Showing posts with label CYCLE-B-2021. Show all posts

THE THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT

Zephaniah 3:14-18…Philippians 4:47…Luke 3:10-18

Dear Friends, it is amazing how many ask about the pink candle in the Advent Wreath. It is different so people want to know why. The answer comes in the second reading today from ST. Paul. Paul says, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I shall say it again: Rejoice!” (Phil 4:4) The rose colored candle is about rejoicing. We are coming close to the coming of the Lord, the day of salvation. Our God will be faithful to his promises. He will deliver us.

In the first reading, we have a message of why we should rejoice. Zephaniah says, “The Lord your God is in our midst, a mighty savior; he will rejoice over you with gladness, and renew you in his love.” (Zeph 3:17) Paul tells us not to worry, to place our trust in God. “Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” (Phil 4:7) In the Gospel, John the Baptist tells us why we should rejoice. “One mightier than I is coming.” (Lk, 3:16) This is the message of Advent. This is why we are filled with hope. This is why our Advent prayer is so powerful and so on target, Come, Lord Jesus!

Our world and each of us need salvation. It is easy for Paul to tell us not to worry but we know many things cause us distress. It is sickness or the job, our kids or the family. The streets are an every day, every hour challenge. Hope is not so easy to find in the darkness of our reality.

This is why we have the rose candle. God had not forsaken us. This is why Zephaniah can say, “The Lord has removed judgment against you. He has turned your enemies away….the Lord is in your midst.” (Zeph 3:15) Hope is the treasure revealed in our Advent celebration. St Teresa of Avila captured this spirit in her beautiful and classical bookmark prayer.

Let nothing disturb you.
Let nothing make you afraid.
All things are passing.
God alone never changes.
Patience gains all things.
If you have God you will want for nothing.
God alone suffices.

ADVENT 2021

The Gospel of Luke: The Gift of This Year’s Liturgical Journey

Luke, like the other three Gospels, is not a biography of Jesus. It is a gathering of information based on a vision of faith in the truth of Jesus as the crucified and risen Savior. It is an opportunity for all people of faith to have a saving encounter with Jesus just as the disciples experienced. This new Liturgical Year, beginning in Advent, 2021, we are invited to journey with Luke in our weekly celebration of God’s love in the Pascal Mystery.

Jesus is an invitation into the Mystery of God. In the last verse of the Gospel of John we read: “There was much else that Jesus did. If it were written down in detail I do not suppose the world itself would hold all the books that would be written.” (Jn 21:25)

Luke, then, has chosen a truly limited amount of material. He has organized it in a specific way to help the reader to connect with Jesus in a saving and lifegiving rendezvous. Luke shares great similarities with Mark and Matthew. This makes them united under the title of the Synoptic Gospels. Luke also has much that is different thus helping us to have broader and deeper knowledge of Jesus.

Like his fellow evangelists, Luke invites us be participants in the Jesus story. We need to see ourselves as recipients of the healing. We, like Peter and the others, need to accept the call to journey to Jerusalem. Behind all the scenes of the Lukan stories lies the reality of Jesus in our life calling us into the kingdom of God’s peace, justice and never-ending love. One of Luke’s special gifts is his skill to draw us into the extravagance of God’s love.

One of Luke’s many special talents is his gift of storytelling. The story of the rich fool, Lazarus and Dives, the good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son are all rich stories peculiar to Luke.

Dante has described Luke as giving us the winning attitude of gentleness in Jesus. Throughout the Gospel there are special stories of compassion and mercy. Jesus is shown as reaching out to the isolated and abandoned. Yet, the evangelist is consistently harsh on the self-righteous and proud. The poor are promised help while the rich are challenged to expand their horizons to include those in need. Their judgement is not final until the extended period of mercy comes to an end.

Jn 18:33-37

Dear Friends, This feast has a clear and formidable message for us. It also has significant function in our liturgical year.

In the Gospel of John, the story of Jesus and Pilate is one of the most important parts of the Passion narrative. It involves seven different scenes.

One dimension of the story is that Jesus is defined as king in contrast to the earthly leaders. Their position is rooted in status, exclusiveness, rings and robes, expressions of wealth and power, titles and the ability to manipulate everything and everybody to their own advantage. Jesus’ kingship is designated by the call to testify to the truth, to serve, to be free in poverty and lack of recognition, to give the final measure of love to all decisions. In his kingship,, everything comes from God and leads to God.

