Praying Alone Together: Cycle-b

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Trinity Sunday

Jn 16: 12-15

Dear Friends,

Jesus said, “I have much more to tell you but you cannot bear it.” (Jn 16: 12).

Teresa of Avila, the great Carmelite Saint and Doctor of the Church, was one who learned how to bear the truth of God. Through a long process of purifying mystical experiences and a dedicated life of prayer and service, she learned much of Jesus’ hidden message about the mystery of God that we call the Trinity.

John 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.

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.

Mk 12: 28-34

Dear Friends,

Today’s exchange between Jesus and the surprisingly friendly scribe holds a true treasure for us. It is all about love.

A critical point as we encounter this dialogue is the importance of listening. God has spoken. Our absolutely essential response is to listen. Thomas Merton, the great spiritual teacher of the last century offers us a guide to this necessary task of listening. He defines prayer as “Yearning for the presence of God, knowledge of God’s will and understanding of God’s word, and the capacity to hear and obey.”

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 personal 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.

Mk 10: 35-45

Dear Friends,

Today’s Gospel selection is part of a major section of Mark’s Gospel. In this long passage (Mk 8:22 10:52), Mark challenges us to accept Jesus on his terms and to embrace the consequences of this choice in our lives as disciples. The evangelist shows Jesus as one who will save us by sacrifice and service wrapped in love not power and prestige enclosed in wealth and comfort. This is a shattering of the values of our daily world.

Right before James and John’s petition for power and privilege, for the third time, Jesus had told the disciples he would be rejected, suffer and die on the cross only to rise on the third day. Each of the three pronouncements is followed by two items. The first is an example that shows the disciples are in complete denial of the message. The second is a deeper lesson in which Jesus reveals true discipleship. These are the three instructions of Jesus in this process:

Be open to whatever God asks of us;
Accept even the most insignificant members of the community as equals;
Judge our entire lives as directed in the footsteps of Jesus.

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 return to continually to 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)

Mk. 10:2-16

Dear Friends,

This is a very complex Gospel selection. The conclusion of both sections was a radical and upsetting lesson of Jesus. It was one that even the early Christians had trouble accepting. It was much deeper than the issue of divorce. It shattered a deeply cherished truth of the day: women and children are property. Jesus is making the point that they are human beings made in the image of God.

The teaching of Moses on divorce was clear. It was permitted. The legal question, at the time of Jesus, was for what reason.

The Pharisees were trying to trap Jesus by showing him against the Law of Moses. Acknowledging that Mosses conceded divorce due the hardness of heart, Jesus appeals to the original plan of God in Genesis, “the two of them become one body.” (Gen 2:24)

Mk 9: 37-42

Dear Friends,

Today’s Gospel has two main points: the good that occurs outside the community and the evil takes place inside the community. As always, we are confronted with an invitation into the Mystery. This offer calls us to expand our heart and our world-view to embrace God’s presence in everyone.

It is interesting that when john is telling Jesus of the problem of the “outsider”, he says, “We tried to prevent him because he does not follow us.” (Mk 9:38) In the preceding and following chapters of Mark there is ample evidence that the “us”, who are the disciples, do not yet understand what Jesus is teaching. This holds true for much of us in the Church today.

Vatican II captured Jesus’ teaching for today when it proclaimed the universality of grace. This means that God is always active in reaching out and calling every single human being into the life of grace, the Kingdom of God.

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 wit 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.

Mk 8: 27-35

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)

Mk 7: 31-37

Dear Friends,

I like to point out that there were thousands of deaf mutes in the time of Jesus. Only a few were cured. This is because Jesus was not a miracle maker or wonder worker. All of his healings and signs were an invitation into a deeper reality. They were an opening to Jesus’ main message, the Kingdom of God. All of Jesus’ healings are an invitation into a new world. Isaiah speaks of this new day in the first reading, “Here is your God. …he comes to save you. Then will the eyes of the blind be opened, the ears of the deaf be cleared; then will the lame leap like a stag, then the tongue of the dumb will sing.” (Is 35: 5)

Jesus was not into being a performer of wonders or eliminating doctors. He was revealing God’s loving presence as the gracious foundation of all reality. He was calling us through these special healings into an awareness of a new day when all will be transformed, a day of no more evil, no more sickness, no more hatred and violence, no more death.

We are called to begin our entry into the new world of God’s Kingdom by accepting Jesus’ call to “Repent and believe in the Gospel.” (Mk 1: 15)
When a person is deaf and dumb, they are isolated into a confusing and bewildering world often dominated by fear and ignorance. The deaf mutes need very special attention to enter into an accepting and loving community.

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

Dear Friends,

Teresa of Avila has a great insight on today’s Gospel. In her classic on the spiritual life, The Interior Castle, she points out that progress brings problems. Eventually, our egoism goes underground to protect its turf. In surfaces disguised as virtue. This leads to the curse of self-righteousness and hypocrisy. This is a grave temptation for all religious persons and institutions. In the history of religion, good practices and traditions often evolve into corrupt uses of the law and tradition for personal gain and comfort.

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)

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 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 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 gift 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.

Jn 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 as the revelation of God. Next week full attention will be on the second element of this discourse, the Eucharist.

John’s Gospel is always inviting us go to 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 sparkles 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.

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. They had a hunger in their hearts that 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 more than the “bread” that Jesus was offering. They bought into the bread that would perish and not the bread that would bring eternal life.

So much of our faith journey struggles with these same issues. 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. So often we catch ourselves trying to fit God into our plans and projects.

Mark 6: 30-34

Dear Friends,

Jesus has a plan to take the disciples away for rest and prayer. He is sidetracked by the large gathering of people. Mark says, “His heart was moved with pity for them.” (Mk 6: 34)

This Greek word that is here translated, pity, is used two other times in the Gospels. In these two cases, it is translated, “compassion”. It means very strong feelings of deep concern. The Good Samaritan experienced these feelings as he came upon the victim on the roadside. (Lk 10: 33) The father of the Prodigal Son is described with the same feelings. “While he was still a long way off, his father caught sight of him, and was filled with compassion. (Lk 15: 20)

As Jesus is filled with compassion, his first response is to teach the people. Jesus’ basic message to the people is of a God of love. He heals some and shortly he will feed the hungry crowd but his fundamental gift is an invitation into a love that will go far beyond the necessary healing and the urgent hunger of the large crowd that is just a symbol for all humanity.

Mark 6: 7-13

Dear Friends,

In the Gospel of Mark, the portrayal of the disciples is fascinating and challenging. In the beginning, they are individuals who respond quite generously. They leave all and follow Jesus. Today’s selection from chapter six is the highlight of their positive response and successful ministry.

For the rest of the Gospel of Mark, we are given a rather confusing and bewildering picture of these men. Mark presents them as persons who just do not get it. Jesus is at pains to invite them into the beauty and wonder of the Mystery.

Right after the first miracle of the loaves and fishes followed by Jesus walking on the water, Mark says “They had not understood the incident of the loaves. On the contrary, their hearts were hardened.” (Mk 6: 52)