THEN THEY WILL SEE THE SON OF MAN COMING IN THE CLOUDS

Thirty Third Sunday of Ordinary Time

Mk 13:24-32

Dear Friends, The apocalyptic language that Mark uses in today’s gospel passage lends itself to many interpretations. It is deeply rooted in the many visionary messages of the Old Testament. This language points to Jesus’ teaching about the kingdom of God. We know this kingdom is a future and transcendent event. It is God’s will and plan to overcome the consequences of sin at the beginning and all through human history. This divine event is beyond our grasp. So, today’s gospel uses much imaginative language to attempt to describe the kingdom’s final breakthrough into our reality and the end of the world.

As we come to the conclusion of each Church year, we have a message about these fateful events of the end times. It is always dramatically different than the sensationalist message we hear every several months from one crazy group or another. The Gospel message is clear. We do not know and we will not know. Our task is clear: keep vigil. All other speculation and worry is useless. Today’s narrative is best understood as an invitation to vigilance and preparedness in how we live and wait for the coming of the Son of Man.

However, beyond vigilance, there are other messages for us in today’s readings. One is about suffering and injustice. Life’s difficulties are so often arbitrary and rooted in injustice and basic human ugliness.Like Mark’s audience in the earliest days of Christianity, we find suffering so hard to comprehend, especially when it is connected to our faithful commitment to the gospel

Today Mark is proclaiming with power and wisdom. God will have the last word in this sinful world. It will be a word issuing the victory of justice, compassion, reconciliation forgiveness and love. Our hope will be answered and it will wipe out all our worries. Faith and fortitude will give way to the final devastation of fear. We are being challenged to let our trust in God help us to see the world through the prism of anticipation that opens to our destiny in the Crucified and Risen Savior.

However, there is another dimension to today’s Gospel message that fits very well with our human experience. It refers to a common occurrence we all have. There are sudden and dramatic changes in our life that come from sickness, death, failure of personal relations, economic disaster or in our days, the consequences of climate change. When these things happen, it seems as if our world has come an end. We have to face up to a new reality that is frightening and strange. Often, hope seems totally out of reach.

One of the most powerful events of this kind in my experience was a deeply traumatic event of my sister, Mary. She found herself the mother of six children over the span of eight plus years. One morning her husband woke up with severe pain in his stomach. Several weeks later she was a young widow as the ravaging cancer took her husband away. With his death also gone was her world that centered on his love and support.

Mary was totally overwhelmed. For several weeks she could hardly get out of bed. Finally, one day she faced up to the new world. As a woman of deep faith, she took on the task of raising her children. She did a totally fantastic job overcoming all kinds of obstacles including having six teenagers at the same time. Any mother would rejoice to have the young adults that came from that family.

This is a clear example of what the gospel tells us what we need to do when our world seems to be shattered. We need to live life with a loving responsibility and trust in God. This is something that is going to happen to all of us more than a few times in our lifetime.

Today’s gospel says that when you see all these things happening “then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds.” (Mk 13:26) That means when our personal world falls apart, and the bottom drops out of our lives, we will be able to see past the ugliness and to see through the pain to the ultimate reality of things. Despite appearances, God is still in charge, still cares, still has the power to make things right and still intends to do just that -in God’s good time!

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THE ILLUSION OF WEALTH MAKES US THINK WE ARE IN CONTROL

Thirty Second Sunday of Ordinary Time

Mark 12:38-44

Dear Friends, Today’s gospel places the self-promotion of the Scribes and the heroic generosity of the poor widow in disparity to each other. In the person of the widow, we are offered an example of true piety and faithfulness. On the other hand, we witness the pompous self-righteousness of the Scribes. The poor widow shines out in contrast to the self-grandiosity and holier-than-thou opportunists. Surely, Jesus‘ lesson on true integrity in religious practice is intended to teach the disciples and us today. Religious activity is never without those seeking their own fame and profit in religious matters large and small.

Like all of Jesus’ teachings, the story of the widow’s mite has many levels. At the time of Jesus, the role of the widow was particularly painful and harsh. First of all, she had no rights. The inheritance of the husband in most cases would go to his family. The widow was, in fact, kept from returning to her family if anything was owed on her dowry. There were some instances where the widow was sold into slavery to make payment on the debt of the dowry.

So, for Jesus to highlight the widow was a very specific and thoughtful choice. The contrast to the rich donors and Scribes was extreme.

There is a second point about the widow of the Gospel story and the widow of the first reading feeding Elijah in the Book of Kings. It was not a question of the two desperate women guarding their resources. They were simply dealing with empty pockets or purses. This was closer to the norm in their ordinary lifestyle.

The example of both widows is a clear and powerful example of trust in God. This is the same trust that Jesus has been urging upon his disciples for several chapters now since they acknowledged him as the Messiah. (Mk 8:27) He said that he indeed was he Messiah but his call to fulfillment meant a journey of trust and abandonment on the road to Jerusalem that would end in the Passion, Death and Resurrection. The disciples did not get it but the blind beggar did. (Mk 10:52) The rich man did not get it (Mk 10:22) but the poor widow did.

One level of today’s story contrasting the donation of the rich donors and the poor widow is a call by Jesus to be real, to see with eyes of faith that obliterate the delusion of wealth and possessions that make us think that we are in control. The widow is us. The big difference is that she sees with clarity and deep faith what it means to be a creature. We are all totally and absolutely dependent on God. Each day and each moment is a free gift. The escalating destructive power of the hurricanes and the other consequences of our devastation of the environment make this clearer by the day. The widow understood her dependence. She accepted the total loving control of a gracious God. The rich donors were happy to share a token of their perceived power and control with God. But in reality, they were poor and weak and the widow was powerful and free in her acceptance of her total reliance on God! God has a different way of seeing things. Each Sunday Jesus is inviting us to join him on this path to understand and embrace the true wisdom that will set us free like the poor widow.

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THE CONTEMPLATIVE SWITCH

Teresa of Avila lays out a map for seeking God in her classic on the spiritual life, The Interior Castle. She describes seven stages or dwelling places. For most of us, the third dwelling places is most relevant to our search.

The movement from the third dwelling places to the fourth dwelling places in the Interior Castle seems irrelevant to our life today. The reality, however, is different. The stagnation in the third dwelling places is the reason we have so much bickering within Christian groups and among loved ones. It is the root of so much tension in staff meetings and at the dinner table. It is the source of many of our problems in personal relations and the division between groups.