Jesus offers the clearest expression of this kingship before the soldiers at the time of the scourging and mockery. Jesus had said clearly, “My kingdom does not belong to this world.” (Jn 18:36) Jesus is pulling together the total message of his ministry and life. He is inviting us to receive all his teachings through the lens of his kingship before the soldiers and on the cross.

We can see in Pilate one who clearly rejected Jesus. It is a challenge to us to open ourselves to the Kingdom of God. This is a plea to personal transformation in the footsteps of Jesus. We are summoned to accept a new meaning of power and greatness. We are called to an ever-expanding mandate of service to all. We are beckoned to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus in both prayer and service. Jesus’ Kingdom is a journey of love.

MK 13:24-32

Dear Friends. As we come to the conclusion of each Church year we have a message about the end of the world. 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 so we need to keep vigil. All other speculation 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, there is another dimension to today’s Gospel message that fits very well with 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 the like. 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.

One of the most powerful events of this kind for me was a deeply traumatic experience of my sister, Mary. She found herself the mother of six children in less than the span of eight 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 were 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 all 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 devastated. 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!

Mark 12:41-44

Dear Friends, 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 would go to his family. The widow was, in fact, kept from returning to her family if anything was owed on her dowry. In some cases, the widow was sold into slavery to make payment on the debt of the dowry.

So for Jesus to point to the widow was a very specific and profound choice. The contrast to the rich donors 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. 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 widow understood that as she understood the total loving control of a gracious God. The poor 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 dependence on God!

Mk 12:28-34

Dear Friends, In his response to the Scribe’s question, Jesus begins with the phrase, “Hear O Israel!” (Mk 12:29) With these words Jesus places his response within the biblical tradition. These three words enlighten 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 taken the initiative of divine love. God loves us first. The second consequence of Jesus’ words is the invitation to listen. Listening is the surest way into the mystery of God’s love.

The first part of Jesus’ response about the love of God was very familiar phrasing. It was just as well-known 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 our 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 include our neighbor. In this way, we are brought into a community rooted in this divine love. Here the love is flowing from God to us and to our neighbor and back to God.

This brings us 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 limits to God’s love, no fences or labels of exclusion. In Jesus, we listen to God and hear the cry of the poor and marginalized along with the forgotten who are isolated in ways only the broken human heart can develop. In Jesus on the cross, God’s word lays before us a challenge to put everything and everyone in second place so we “let us love God with all our heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength… but we must also love our neighbor as ourselves.” (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 open and receptive. Being open to life gets us in touch with Jesus. We will confront 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.

MARK 10: 46-52

Dear Friends, the Bartimaeus story seems like a simple miracle story but it is much more than that. It is the story of what is a true disciple. For two and half chapters, Mark has Jesus challenging the disciples to realize his faithful following of the Father’s will is the fate that awaits him on the road to Jerusalem.

This will lead to the Cross and the Resurrection.

The disciples just do not get it. They are confused, intimidated and fearful. Three times Jesus announces his fate to be a suffering servant Messiah. Each time the disciples responded in a way that shows their ignorance and confusion.

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 so he continued to cry out until he received the call from Jesus.

Jesus has the same question for him that he had for James and John, “What do you want me to do for you?” (Mk 10: 51) Unlike the shameless ambition of the two brothers, the blind beggar seeks the light from Jesus. This is a symbol of the message of wisdom and truth that Jesus has been trying to teach the disciples.

Thirdly, when Jesus called, Bartimaeus cast away his cloak. This is a very powerful and profound gesture. 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, Bartimeaus, ”threw aside his cloak, sprang up and came to Jesus.” (Mk 10:50)

The first part of his 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)

The disciples will only move with 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)

David Scott Blanchard O. Carm.

"Charity sees the need, not the cause"

Mk 10:35-45

Dear Friends, Today we have 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 shocking state of ignorance. This leads to Jesus sharing a truly enlightening element of his gospel message.

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.

Today’s passage 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.

