with Scripture, soon recognizes that this approach has its problems. The interpretation of the Scriptures is best left to the scholars, what is important for us is how we as individuals read Scripture and draw sustenance from God through it. What I am referring to here is prayer. If we are to have a living friendship with God, we need to be in conversation with him. Scripture, as the Word of God, plays an important role here but cannot be taken literally or assumed to have only one "message" in a given passage. Scripture is rather a place where we listen to what God says through a particular passage. The Spirit will lead us to pay attention to one aspect of that reading, to a word or expression, or will inspire us with a new understanding of ourselves and who we are. What is most important here for us is first that we pray, regularly, with or without using the Scripture, and then that we reflect on what we are doing and what we experience in prayer. And then go on to live in the strength of that Word. Mark’s Gospel today ends with the great affirmation that God is the God of the living and we encounter this living God first and foremost through prayer. God is not waiting for us to survive life, God is actively nudging us through prayer and in other ways so that we give life to his kingdom every day. Have a blessed, holy, and healthy Wednesday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: In our Gospel today, Jesus finds himself once again challenged, harassed, or questioned by the religious leadership. The Pharisees and Herodians seem to be at least civil this time, yet they are still trying to entrap Jesus. Their tactic this time is to ask about paying taxes.
In recent years there has been a lot of talk about religious freedom, about the government infringing on the rights of churches, religions. Perhaps our Gospel story today can be cast in the light of religious freedom after all Rome was asking for tax money so that they could continue their conquering ways. Just think of all the barbaric acts that these taxes would be paying for. Just think of the Roman occupation that these taxes would be helping to fund. It would seem only right for Jesus to say that withholding the Roman tax would be the right thing to do. However, Jesus simply says, “Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” In other words, culture and society are not always going to line up with our faith values yet we are still part of culture and society. We will need to give what they require but we will also need to live out our faith, our relationship with God. At times, these two relationships are in tension even conflict, like in our own times and we are called to make choices. The choices are not always easy and often have consequences. The challenge is that we live in the world, but we are friends of God. Have a blessed, holy, and healthy Tuesday everyone! |
Fr. Paul R. Fagan, C.P. "Preacher on the Run"Just a few thoughts to help you on your journey through life...let me know from time to time what you think... Archives
April 2024
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