The contemplative switch, this movement from the third dwelling places to the fourth dwelling places, occurs when we experience a deep sense of being loved by God. This helps us accept ourselves in both our brokenness and giftedness. We begin to wait and listen to God. We are more open to be taught by God. The desire to control God continues to lessen. Now our prayer is that God will set us free to love with a pure heart.

in describing this path Teresa offers us a profoundly pastoral and practical message. Her teachings open up great vistas of possible new understanding and reconciliation. 

The contemplative switch, moving on up to the fourth dwelling places and the beginning of contemplation, is based on these fundamental teachings of Teresa:

1. Having arrived in the third dwelling places the person is in a good place because of a meaningful moral conversion.

2. The strain at this point in the spiritual journey contrasts God’s call to move on with the person’s desire to settle down and enjoy the progress.

3. The great difficulty is that the flagrant egoism of the previous dwelling places has gone underground. Now it surfaces in the cloak of virtue which feeds one’s self-righteousness and hypocrisy in a way that is destructive and divisive at all levels.

4. This newly hidden selfishness is the dominant obstacle to progress. “To let go and let God” is a long, arduous passage. Teresa wavered around this decision for almost two decades in spite of a faithful prayer life.

Teresa’s teaching on this contemplative switch points to three possibilities:

1. rejection of God’s call which leads to division, hostility and conflict;

2. the call to struggle to move ahead which opens up possibilities of growth and reconciliation;

3. surrender to God’s call leading to the seeds of peace, harmony and justice in contemplation.

In his personal testimonial, The Joy of the Gospel, Pope Francis gives a vivid description of this failure to “move on up”, forsaking the battle to go beyond the third dwelling places:

 

“Those who have fallen into this worldliness look on from above and afar, they reject the prophecy of their brothers and sisters, they discredit those who raise questions, they constantly point out the mistakes of others and they are obsessed by appearances. …This is a tremendous corruption disguised as a good. We need to avoid it by making the Church constantly go out from herself, keeping her mission focused on Jesus Christ, and her commitment to the poor. God save us from a worldly Church with superficial spiritual and pastoral trappings. This stifling worldliness can only be healed by breathing in the pure air of the Holy Spirit who frees us from self-centeredness cloaked in an outward religiosity bereft of God.” (#97)

Here are a few concrete examples from parish life of the ego operating in the name of virtue which wreak havoc and division. The same principle is operative in family life, at work and in the larger community.

• a Eucharistic minister who insists on distributing the “bread” and not the “cup”;

• an ethnic group celebrating the unity and love of the Eucharist while intensely angry at another ethnic group of the parish selling used clothes outside during the Mass;

• a pastor who is deaf and blind when dealing with the recommendations of the parish council and economic committee;

• parents who are incapable of receiving any criticism of their child from a teacher;

• the chronic blaming of “those people” for the dirty kitchen even though they have no idea of who last used the facility.

These are just the firecrackers of parish life. The more destructive land mines of ethnic division and power struggles are examples of the many hurtful events constantly challenging unity. Clericalism, the abuse of power of some bishops and the Vatican bureaucracy ‘s hunger to control are among many forces driving the Church away from Gospel values. Pope Francis’ call for a “revolution of tenderness” seems a long way off.

Teresa has this powerful and relevant statement in this crisis of “moving on up” from the third dwelling places to the fourth dwelling places. Teresa describes it this way: “With humility present, this state (third dwelling places) is a most excellent one. If humility is lacking, we will remain here our whole life and with a thousand afflictions and miseries. For since we will not have abandoned ourselves, this state will be very laborious and burdensome. We shall be walking while weighed down with this mud of our human misery, which is not so with those who ascend to the remaining rooms.” (Interior Castle: 3.2.9) 

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YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF

Thirty First Sunday of Ordinary Time

Mk 12:28-34 Dear Friends, In his response the scribe’s question, Jesus begins with the phrase, “Hear O Israel! (Mk 12:29) These words hold profound significance in understanding Jesus’ statement on love of God and love of neighbor. First of all, he places his response in the context of Israel’s call in which God has placed everything the initiative of divine love. God loves us first. The second element is the invitation to listen. Listening is the surest way into the mystery of God’s love.

The first part of Jesus’ response was as familiar to the average Jew at the time as the sign of the cross is for today’s Catholic. Jesus, however, adds to that familiarity the call to love your neighbor. Jesus is beckoning us into a community of love. The love which is initiated with God must be returned not only to God but that love needs to to include our neighbor. In this way, we are brought into a community of love.

This brings me to my favorite description of the Bible. It states that the Bible’s message is simple: God is love and Jesus teaches us what love is. In listening to find love and wisdom, our quest draws us to Jesus.

Jesus teaches us who God is and how God loves. In our encounter with Jesus, we experience the compassion and mercy of God. In Jesus, we learn that there are no limit to God’s love, no fences or labels of exclusion. In Jesus, we listen to God and hear the cry of the poor and marginated, all the forgotten who are isolated in ways only the broken human heart can develop to isolate and abandon. In Jesus on the cross, God’s word lays before us a challenge to put everything and everyone in second place so we “love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength… you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Mk 12:30-31)

All four of the Gospels are the richest symphony of God’s love song that is Jesus. In the Gospels, we hear the call to respond to our daily reality with a heart that is oopen and healed. We need to be open to life because if we are in touch with Jesus, we will be lured outside the limiting and constricting boundaries of our selfishness. The needs of our neighbor will be set before us in a new clarity and urgency.

This love of God and love of neighbor is what our hearts were made for. However, this is not always what our hearts want. If we are listening to Jesus, we cannot avoid hearing the difficult message. Love means to lose our life to save it. Love means to seek to be the servant not the ruler. Love means to wash the feet of all. Love means to walk with Jesus to Jerusalem. Love means we win by losing.

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WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO FOR YOU

Thirtieth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Mark 10: 46-52

Dear Friends,
For two and half chapters (Mk 8:22-10:52), Mark has Jesus challenging the disciples to realize his singular goal is to follow the Father’s will. In this commitment to go to Jerusalem there are clear consequences. He declared these consequences: rejection, suffering, death and the ultimate victory in the resurrection,

The Bartimaeus story concluding this section from Mark seems like a simple miracle story. It is much more than that. It is the story of what is a true disciple. It is a dialogue about faith.

After three predictions of the death on the Cross and the Resurrection, the disciples remain steeped in their confusion, blindness and growing fear.

In the story of Baritmaeus, Mark gives us the characteristics of a true and faithful disciple.