It is difficult to grasp the hard-headed and blinding ambition expressed by John and James. It is totally contrary to Jesus’ teachings. The brothers’ mentality was shared by the other ten. It was surely a case of creating an image of God out of the passion and hunger of personal ambition.

Considering all the time and investment of Jesus in the disciples, Jesus’ patience with James and John is truly beyond spectacular. That same amazing patience is also our gift. 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 our happiness.

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 episode, 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 call to share with Jesus’ saving death is accepting all of our brothers and sisters with an inclusivity that is ever-expanding. Finally, today we are called to a life of service, especially in our leadership. This threefold program is the heart of the gospel where the first are last, 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 meaning only in service.

Jesus’ statement in Mk 10:45 is one of the most propound in all of the Scriptures. “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

MARK 10:17-30

Dear Friends, right after my ordination, my best friend brought me a big problem. He was sure I had the answer after all the years of study in the seminary. His sister had left the Church to join an Evangelical group. It broke his heart. He was convinced I could bring her back to the Church. I failed and for years he never let me forget it.

One of the main reasons I failed is that the theology that I had studied in the pre-Vatican II days gave little emphasis to Scripture and to a personal relationship to Jesus. This was her main attraction to the Evevagelicals.

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 first before all the 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 caught up in his riches that Jesus asked him to put aside. “
At that statement he went away sad, for he had many possessions.” (Mk 10:22)

What were his possessions? 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, no medicine. Probably he could not read or write, and no TV, movies or newspaper not to mention a cell phone. You can continue the list. 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.

Mk 10: 2-16

Dear Friends, 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 only concern of the leaders was to draw Jesus into some problematic public statement.

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

Jesus’ teaching was truly dealing with the prohibition of divorce. However, the substance of his message 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. The 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. Woman is transformed from society’s vision as 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.

The Church today needs to take the total message of Jesus and apply it with his characteristic compassion and sensitivity to the pastoral scene in modern society. 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, Jesus reprimands the disciples for their auction. This time it is the rejection of the children. Again, we are dealing with the issue of equality. 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. One does not earn the love of God. Children are a model of this.

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

Dear Friends, Today’s Gospel, as usual, seems like a simple lesson that is teaching us 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’ reactions that help us grasp the multilayered meaning of the message of Jesus. First and foremost, John misses the genuine reality of the kingdom that was taking place. The person was being liberated from the demonic powers. This is 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. Their only concern was protecting their vested interests. Secondly, John is more absorbed in maintaining privilege and power exemplified in his statement “one of us” to the one attacking the enemy of the kingdom. (Mk 9:38) Thirdly, John is drawn inward to safeguard the group’s interests to the neglect of celebrating and exercising the mission of the kingdom. The Church has suffered from this arrogance and institutional self-interest throughout its history.

In the second part, 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.” These are the multitude still in the early stages of development in their faith. The prophetic hyperbole of Jesus is a demand 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. 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.

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.

When I was eleven, my first nephew was born. In the next several years many more nieces and nephews followed. Soon I discovered that I really enjoyed playing with the children especially from the ages of three to five. I used to tell my sisters and sisters-in-law that I did not think that the children were human till they were three. I definitely was not into babies. Over the years, I have improved but not all that much in my view of babies.

On the other end of the spectrum, I need to really push myself to visit the sick when they do not recognize anybody.

In both situations, the families are inspiring in their love and service to these helpless human beings.

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.

At the time of 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)

In this statement and loving embrace, Jesus is teaching us that there are no “nobodies” in God’s eyes. We need to see that all humanity, in all its incredible different expressions, is an image of God. Therefore, if we wish to be a leader, we need to celebrate this divine manifestation in all by a service that makes us a servants 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. Our call is to a life of service and love for all.

Mk 8:27-35

Dear Friends, this passage today is the centerpiece of Mark’s Gospel. All that preceded it leads up 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.

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. He further deepened their confusion when he talked of his 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.

The central issue was the difference in understanding of the role of the Messiah. Jesus understood the mystery that there is true life only in giving. For the disciples the goal of life was to be found in getting.

As Peter stated, 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.

Peter’s rebuke was based on the real issue for the disciples and for us. We, like Peter, want to make Christ in our image. We are looking for a more comfortable version. Peter and the disciples had a plan for Christ: 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 is only truly possible by self-giving not self-indulgence. We must learn to center on God rather than to center all on ourselves. This is what he 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.

