In Jesus Name We...

 

 

 

 

Go figure? In  Mark 9:38-50, the apostles are all bent out of shape because someone outside of their “elite” group dares to do their job and has been caught casting out demons. Ironically, none of the twelve were able to exorcise an unclean spirit from a boy earlier in Mark. Now, they want to forbid someone who is doing the same thing, but successfully.

Jesus’ response is unequivocal: Cut out all your elitist nonsense and get over yourselves; he was acting in my name.  

What does acting in my name mean? Jesus tries to teach us that acting in the Name of Jesus is not merely a knee jerk response to a liturgical prayer.

It's living a life under the reign of God in Jesus, as Jesus.

Jesus was also unequivocal when he tells us that anything that gets in the way of living in His name, should be eliminated. So should stumbling blocks disguised as precious body parts, be severed? Again, the violence of Jesus' hyperbole here is palpable and unequivocal. It serves to remind us that preventing another from being “of Christ” and acting in his name is far worse than self-mutilation.

 

We ask:

What stumbling do we put in the way of others?

What does it mean to be “of Christ?”

What criteria should we use to determine if someone is "of Christ" or not?

What about active church membership?

What if, rather than "active church membership," we call it "being a part of the body of Christ"?

Can one be "of Christ" and not be an integral part of the "body of Christ?

 

Whoever welcomes me...welcomes the One who sent me

 

In Mark9:30-37 the disciples continue to be confused with Jesus’ message partly because their burning question was not “How can I live my life as Jesus?”, but rather, “How can I be seen as the greatest?”

Their self-centered thoughts were barriers to their understanding of what Jesus was telling them. In addition, their “arrogance,” reminiscent of Adam and Eve, breached the lines of communication with Jesus and their relationship with Him. They were unsuccessful in their attempt to heal the child because they were more intent on impressing the crowd; competing with each other and vying for Jesus approval rather than serving as instruments of God’s Peace.

In citing the child, Jesus is telling us that we have to welcome those “non-persons” who occupy the lowest rung of society’s ladder: "whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me."

Once again Jesus is challenging us to reverse long-standing, ingrained, human habits and to set aside our common human understanding of how to win fame and glory, and instead learn from Jesus, God's way.

When is it God's Will?

 

Do I really want to follow the will of God? Am I deluded first by wanting to make my own plans and then by insisting that God support and realize them? Or, do I seek to find my place in God’s plans, in God’s “master plan” for me?  

Most theologians believe that the Holy Spirit works not only in our conscious thoughts but also in our subconscious. Many times the Holy Spirit does not share with our conscious minds the reasons and motives for a given inclination, but moves us anyway, by forces we cannot recognize or name, to fulfill his highest purposes and to attain our own ultimate destinies. We achieve peace when we harmonize ourselves with this movement of the Spirit.

The head may be left with a thousand questions, but the heart’s intuition will sense that “This is right” and will know a peace of its own.

(The Christian Vision, The Truth that Sets Us Free; p 149, John Powell, SJ.)

Satan??? What did I say that was so wrong?

Suppose this was the first time you were reading Mark’s words in his Gospel 8:27-38 Mark 8:27-38. You might wonder if these people really knew each other or if they had an identity crisis. On the one hand Jesus asks "Who do people say that I am?" On the other, his close “friends” who are all over the lot, respond "John the Baptist,” and others, “Elijah,” and still others, “one of the prophets." Now, this is after they have seen him feed thousands; cure the sick; raise the dead, and cast out demons. This is also after he’s provided enough clues as to who he really is.

Then, after Peter, comes up with the right answer, so we think, and proclaims “You are the Messiah.” Jesus turns to his disciples and rebukes Peter…and calls him, “Satan” and tells him that he is setting is mind on human things, not divine things.   

Now here’s a loaded question, which of the two is confused? I did say it was a loaded question but, in fairness to Peter why did he get it wrong or does even get partial credit?

Caught With His Compassion Down

Thank God for this tenacious lowly “theologian” who comes to us in the form of a mother seeking help for her daughter in Mark 7:24-37. Her “theology” doesn't originate in books and study; it's an expression of painfully experienced need and fierce motherly love.

Jesus commends the woman's reasoning but says nothing about faith -- strange, perhaps, in light of other passages in Mark that connect faith to receiving blessings. For some interpreters, this makes the mother mostly a model of determination or verbal dexterity rather than faith.

But doesn’t her determination make us understand what "faith" really means? Notice her persistent efforts: (refusing to go away until she gets what she came for), her hopeful insight (refusing to believe even a tiny speck of grace isn't out of reach and knowing just a scrap can make the difference for her), and -- in the end -- her trusting acceptance (her willingness to take Jesus at his word and journey home alone to confirm her daughter's healing).

Who says things like desperation and tenacity aren't the same thing as faith, when that desperation and tenacity are brought to Jesus? In Mark, "faith" is hardly about getting Jesus' name or titles right, or articulating proper doctrine. It's about clinging to Jesus and expecting him to heal, to restore, to save. It's about demanding he do what he says he came to do. It’s about KNOWING.