First of all, there is a hunger in the heart that leads one to look to Jesus. Bartimaeus would not let the crowd intimidate him as he continued to cry out until he received the call from Jesus. This rejection of the crowd’s effort to bully him, is simply an expression of Bartimaeus’ faith in Jesus.

Secondly, while Jesus had the same question for him that he had for James and John, “What do you want me to do for you?” (Mk 10: 51), the beggar is asking for more than money. Jesus understands. He gives Bartimaeus not only physical sight but the faith to embrace the journey with Jesus as a true disciple. Unlike the shameless ambition of the two brothers, the blind beggar seeks the gift of light from Jesus. This gift is a symbol of wisdom and truth that Jesus has been trying to teach the disciples. Mark’s description of Jesus’ journey is primarily about the question of who Jesus is and what must one do to join him on the road to Jerusalem. Bartimaeus accepts this truth.

Thirdly, when Jesus called, Bartimaeus cast away his cloak. This seemingly simple gesture is a very powerful and profound. The cloak was his only possession. He used it to lay out in front to beg for alms which were his only means of life’s necessities. Likewise, it was his only protection from the cold nights. Unlike the rich man who went away sad at Jesus’ plea to let go of his possessions, Bartimaeus, “threw aside his cloak, sprang up and came to Jesus.” (Mk 10:50)

The first part of blind beggar’s response to Jesus’ call is in stark contrast to the confusion and fear of the disciples. “Immediately, he received his sight and followed him on the way.” (Mk 10:52)

In this section of Mark, focusing on the three passages foretelling the Death and Resurrection, Jesus is teaching us who he is and what it means that he is a Suffering Servant Messiah. This is the deepest revelation of God’s love for us.

The disciples will only share the integrity and clarity of Bartimaeus after the Resurrection. The angel will say to the women at the tomb. “go tell the disciples and Peter ‘He is going before you to Galilee, there you will see him.”” (Mk 16:7)

We can look to Bartimaeus and see what we have to do to be a disciple, one who walks with Jesus. The healing of the physical eyes leads to the opening of the eyes of the heart. Walking with Jesus is always a journey into the depth of the heart and beyond the superficial. The faith journey is always partial and incomplete at the beginning. Bartimaeus was making the way of Jesus his own. Full clarity for the eyes of the heart will demand much more. What counts for Bartimaeus and for us is to begin the journey in trusting faith.

First, we need to recognize the hunger in our heart. We are all blind in many different ways. We all need to go to Jesus to ask for the light that we may see with the determination of Bartimaeus.

Secondly, we need take Jesus on his terms and not impose our ambitions on Jesus as James and John did.

Thirdly, we need to recognize that any true following of Jesus will have a price to pay. We all have many things that are obstacles to following Jesus. Our “cloak” will be found in growing awareness of our attachments and addictions. They come in many different forms for all of us. These obstacles to true discipleship need to be cast away to follow Jesus. We have no choice other than to put our trust in Jesus. Walking with him on the road to Jerusalem is the only option for a true Christian life.

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THE SON OF MAN DID NOT COME TO BE SERVED

Twenty Ninth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Mk 10:35-45

Dear Friends,Today’s passage from Mark is preceded by the most detailed foretelling of the passion and death. In fact, in Mark’s story, Good Friday was only six days later.

This is Mark’s third episode of Jesus with the disciples on the road to Jerusalem. Each time Jesus announces his Passion and Death, followed by an incident portraying the disciples in a dreadful state of ignorance. This leads to Jesus sharing a truly enlightening element of his gospel message, a new definition of greatens in service.

We are the target population of this literary genius of Mark. By the time Mark was writing, the disciples had not only grasped Jesus’ message but they had lived and died for it in a heroic way.

The mentality expressed by John and James in today’s Gospel passage is difficult to grasp. It is hard-headed, ambitious and self-serving in a manner totally contrary to Jesus’ teachings. The brothers’ mentality, however, was also shared by the other ten.

Considering all the time and investment of Jesus in the disciples, Jesus’ patience with James and John is truly beyond spectacular. He gifts us with same amazing patience. However, there is a time limit on it. We need more than faith and trust in a God who will take care of us and help with our plans for happiness. We need to embrace the gospel message as a growing element in our life.

Mark has a stark challenge for us. We need not only accept Jesus in his passion and death, we need to share in that saving suffering. In the first prediction of the Pasion and Death, Jesus tells us we have to be open to all of life in a way that surely will involve taking up our cross at all times. The second prediction is a call to share with Jesus’ saving death in accepting all of our brothers and sisters with an ever-expanding horizon of inclusion. There is no end to our call to break the barriers of exclusiveness. Finally, in today’s passage, we are called to a life of service, especially in our leadership. This threefold program is the heart of the gospel where the last are first, the least of all are equally important and true power is service to all. This is genuinely sharing in the upside-down world Jesus revealed in his life, passion, death and resurrection. In this world, greatness means being the least of all. Being the leader, the one with power, finds true and authentic meaning only in service.

It is clear that these three foretellings of the Passion were directed to counter the false ambitions of both the disciples and all followers of Christ including us today. Jesus says in (Mk9:45) “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.” In these words, Jesus lays out the clear and profound meaning of his upcoming death. It is the ultimate expression of leadership that is service. It is the great redemptive act of love in the ransom of all sinful humanity releasing them from the bondage of sin and death.

No doubt, we are all a long way from the depth of this selflessness. Nevertheless, the utter goodness of Jesus constantly is calling us out our world of convenience, comfort and consumption to a richer and more lifegiving world of sacrifice and service. Just like the disciples, we start out in darkness and ignorance. However, this pilgrimage to God with Jesus only asks that we take one step at a time on our road to Jerusalem. We will find that next step in self-sacrificing love and service in our daily responsibilities and relationships. The gospel is always calling us to find meaning and purpose n the lived experience of our daily life.

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KEEPING OUR EYES FOCUSED ON JESUS-2

Part Two

For St. Teresa of Avila, it is the personal encounter in following Jesus that unveils the loving mercy of God. This gift has its privileged communication in deep personal prayer. Prayer is always her top priority. For this Carmelite saint, the prayerful encounter with Jesus constantly stands at the center of our pursuit of God, the final desire of the human heart.

It is right at this juncture that the genius of Teresa can be a great help. She is called the mother of spirituality. She offers us the challenge of addressing a few fundamental steps to grasp the call of personal authenticity that is central to any spirituality. First, we need to grow in self-knowledge that leads to humility. We then accept the consequences of this emerging insight: the interplay of our personal limits and the mercy of God. This is all done in prayer, which she describes as a conversation with someone we know loves us. Keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus nurtures this development. This is the story of the disciples. This is our story if we are open to the call.