Mark 7:31-37

Dear Friends, in the time of Jesus, the people had a much more extensive conviction about the devil than is the case in our day. They viewed the basic conflict of good and evil as a struggle between God and the power of darkness residing in the demons. Sickness, political domination and the endless challenges of nature and climate were all seen as expressions of demonic control over human freedom. The Messiah was seen as one who would finally terminate this never-ending struggle. He would bring back the original freedom of the Garden of Eden.

All of Jesus’ actions were a movement to toward human freedom from this deeply entrenched control of the demon. Today’s healing of the deaf mute would have been seen as an exorcism that set the victim free of the demonic bondage.

The man’s condition had left him in severe isolation. It is extremely difficult for us to imagine the destructive consequence of being unable to hear and unable to speak.

Jesus’ action of healing is clearly part of the mission to proclaim the good new of the kingdom of God. (Mk 1:14-15) Jesus performs this miracle in a territory of Gentile dominance. This was another way he used to expand the horizons of his mission well beyond the limited vision of his followers. He was sowing the seeds of the shattering reality that salvation was for all people not just the Jewish nation. The church Jesus calls us to will always strive to break the restrictions of culture and convention.

Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Dear Friends. As is often the case, Jesus uses the hostile complaint of the Pharisees and Scribes to summon us into a deeper dimension his message. In today’s Gospel, Jesus takes on the purity laws. Over time, these good practices had lost their way. They eventually became a source of division and elitism, hypocrisy and isolation. It had become almost a full time job to respond to the endless details of the purity laws. The working poor found this an impossible burden. As an example, the shepherds were considered totally out of the realm of respectability because of their failure to ritualize the overwhelming demands of the purity laws.

In the beginning, the purity laws were a guide to true integrity. They were a means to express the true holiness of the Chosen People in the midst of their pagan neighbors. However, their perversion over time had evolved into an expression of power and control as well as a source of income for the élite.

Jesus cut right to center of the issue in the quote for Isaiah.

This people honors me with their lips,
But their hearts are far from me;
In vain do they worship me
teaching as doctrines human precepts.

The fundamental issue is the heart when it comes to one’s relationship to God. This core presence within the person nurtures all true and authentic morality. Any use of the law that is not rooted in the true faithfulness of the heart soon becomes a caricature, reducing commitment to lip service and empty reverence. Hypocrisy is never far behind.

Jesus’ constant message is about faithfulness that is the product of a pure heart. For the heart to attain this sense of holiness and purity it needs the word of God. This holy presence will guide and inspire in all circumstances. Likewise, it involves a growing awareness of the potential for evil within each person. This self-knowledge is a critical component of the gospel experience. Listing twelve common expressions of evil, Jesus then says: “All these evils come from within and they defile.” (Mk 7:23)

Jesus is constantly inviting the crowds and the disciples and us to move beyond the letter of the law to the deeper domain of the spirit, the home arena of the heart. This is a call to see in Jesus the one who truly is the absolute revelation of the God of love and mercy. He is the fullness of truth and freedom. In our effort to walk with Jesus, which is the true Christian life, we will find the true law which is the fount of all true morality. This is the gift of Jesus’ new law, love of God and love of our neighbor.

Till the end, the Church will have to deal with awesome pull of hypocrisy and the temptation to weaponize the laws for the control and privilege of the few. Till the end, all of us as individuals, will struggle with a fragmented heart that distorts Jesus’ teachings for our personal advantage. Till the end, we will need to pray to Jesus for mercy and the elusive gift of purity of heart. This will help us hear and respond to the cry of the poor in our daily life.