Look for this woman in the back row of church this Sunday. Maybe she's the one whose reputation discourages her from getting involved or the one who slips out during the last hymn to avoid having to mix with the churchy "insiders." But she keeps coming back, fiercely convinced that if anything we say week-in and week-out is true, then it's got to be true for her, too. (adapted from Commentary on Gospel by Matt Skinner)

 

 

It's not what you swallow that pollutes your life

 

 

In Mark 7:8,14-15, 21-23  Jesus teaches that the people of God are not set apart by particular traditions or ethnicity, but by a purity that emanates from the heart, manifested by love for others. We do not need more religion, but more reflection on what proceeds from our heart. Yes, traditions can be good, and can point others to God. However, they can also send a message explicitly or implicitly, "you don't belong."

Jesus challenged the purity “laws” and turned them upside down. In their place he substituted a radically alternate social vision. The new community that Jesus announced would be characterized by interior compassion for everyone, not external compliance to a purity code, or by egalitarian inclusivity, but rather by inward transformation.

"No outcasts," writes Garry Wills in What Jesus Meant, "were cast out far enough in Jesus' world to make him shun them — not Roman collaborators, not lepers, not prostitutes, not the crazed, not the possessed. Are there people now who could possibly be outside his encompassing love?"

What "outcasts" do we sanctimoniously spurn as impure, unclean, dirty, and contaminated? 

(The Journey with Jesus: Weekly essays by Dan Clendenin )

"To Whom Can We Go?"

Am I Going to Leave or Stay?

In John 6:56-69, the followers of Jesus have heard words they do not understand. They are repelled! It simply is impossible to believe that Jesus is inviting them to eat his flesh and drink his blood…so, many of those who had followed Jesus up to this point now walk away. They have reached an obstacle which they cannot overcome.

It is not difficult to imagine his sadness as Jesus watched them leave…He feared that he was going to be completely abandoned. So, he turns to the twelve apostles and asks them what they are going to do...

Peter speaks for us when he responds “Lord to whom can we go?”

We do all that we can in life to avoid being placed in position of vulnerability, yet in this Gospel we have the twelve surrendering control and choosing complete dependency on Jesus. That dependency reveals an ultimate statement of faith: Lord, we have no options. We have no choice but to keep following you.

Faith is deepened in situations where self-reliance is no longer possible, where it is difficult to rely on our intellect, reason or abilities.  

The process of being attracted by something in Jesus - listening to what the Word says - and then asking: “am I going to leave or stay?” is part of our spiritual journey. For most of us, it can happen many times in a lifetime. We are faced with a choice: do I accept this, or do I acknowledge that I have to grow into its meaning? And what do I do? To whom do I turn while I am growing into understanding? These are the steps we take to be totally dependent, reliant, and available to Jesus.  

This is the challenge of the Gospel and in the end our response has to be personal…to walk away…or to stay and walk further into the Mystery. (Wellspring of Scripture)

You Are What You Eat

Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you…John 6:51-58

Whoa!!! Imagine hearing this for the first time. Imagine hearing this without any previous experience of the Eucharist.

We know that some in the crowd took such offense at Jesus that they stopped following him because he said these things—

Jesus doesn’t soften or temper his words in the least. There’s not even a hint that he might be speaking poetically or metaphorically. He’s not quick to change the subject either.

For us, these words may have lost their offensiveness. But, Jesus didn’t drop these rhetorical bombshells so that they’d be easily forgotten. It’s clear that He was stirring the pot on purpose. He wanted to say things that challenged people.

Imagine you are attending church for the first time as this passage is read!

Imagine hearing Jesus say these words. How would you react???

"... Know That I Loved You"



In many ways, Billy Bigelow serves as a metaphor that reminds us that no man wants to be forgotten; no person is content to be a moment in the lives of others, a negligible experience, an indifferent influence. As forceful as the urge is to live is the desire to be remembered. As insistent as survival is the desire to abide with another.
A man does not achieve fulfillment in his memory of himself but in his being remembered by others. Those who love another are anxious to remember; they know that no one truly die.(Padovano)

On Wednesday we continued with our discussion of Carousel. We observed Billy as he lay dying, pleading with Julie to “hold my hand.” We recall that during an encounter in an earlier scene during which the couple “unknowingly” professed their love, Billy boasted  I don’t need you or anyone; I got it figured out for myself... what are we… two little specks of nothing? Following his death, a despondent Julie is consoled by the chorus who sing “You’ll Never Walk Alone.”

In many ways we see the intersection of lives as a “communion” in which we are part of His Mystical Body. While our little Carousel seems to turn oblivious to our existence, we are all connected… those who came before, those who are here today and those who are yet to come.

When Julie sings “What’s the Use of Wonderin” she sings of love without strings, without ego that overlooks human frailties… it’s an unconditional love that transforms the one who loves and all those who are loved... 

Something made him the way that he is,
Whether he's false or true,
And something gave him the things that are his,
One of those things is you