“Who Do You Say That I Am?”

Few lessons of the gospel are more important than to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. Walking with Jesus goes beyond the teachings of the church, beyond reading the Bible, beyond any devotions or other favorite religious expressions. Following Jesus is at the heart of faithful spirituality. Following Jesus turns our lives upside down. Following Jesus is the same today as it was in the day of the disciples. It calls us out of comfortable hiding places and takes us “where you do not want to go” (John 21:18).

We are invited to ponder the wonder of his compassion. We are asked to enter the stories. It helps to see ourselves as the persons who benefit from his many miracles.

In this way, like the disciples, we are led to the critical question: “Who do you say that I am?” (Mark 8:29). There is no question more crucial in our life. Who is Jesus for us?

For the disciples and us, the consequences this ultimate pursuit come slowly. We are on the road, but our encounter with Jesus is always partial and incomplete. Our relationship with Jesus always comes at a price, and a price that continues to escalate. At the heart of the encounter with Jesus is a transition— moving from our vision for happiness, from our priorities, to the new world of Jesus’ vision and call. This conversion process repeats itself many times as we remain faithful with Jesus on the road to Jerusalem. Prayer leads to an ever-expanding awareness of God’s will.

A new and deeper experience of prayer, flowing from these conversions, empowers us to live in a way that is progressively guided by God’s will. Our weakness is exposed dramatically. This struggle gradually reveals that the story of our life is the story of God’s mercy. Eventually it calls us into the lifegiving struggle to say no to all that is not God.

The four Gospels, in all their diversity, finally bring us a picture of Jesus which is a mirror for us. We look at Jesus and see what is most authentic about ourselves. We are children of God, loved and forgiven. In his exhortation, The Joy of the Gospel, Pope Francis describes the joy and beauty of discovering our true selves when we respond to Jesus’ call.

“The Lord does not disappoint those who take this risk; whenever we take a step toward Jesus, we come to realize that he is already there, waiting for us with open arms. Now is the time to say to Jesus, “Lord, I have let myself be deceived; in a thousand ways I have shunned your love, yet here I am once more, to renew my covenant with you. I need you. Save me once again, Lord. Take me once more into your redeeming embrace.” (The Joy of the Gospel: #3)

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SO YOU WILL HAVE A TREASURE IN HEAVEN

The Twenty Eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Mark 10:17-30

Dear Friends,
Right after my ordination in 1962, a very good friend, Bob, gave me a challenge. He asked me to talk to his sister and guide her back to the Church. She had become an Evangelical and he was heart-broken about it. I was sure it would be easy after my many years of study in the seminary.

I was a complete failure. Only slowly, over the next several years, did I begin to realize my very clear shortcomings.

Bob’s sister, Margie, found a great attraction in the Evangelical message. It stressed the power of the Scriptures and a personal relationship to Jesus. I was locked into a pre-Vatican II theology that stressed an institutional Church as the source of salvation.

Since Vatican II, we have been invited to see the main task of the Church as evangelization. We need to continually recall that the heart of our faith will always be the same: the God who revealed his immense love in the crucified and risen Christ. All evangelization is about the call to have a personal relationship with Jesus. This comes before, during and after all other catechesis and study. We need a personal encounter with Jesus that touches us at the deepest part of our being.

In today’s Gospel story of the rich man, Jesus is inviting the man to focus his attention not so much on what he has to do, but to realize the goodness and generosity of God. The text has the incredibly beautiful statement, “Jesus, looking at him, loved him.” (Mk 10:21) The man did not see this love nor did he experience it because he was letting his personal belongings blind him to Jesus invitation to trust in him rather than his personal wealth. “At that statement he went away sad, for he had many possessions.” (Mk 10:22)

What was it that he possessed? Not a car, maybe a donkey or two. If he was really rich, a horse. Two or three robes at best but K-Mart was wildly beyond his wardrobe dreams. No doctor, primitive medicine. Probably he could not read or write, and no TV, movies or newspaper not to mention a cell phone. No electricity or running water. He challenges the imagination to identify the level of poverty compared to our ordinary lifestyle common today. For these pitifully few things that he thought made him rich, he was unable to let go to follow Jesus. It is a good mirror for us. Our possessions are equally feeble compared to what Jesus has to offer us.

This is why we have to start out with a personal relationship with Jesus first and foremost. We need to realize we are loved. Without love, we too will walk away with the illusion of our wealth as our real security. However, if we open our heart to Jesus, we can begin the journey of gradually realizing that all our riches are in Jesus. In the end, all else will pass away, but Jesus’ love will never change.

The disciples were men of their times. They accepted the pervasive belief that wealth was a true sign of God’s blessing. When Jesus offered the radical message that wealth was an obstacle to the kingdom, it was just another shocking and challenging teaching of Jesus for the disciples. It added to the profound confusion that was part of both their growing attraction and steady bewilderment with Jesus. It was just another item on the list that laid out the cost of walking with Jesus.

They witnessed the rich man walking away sad and despondent. He had rejected Jesus’ love. His choice was to find security and life in his possessions.

Deep down, beyond their fear and uncertainty, Jesus’ followers had a hope in his invitation to let go and let God. Their relationship with Jesus, even in the early and fragile stage, let them see their hunger for freedom and happiness as the gift Jesus was calling them to. This was life in the kingdom where they slowly came to see that they were loved. They were beginning to move way beyond the dos and don’ts of their religious obligations.

The disciples were broken men. They shared all the bewilderment, fears and hunger for security as the rich man who had rejected Jesus’ love. There was a simple difference. They let go of their clinging in order to choose Jesus. We are called to grow into this same choice in the midst of our own doubts and fears. It is so much easier to make this choice of Jesus if we realize the wonderous gift of his love for us. He calls each of us by name into the marvel of everlasting life in the kingdom.

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KEEPING OUR EYES FOCUSED ON JESUS

Jesus walks into our lives through the Gospels. The Gospels are a privileged part of the word of God. The Gospels give us today, as they have done all through Christian history, an opportunity to discover Jesus just as the first disciples did when they joined him on the dusty roads of Galilee.