John 6:60-69

Dear Friends, this is the fifth selection from the Bread of Life discourse. In these last five weeks we have spent almost as much time as we did in Lent. The heart of the lesson is that Jesus is the revelation of God, a saving God who calls us to eternal life through Jesus. “It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” (Jn 6:63)

Today’s final words of Jesus are about the need for faith, a faith open to the Spirit’s call. Underlying and permeating this entire examination of the Bread of Life is the Incarnation, “the Word made flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth.” (Jn 1:14). Jesus will return to the Father in the self-sacrificing event of his death and resurrection. To accept the wonder of this invitation into love, we need the faith to let the Spirit fill our hearts. We have before us the answer to the deepest longing in our hearts. We have before us the Bread to satisfy our deepest hunger. We have before us the call to total freedom and everlasting life. We need to join Peter’s marvelous declaration, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.” (Jn 6:69)

Jesus’ words opened the eyes and hearts of the disciples. In proclaiming himself as the Bread of Life sent down from heaven, Jesus touched their deepest longings. They still remained confused and humble. They still longed for the clarity and the security of a better understanding. Yet they had come to the conviction and commitment to accept Jesus as “the Holy One of God.” (Jn 6:69) Their faith had set them free to begin the pilgrimage to God by embracing Jesus as the Bread of Life.

This same challenge of accepting Jesus is ever-present in our life. It is the most basic choice that faces us as human beings. We must answer Jesus’ question which is similar to his statement in Mark, “Who do you say I am?” Mk 8:27) We need to accept God on God’s terms no matter how shocking: “whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day.” (Jn 6:54) We need to let go of the deceitful world our common sense builds to blind us in our security and comfort. We need to embrace faith in the great and incomprehensible mystery of Jesus as the Bread of Life. He has taken flesh in our world so we may be transformed in the Spirit. Like him, our faith and commitment to walk in his footsteps will carry us through death to eternal life.

John 6:51-58

Dear Friends, This is the fourth of the five Sundays on John’s chapter six discourse on the Bread of Life. Up to this point, the message has been Jesus as the Bread of Life revealing the loving plan and the call of the Father. We have experienced Jesus as the wisdom of God. Now there is a subtle switch to incorporate Jesus as the Bread of Life that nourishes us in the Eucharist.

It is very helpful to keep in mind a scenic background of the rich biblical themes of the Passover and Exodus as we ponder the words of Jesus in today’s Gospel passage.

The first thing we must remember is that Jesus is not speaking in the language of modern science, that of chemistry, biology or medicine. He was speaking the language of the heart as it related to the ample scriptural tradition of the Jewish people. He was talking about his human person as the presence of God’s message. Both the New Passover of his death and resurrection and the New Manna of the Eucharist are a message that divided the crowd. He was presenting himself as the gift of God far beyond the generosity of God’s manna in the desert. He is now the bread that offers ever-lasting life. He is the new Pascal Lamb that will lead to deliverance from all elements of slavery. He will set us free from all that keeps us from loving God with our whole heart and anything that hinders true human development.

What Jesus is saying in the gift of his flesh and blood is that we are called not only to new life but eternal life. Like the story of the vine and branches, Jesus is using the plea to be one with him in his body and blood. This will make his life and our life one in a mission of love. This life-giving participation in the Eucharist, the New Passover and the New Manna, helps all who partake of the body and blood of Eucharist to share Jesus’ sacrificial and saving love for the world. Through sharing communion with Jesus, we participate in his love for all people.

Those in the crowd who rejected the message understood clearly. They were not ready to leave their old tradition. Jesus was proclaiming a new day. Jesus was transparent. God is now speaking through him. We have to unite with Jesus to truly hear the word of God and to embrace it in our life by sharing in the love of all. This is possible by the gift of the Eucharist where Jesus gives us the Bread of Life to walk in the way of love.

John 6:41-51

Dear Friends, today’s Gospel continues the discourse on the Bread of Life in chapter six of John’s Gospel. Jesus’ message emphasizes his identity as the Bread of Life. It is only through him, as the Bread of Life, that we will get to know the Father. Likewise, it is only through him as the Bread of Life that we will be fed by the Father on the journey to eternal life. Next week full attention will be on this second element of this discourse, Jesus as the Bread of Life in the Eucharist.

John’s Gospel is always inviting us to plunge into a deeper level. One way the author draws us into the spiritual depths is his message on the world. He sets up a contrast between God’s word and the way of the world. We are told we must be “in” the world but not “of” the world. This happens when we bring the message of Jesus as the life-force in the ordinary flow of our daily experience. Our relationships and responsibilities are always the beginning point to encounter God in our daily life. We are called to live in such a way that the truth of Christ shines forth from us. We witness to a radically different set of values than is the norm for our society. Our witness is a new light in a world locked in darkness. It challenges others to consider the mystery of life as seen and understood in light of God’s word, Jesus.