The Gospels are structured so that we, like Peter and the others, meet Jesus in the marvels of his ministry. We also must respond to his invitation, “Come and you will see.” (Jn 1:39) We are called to hear his teaching and view his healings. We are challenged to respond to the radical message of forgiveness and inclusion. We are invited to ponder the wonder of his compassion. We are asked to enter into the stories. It is helpful to see ourselves as the blind person who gains sight, the leper who is cleansed, the paralytic who is forgiven and healed.

In our encounter with the gospel message, we need to make sure that the central meaning comes out loud and clear. The heart of the gospel is Jesus Christ Crucified and Risen. He is our savior who delivers us from the bondage of sin. God has taken the initiative in his saving love for us. Our basic call is to accept this love recognizing our need for salvation. If we are truly faithful to this life-giving encounter with Christ, we will grow, most often ever so slowly, in accepting the maturing demands of this love.

In The Joy of the Gospel, Francis puts it this way: “All revealed truths derive from the same divine source and are to be believed with the same faith, yet some of them are more important for giving direct expression to the heart of the gospel. In this basic core, what shines forth is the beauty of the saving love of God manifest in Jesus Christ who died and rose from the dead.” (The Joy of the Gospel #36)

This developing acceptance of the gospel message invites us, first of all, to see in God’s love for us the demand to go forth from ourselves to seek the good of others. This priority of love for others is the foundation of all moral teaching flowing from the central gospel truth of Jesus Christ.

Road to Jerusalem

The second half of the Gospel of Mark portrays the disciples as a group on the edge of disillusionment. They are dealing with the frightening call to walk with Jesus to Jerusalem and the absolute shattering of their dreams and ambitions.

All the while, Jesus continues calling them into the light, proclaiming the truth and preparing them to be free of the bondage of their self-absorption. The war in their fragmented hearts raged on. They were struggling with new self-knowledge that shattered their illusion of seeing Jesus as their ticket to power, wealth, and privilege.

After their abandonment of Jesus on that fatal weekend, they still clung together in bewilderment and with ever-increasing despair. With seemingly three years wasted, they feared they would be the next victims of the religious leaders. In the midst of this desperation and horror, Jesus appears with the incredibly merciful pronouncement, “Peace be with you” (John 20:21). There was no finger pointing, only unconditional acceptance and encouragement. Now, it was a new day. With this last piece of the puzzle, the resurrection, in their hands, their job was to resolve the mystery of Jesus in their lives. Now the command “follow me”, opened up totally new and welcoming horizons. They were ready to shed the uncertainty and dread and walk with Jesus in spite of the continuing ambiguity of life.

Moving from Religion to Spirituality

The disciples are a good mirror for us. We share their uncertainty and anxiety amid our misconceptions that move us to seek happiness and security in the wrong places. We too, suffer the consequences of a fragmented heart. We try to get by with the minimum for God and the maximum for ourselves. However, this ambivalence exposes an emptiness deep in our being. The “dos and don’ts” of our religion no longer are enough. The question of the rich young man is rooted in the inevitable pull of the heart for something more.

This is where we move from our comfortable and safe approach to God in our religious rituals and practices to a search for something more profound. Spirituality is the process of growth from inauthenticity into a more genuine relationship with God. Spirituality draws us into the struggle where we move away from the shallow and illusionary to bond with God in a more responsible and open way. This is a move from the formality of religion to a deeper spiritual path.

Despite our progress, we will eventually face the incessant challenge of compromise. This is the death-rattle of the ego, its desperate maneuver to preserve control. In spite of our spiritual growth, we are still strongly inclined to seek a space between the demands of the gospel and the comfort of the world. We subtly create our own gospel. We make Jesus over in our image. As with Peter after his triple rejection, Jesus does not give up on us. He is always calling us to life. Each crisis manifests a deeper insight into the depth of our weakness and the grandeur of God’s merciful love revealed in Christ crucified and Christ risen.

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LET THE CHILDREN COME TO ME

Twenty Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time

Mk 10:2-16

Dear Friends,The seemingly arbitrary connection between the issue of divorce and the rejection of the children highlights Jesus’ teaching on human relations. Jesus consistently called us beyond the legalistic and limiting formulas of the law. His was a message to embrace life in all relationships: with friend and foe, parent and child, husband and wife. All are included in the kingdom. There is no exclusion as was the case in the patriarchal society of Jesus’ day or in the disciples failure to see in the children “what you did for one of these least ones, you did unto me.” Mt 25:45)

The religious leaders had no real interest in Jesus’ answer about divorce. The status quo of male dominance was 100% in their favor. The women were considered property and had no rights. The religious leaders’ only concern was to draw Jesus into some problematic public statement.

As usual, Jesus cuts through the self-serving propaganda of his foes and focuses on the central truth of authentic relations in light of the coming kingdom of God. This is a deep plunge into reality in contrast to superficial legal niceties of the Scribes and Pharisees.

Jesus’ teaching was truly dealing with the prohibition of divorce. However, there was another component of his message that was earth-shattering and absolutely revolutionary. It was a cultural bombshell. It devastated the accepted dominance of the male and proclaimed the dignity and rights of women. Jesus’ negative declaration, “and if she divorces her husband, and marries another, she commits adultery.” (Mk 1:12) sowed the seeds of “the wheat” against the “the weeds” of the monopoly of male -dominated structures of Jewish society. It is truly difficult to comprehend how radically transformative Jesus’ words were in this statement. In Jesus’ declaration woman is recognized and celebrated in her self-worth. It is a social and political transformation from a piece of property to a person with rights and dignity.

In this context, the prohibition of divorce is not some legal precept. It is an invitation into the ideal of the kingdom. The teaching on divorce is not to be trivialized. Likewise, it is not to be proclaimed with an inhuman rigidity. As early as Matthew and Paul’s first Letter to the Corinthians, the first generation of Christians were seeking a deeper explanation of Jesus’ teaching on divorce in light of our broken human condition.

Divorce was a frightening prospect for women in the time of Jesus. Marriage was absolutely critical for women as a condition of survival. They had no other means of support. Adultery was punishable by death. In addressing this issue, Jesus was also returning to his constant refrain of support and concern for the poor and the marginalized. Jesus was expressing compassion along with condemnation in his teaching on divorce.

The Church today needs to take the total message of Jesus and apply it with his characteristic compassion and sensitivity to the pastoral scene facing us today. The sacredness and singularity of the marriage commitment must pass through the prism of God’s mercy and compassion for his sinful and broken people.

Because Jesus’ reflection on marriage is rooted in his teachings about all human relations in light of the kingdom, Mark adds on the encounter with the children. As is the case so often in Mark’s Gospel, Jesus reprimands the disciples for their insensitivity or ignorance. This time it is the rejection of the children. Again, we are dealing with the issue of equality. Jesus was emphatic in his teaching. The kingdom has no exclusion in its welcome. It is for all. There are no “nobodies” in the kingdom. In fact, the children, in their simplicity and vulnerability, are great examples of the universal nature of the kingdom. The kingdom is for the undeserving, a totally free gift for all. One does not earn the love of God. Children are a model of this gracious generosity of God.

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PATHWAY TO PERSONAL RENEWAL

The Carmelite tradition states clearly that we are called to union with God. This is the goal of our full human development. This is the pilgrimage returning to the innocence of Paradise. We achieve this by a process of purification and transformation that begins with our effort to live an authentic and prayerful life. It concludes by the action of God in the state of contemplation. Our Christian life leads us through prayer to the experience of God that purifies and transforms us.

St. Teresa of Avila had a high regard for vocal prayer. For her, the key point was that we need to pay attention to whom we are praying along with the message of the words of the prayer. The common practice of mental prayer in her day was called meditation. It involved using the mind and the imagination to stir the heart. It led her to one of her more famous sayings, “For mental prayer in my opinion, is nothing else than intimate sharing between friends. It means taking the time to be alone with Him whom we know loves us.” (L 8.5)

Teresa always saw prayer’s purpose as drawing us into a deeper loving relationship with Christ. Deep personal prayer whether vocal or mental was the pathway to this all-important relationship.

Effects of Prayer

Regular prayer will always bring us to the challenge of changing our lives. The journey to the center and its encounter with our loving God in prayer is not cost-free. Prayer discloses what God wants in a way that confronts our blind spots. The nature of deep personal prayer is to draw us out of comfortable deceptions. Examples of these deceptions are our inability to listen to others, our assumption of privilege and prestige, the power and depth of our prejudices, and many more. The issue of time and the other excuses hindering our prayer are rooted in a fear of moving away from our comfort zone. All these factors contribute to and maintain a basic selfishness.

When we pray regularly with deep personal commitment, things happen within us. Prominent among these changes is a new consciousness. We begin to trust with a renewed sense of spiritual security. Faith leads us to be open to God leading the way as a guide through the darkness. Our relationships are enriched with an innovative sense of compassion. Likewise, we become more accepting and gentler with ourselves and with others. Failures become less traumatic and even seem as an opening to let God take over. Our faults are accepted. We find that we do not need to be in endless pursuit of looking good.

As our prayer becomes more authentic, there is a movement to our true center where God is. This moves us beyond the superficial self, the self-engrossed and shaped by the advertising world and the narrow self-interest of family, community, church and nation. Here we have become engulfed in the never-ending new products guaranteed to fill the void in a misdirected heart and the many “isms” that expand the blindness of our prejudices. This is the self propped

With this new focus on God in prayer, there are even more deep-seated changes within us. We begin to see the need for greater honesty and authenticity in all our relationships to persons, things, ideas and especially to the gift of God’s creation. We find it easier to cast out the log in our eye and to be more accepting of others in all their faults. “Either/or” thinking begins to fade away. The “both/and” view of life blossoms as a real possibility for us. We are amazed how a rigid “either/or” situation develops into several realistic possibilities. Finally, we gradually begin to experience life as rooted in an overwhelming sense of God’s gracious and merciful presence. Prayer, indeed, opens the road for our return to Paradise.

Prayer opens the passage to the true self hidden deep within. While this journey inward in prayer offers innumerable blessings, unfortunately, it is always limited and deficient. We gradually come to see how distant we are from our real destiny: union with God. This is the paradox of an authentic spiritual life. The more progress we make, the more we become aware of our helplessness, our sinfulness and our total dependence on God. This leads us to contemplation. Here God takes over. Our role is to let go so this divine activity can finalize our personal purification and transformation.

II

Grace in the Struggle

The part of the Pilgrimage to God that is probably most difficult for all of us is this. God wants everything. Therefore, we have to let go of everything. At first, we grudgingly respond to the gentle but ever so persistent divine call. But God is rightly described as The Hound of Heaven. We reluctantly begin to let go a little bit more. This is why Teresa has explained the process in seven dwelling places. In each stage of growth, God raises the price. We need to repeatedly accept new demands for self-surrender. For our part, it seems like an endless struggle. For God’s part, it is a gentle, consistent and determined invitation into freedom and love. Helping us progress from our narrow view of constant struggle to the continuing invitation to love and freedom is the true goal of Teresa’s teachings. We are made for God and we will be restless until we are one with God. “Everything I have advised you about in this book is directed toward the complete gift of ourselves to the Creator, the surrender of our will to his and the detachment from creatures …Unless we give our wills entirely to the Lord so that in everything pertaining to us, he might do what conforms to his will, we will never be allowed to drink from this fount. Drinking from it is perfect contemplation.” (W.32.9)

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DO NOT PREVENT THEM

Twenty-Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Mark 9: 38-43, 45, 47-48.

Dear Friends, What seems like a simple lesson in Mark’s gospel passage for today, offers us a lot more. The teaching is about the presence of good outside the community and brokenness inside the community. Once again, Jesus’s words call us much deeper into the mystery of the kingdom of God. Today’s message has truly huge ramifications for our lives as individuals and as a community seeking to walk in the footsteps of Jesus.

There are three points about John’s statement and Jesus’ reaction that help us grasp the multilayered meaning of the lesson of Jesus. First and foremost, John, the disciple, misses the urgent reality of the kingdom that was taking place. The person was being liberated from the demonic powers. This event is manifesting the victory in the basic conflict of good and evil, sin and grace, the weeds and the wheat. Throughout the Gospels, the Scribes and Pharisees missed the same point in the miracles of Jesus. The power of God was on display right before their eyes. They were blinded in their hunger to protect their vested interests. The wonder of Jesus’ saving acts was distorted into an impediment to their self-serving agenda. Secondly, John’s focus is more directed towards maintaining personal privilege and power exemplified in his statement “one of us”. Thirdly, John is drawn inward to safeguard the group’s interests to the neglect of celebrating and exercising the healing mission of the kingdom. The Church has suffered from this arrogance and institutional self-interest throughout its history.

Jesus is pointing out something profound about the gospel. Jesus’ teachings set off a constant battle within people who are seeking to exclude rather than include. It is the power and presence of the kingdom that makes a difference. It is not the label of the performer as one in our group or outside our group that is foremost.