The crowd’s rejection of Jesus in today’s Gospel has to do with the Incarnation. The people’s limited image of God did not allow them to see that God could use one like us to reveal his truth. With many echoes of the Exodus story, the conflict shows Jesus testing the limits of their cramped imagination. In their limited worldview, Jesus, as the Bread come down from heaven, just does not connect as a possibility. They do not want to move much beyond the surface of their world and culture. They truly appreciated God’s generosity in the manna of their ancestors. Yet, they failed to see how much greater was God’s gift of the Bread of Life in Jesus right before their eyes.

The truth is that through the humanity of Christ we are called into his divinity. This truth becomes available not by turning away from the traditional truths of the religious tradition of the Chosen People. Jesus points out our calling is to enter more deeply into the tradition by accepting Jesus as the Bread that came down from heaven. Jesus completes and replaces that initial revelation. Jesus is God’s offer of life more abundant than we could imagine. The manna in the desert is only the slimmest glimmer of God’s ultimate gift in Jesus as the Bread of Life.

Jesus is telling the people, and us, that the only way we can understand him is at a deeper level. That deeper level is available to us when we open ourselves to the most intense hungers in our hearts. These are hungers only God can satisfy. St. Augustine spoke eloquently of this God-hunger: “You have made us for yourself O Lord and our heart is restless until we rest in you.”

John 6:24-35

Dear Friends,The folks in today’s Gospel were happy with the free meal of fish and the bread but they had their eyes on much bigger stakes. They were hoping Jesus would be the answer to the centuries old longing for a return to glory for Israel. They had visions of a new day of prosperity and wealth. The hunger in their hearts went deeper than the hunger in their stomachs. They hoped that Jesus was the one to finally fulfill the promises that permeated the 2000-year history of the Jewish nation.

Jesus, in turn, offers them a very different alternative. Jesus was well able to see beyond their desires for power and glory, wealth and privilege. Jesus knew well that there was a great difference between what the crowd wanted and what they truly needed.

In the dialogue, they call Jesus “rabbi” but they do not want to be taught. They want a different bread than Jesus was offering. They bought into the bread that would perish and not the bread that would bring eternal life.

Our faith journey struggles with these same miscalculations. We all have a plan for God. We are clear on what we want God to do. We are clear on what we need to be happy. Most often we catch ourselves trying to fit God into our plans and projects.

A great deal of our faith journey is struggling with a world-view that shows ever so clearly that God does not see things as plainly as they are in our mind and heart. It comes back to that fundamental issue: How to understand the difference between what we want, most frequently wrapped up in goodness and virtue and righteousness, and what we need.

In today’s Gospel passage, Jesus is straight forward: “Do not work for food that perishes but for food that endures for eternal life which the Son of Man will give you…This is the work of God that you believe in the one he sent.” (Jn 6:27-29) The people were looking to the past in the manna experience of their ancestors and to the future with dreams of wealth and power. Jesus challenged them to live in the present by accepting him as the true Bread of Life.

Jn 6:1-15

Dear Friends, Right in the middle of our journey with Mark, we take time to consider selections of John’s Discourse on the Bread of Life in his marvelous chapter six. These readings will be our Gospel text for the next five Sundays.

There are two major themes in this remarkable teaching of John. The chapter has two interwoven themes on Jesus: the life-giving revelation from heaven and the life-giving bread from heaven. It centers on Jesus as Word and Sacrament. Only verses 51-58 are explicitly about the Eucharist though implications of the Eucharist appear often in this special chapter.

Today’s story of the loaves and fishes appears six times in the four Gospels. It has its roots in the Old Testament and it points toward the Eucharist. It is a powerful display of the theme of divine hospitality of the kingdom. In John’s version, Jesus himself feeds the people. The fourth Gospel stresses, in this way, that the people receive the nourishment directly and abundantly from Jesus.

The obvious connection of the feeding of the multitude is the manna in the desert. Likewise, right after the similar dessert feast in John, we have Jesus walking on the water. This is a shadow of the Israelites walking through the Reed Sea on the road to freedom.