This issue became a critical teaching of Vatican II. God’s grace is universal and available to all. Often the initiator of the good acts may belong to another expression of the Christian faith. Frequently, it may be be a member of another religion altogether or even an agnostic or atheist. God’s saving grace is relentless in its presence and pursuit of every human being irrespective of religious trademarks. Down through the centuries the failure to understand this truth of the universality of grace has been the source of many failures of the Church to live and proclaim the gospel. Too often the Church has been dedicated to its institutional interests rather than the movement of God in the kingdom.

In the second part of today’s gospel, Jesus is using some incredibly strong language to highlight the need to build up the community. The hunger for prestige and power and an elitism and sense of privilege by the leaders is a scandal to “the little ones,” those still in the early stages of development in their faith. In the prophetic hyperbole, Jesus is demanding for us to keep our eye on the ball. The mission of the faith community we call Church is to proclaim the kingdom. The Church needs to be a humble witness to service and love, not an arrogant gathering of privileged and powerful. Too often, the Church fails to live up to the calling to treat all within the community with equality and a sense of dignity, not to mention the essential task of being a welcoming community. There were no parishes in Jesus day but the negativity of parochialism has been with us from the beginning. This turning in on itself has produce many evils that need the healing surgeries that Jesus suggests in his exaggerated language. There is no clearer example of this than the many dimensions of the sexual abuse scandal that has plagued the Church for the last several decades.

The Church is not the kingdom. It needs to be a witness to the values of the kingdom which are an infinitely greater reality. In the kingdom of God there is no “us and them”. The Church is not a program where the privileged and powerful are in control and use doctrine and discipline to exclude and isolate. The community of faith needs to include all. This requires an ever-expanding horizon of acceptance of the “other.” This is a call to embrace all the marginated and excluded in our day. We are never finished building up and enfolding a rellentlessly greater “us” and an ever-diminishing “them.” Our vocation is to cultivate a gracious respect for both the elements of difference and the richness of the gifts of others. We have a calling to reveal the infinite mercy and acceptance God.

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WHOEVER RECEIVES ONE CHILD SUCH AS THIS IN MY NAME, RECEIVES ME

Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Mark 9:30-37 

Dear Friends, Our Catholic Faith is often described as a service from the cradle to the grave. Actually, we are very emphatic that it starts before the cradle at the moment of conception. I think we all have difficulty with this universal demand of our faith.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus is using his second prediction of his passion and death to teach us that there are no “nobodies” in God’s eyes.

In Mark’s Gospel, there is a basic pattern to the three announcements by Jesus of his Passion, Death and Resurrection. First of all, Jesus makes the shocking prediction. Then the disciples are caught in a situation that shows their total failure to understand this lesson of Jesus. This is followed by a teaching by Jesus that is a profound contribution to his gospel message.

Today’s predicament for the Disciples is an argument about who is the most important among them. This leads to today’s instruction by Jesus.

Today’s message is missed if we do not understand that a child in the time of the New Testament was a “nobody”, a person of no social value or recognition. Jesus’ teaching was that whoever welcomes a child welcomes Jesus.

A child was truly a “nobody “for everybody except the family. The child had no rights, recognition or voice in anything. Jesus turns that view upside down in his Gospel message today. He not only puts his arms around the child in a tender embrace of recognition but says, “Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the one who sent me.” (Mk 9:37)

This teaching of Jesus has shrewd social implications. Such a meaningful and respectful relation with a child would mean putting down your self-importance and identity as an adult. This emptying of self was an invitation into leadership that forsakes dominance and control. It was a call to a humble leadership of service and openness.

On an even deeper level, this teaching of Jesus challenges both the disciples’ notion of the Messiah and of God. Jesus is telling us in his teaching, and even more so in his life, that God is one who comes among us not as one who rules by control and punishment but one whose reign is one of service. We are all a child in the eyes of God. It is God’s goodness not our accomplishments that is the source of our strength, dignity and beauty as human beings.

In this statement and loving embrace of the child, Jesus is showing us that there are no “nobodies” in God’s eyes. We need to see that all humanity in all its incredible different expressions offers an image of God. Therefore, if we wish to be a leader, we need to celebrate this divine manifestation by a presence that makes us a servant of all.

Jesus is showing us the way by his faithful surrender on the way to Jerusalem. He asks us, his followers and disciples, to recognize and respond to God’s presence in all our brothers and sisters whether they are in diapers or in prison, whether in a coma or addiction, whether a Nobel Prize winner or a mother-in-law. All are worthy of our life of service and love.

We all have our own list of “nobodies”. Jesus is asking us to open our eyes to see the wonderful presence of God hidden in our midst by changing our labels of negativity to labels of a precious child of God.

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JESUS TEACHING ON PRAYER

Jesus taught the people to start from where they were in their life situation. Jesus then invited them into the mystery of the kingdom. There was special emphasis on the parables as the method of his teaching. In the parables, he taught that prayer should be urgent, insistent, forgiving and always steeped in humility that recognizes one’s sinfulness.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus offered a great deal of his message on prayer. First, there must be a conversion that shows itself in concrete action: reconciliation before offering gifts at the altar, love of enemy, prayer in secret with simple language and even silence, purity of heart and choosing God’s kingdom above all.

The Our Father

This all leads to the greatest lesson in prayer, the Our Father. (Mt 6:9-13) Jesus starts out by telling us not to pray as the pagans pray. Their prayer is described as an effort to wear down God with volume, repetition and perseverance searching for just the right phrase to gain the desired response from a somewhat indifferent deity.

Jesus‘ invitation to pray is totally opposite. God, he says, already knows what we need. God’s generosity is a given. According to Jesus, what is needed is a human heart disposed to the big-heartedness of the Father.

The structure of the Lord’s Prayer is clear. The first part draws us into the domain of the Lord who is “Our Father” both holy and loving. There is a divine plan. The petitions of the first part of the prayer place all the attention on God: the loving Father, the holy name, God’s kingdom and God’s will. We are pulled away from our small world of self-interest. In the second part, we come back to our needs and our dependence on God.

The initial address of “Our Father” is an expression in the original language (likely Aramaic) of parental tenderness and endearment. Today it would be “Daddy” or “Pop” or some similar utterance of an adult child. Likewise, by using “Our”, Jesus is revealing that we, as a community of disciples have been welcomed into a new family, a Godly family. All members are invited into a divine relationship of intimacy and confidence.

The next three petitions, in truth, are one: the coming of the kingdom is the central message of Jesus. The holiness of God’s name and God’s will are biblical statements that are part of Jesus’ proclamation of the kingdom.

The kingdom is God’s response to the consequences of sin flowing from the tragedy in the Garden. The first eleven chapters of Genesis describe this destructive evolution of evil that permeates our world. From the call of Abraham to Jesus’ declaration of the kingdom we have the counter-evolution of love in God’s plan. The Hebrew Scriptures are replete with expressions of the bondage to sin and death and, most of all, alienation from God. They also have a message of faithfulness and hope. In Jesus, there is a new saving presence which continues in his new family of faith, the Church. The kingdom is, indeed, the seed that will become the great tree to shelter all the birds. (Mt13:31-32) We participate in the coming of the kingdom when we walk with Jesus in a life of love and service to his reign.

When we pray for God’s kingdom, we are praying for deliverance from the consequences of sin. The magnitude of this seemingly simple petition is easy to miss. This prayer includes our pleas for practically anything that is good from the healing our child’s headache to elimination of sexual slavery, from success in the driver’s test to the conversion of the gangs, from peace with the in-laws to peace between Russia and Ukraine.

In the Good Friday liturgy, the Our Father is echoed as we pray that “God may cleanse the world of all errors, banish disease, drive out hunger, unlock prisons, loosen fetters, granting to travelers safety, to pilgrims return, health to the sick, and salvation to the dying”. God’s kingdom will overcome all hatred and every prejudice, any expressions of inhumanity, every dimension of poverty, and divisions of all kinds. The list goes on and on. All evil, and most especially death, is vanquished by the coming of God’s kingdom. The hidden Alleluia of Christ’s victory is always the wheat overcoming the weeds in our midst. (Mt 13:24-30)

When we pray “Thy kingdom come”, we are praying for all that we need (and, perhaps, even some of what we want). All our varied petitions in the prayer of the faithful, in our rosary, in our novena intentions, and in each hidden desire in our heart are most likely included in God’s kingdom. Yet, it is still good to pray for our individual concerns because it helps us become mindful of our dependent relationship with God.

The second set of petitions in the Lord’s Prayer reflects a pilgrim people like the Israelites wandering the dessert for whom manna is the bread for their human material needs. But the bread is also a symbol of the Eucharist. It is in this context that we are reminded that God forgives always. However, we can block that flow of mercy if we do not forgive. In the final petitions we pray that the forces of evil not prevail in our personal, communal and historical reality.

The Lord’s Prayer, then, is the prayer of the family of God on the journey to the unity and freedom of the kingdom. This is the New Creation, the eventual return to the original innocence inviting us to enter into a consciousness of our total reliance on God. It helps us experience the sense of divine intimacy. It fills us with hope.

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“WHO DO YOU SAY I AM?

The Twenty Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time 

Mk 8:27-35 

Dear Friends, This encounter between Jesus and Peter identifies the centerpiece of Mark’s Gospel. The rich description of Jesus’ activities up to this point in Mark’s Gospel leads to the critical question of Jesus, “Who do you say I am?” (Mk 8:28) For the disciples, and for us, there is no more important question we must address in our life. Who is Jesus for us?

Up to this point in Mark’s text everything was about the identity of Jesus. His miracles, his teachings, his call of the disciples, his conflicts, religious and secular, and above all, his person. They all combined to raise the issue of Jesus’ identity that Peter stated so boldly, “You are the Christ.” (Mk 8:29)

Jesus implied they were correct. Then he told them not tell anyone. As if this was not confusing enough, he then told them of his upcoming suffering, rejection and death. This led Peter to rebuke him only to receive a response that, no doubt, shattered Peter’s world. “Get behind me Satan, you are thinking not as God does but as human beings do.” (MK 8:33)

When Jesus then told the disciples they need to suffer and take up their cross, their bewilderment was complete. The entire second half of Mark’s Gospel is an elaboration of Jesus’ faithfulness to this message and the disciples’ failure to figure it out.

In this shocking conflict, Mark is inviting us to go beyond the surface in our commitment to Jesus, to dig deep in our search for the true meaning of the gospel in our life.

The central issue for the disciples was the difference in understanding of the role of the Messiah. Jesus understood the mystery that there is true life only in giving it away not by clinging to it. For the disciples the goal of life was to be found in getting not giving. Only slowly did they learn that love teaches us the paradox of the gospel. To truly own something, we need to be willing to give it away. To truly own our life, we need to be free to lose our life.

As Peter proclaimed, Jesus was indeed the Christ. However, Jesus understood that he was to bring about the Father’s plan by suffering and self-giving and service. All his teachings had be understood in this context, the context of the crucified Christ.

Jesus’ rebuke of Peter was based on the real issue for the disciples, and for searching faithful down to our day.

We, like Peter, face the perennial temptation to try to make Christ in our image. We are looking for a more comfortable version. Peter and the disciples had a plan for Christ. He was to be the provider of prosperity and privilege, security and contentment. Jesus agreed to this basic human fulfillment but at a much different level. Jesus insisted this fulfillment is only truly possible by self-giving not self-indulgence. We must learn to center on God rather than to center all on ourselves. Jesus’ gift of our prosperity and privilege, our security and contentment will be beyond our wildest dreams. This is what Jesus means by “whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.” (Mk 8:34) The road to Jerusalem is the way into this fundamental Christian truth: life conquers death only by centering on the Father’s will not our will.

When Jesus tells us to take up our cross, it involves much more than this particular difficult person or that painful loss or a frightening sickness. Taking up our cross means being open to God in all manner of ways that we experience in the totality of life. Taking up the cross involves a determined resolution and deep desire and vigorous acceptance, not merely passive resignation. The cross Jesus is talking about comes in all different fashions in the harsh reality of human experience.

The disciples eventually got the message when Jesus invited them to Galilee after the Resurrection. He was going to give them a second chance. He gives us many times more than a second chance. He does this by raising a second question to ponder, “How do we die with Jesus?” We need to accept Jesus on his terms when we answer that fundamental question of life, “Who do you say I am?” (Mk 8:27) This leads to the second question, “How do I die with Jesus?” Our personal faith journey will eventually enlighten us to understand that dying is the only way to true life in the Jesus venture in our life.

In describing the Apostles, The Acts of the Apostles portrays a whole new cast of characters. They truly are distant from Mark’s rendering of the special twelve followers of Christ. Now, they not only know Jesus, they know how to die with Jeus to truly discover the life that their heart so yearned for. Their life of service and self-giving shows how they took advantage of the second chance. We need to do the same.

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