The main part of next Sunday’s Gospel passage takes the form of a controversy story in which Pharisees, with hostile intent, seek to bring Jesus into conflict with what they regarded as the clear teaching of Scripture.  The Pharisees pose their question to Jesus: “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife”?  When Jesus asks them what Moses said on this matter, they refer to the book of Deuteronomy.  Thus, Jesus unveils their hostility, since it becomes obvious that they already knew the “biblical answer” to the question. 

Jesus’ radical teaching on marriage and divorce must be understood in the context of first century Palestine (read John Pilch’s reflection included in the Liturgy of the Word linked below).  The world of Jesus was very much a patriarchal society.  It is important to recognize that in this debate patriarchal family life and structures were taken for granted; there was no/is no concern for what we today call psychological (in)compatibility, and that marriage is not yet being understood in sacramental terms.  Thus, Jesus’ teaching on this subject must be placed in the larger context of his proclamation about God’s kingdom and the radical demands it may make on people.  It is equally important to remember that the Church that follows Jesus’s prophetic mandate must also incorporate his pastoral sensitivity.

It is fitting that a passage about children follows one about marriage since women and children were especially vulnerable in this society.  The scene described stands out for its beauty and simplicity.  In one of the few passages about children in the New Testament, the focus here is on the dependence of children and the fact that they necessarily receive everything as a gift.  It shows Jesus’ positive concern for children.  He takes them seriously as human persons, calls attention to the wisdom they display in regarding everything as a gift, and seals his genuine affection for them with an embrace and a blessing.

For everyone, the kingdom of God is pure gift on God’s part, and it must be received as such.

Receive the gift of his word!

Click here for the Liturgy of the Word:

https://www.flipsnack.com/sjvhouston/liturgy-of-the-word-27th-sunday-ot-yr-b/full-view.html

Adult Formation

We have heard in the recent Sunday Gospel passages that Jesus has turned his attention to his circle of disciples and has presented them with a most direct and concise account of the fate that awaits him in Jerusalem. 

The disciples not only fail to understand the Passion prediction but even fear to pursue the topic.  Then they show the depth of their misunderstanding by arguing about who is the greatest among them (last week’s Gospel) and by trying to restrict the power of Jesus to their own narrow circle (this Sunday’s Gospel).

The disciples’ misunderstanding provides the occasion for Jesus to define true greatness as the humble service of others, to find God in the most apparently insignificant people (the little child), and to remind them that they cannot confine Jesus’ power to their own group.

The episode of the exorcist (“someone driving out demons”) in Sunday’s opening verses is remarkable for the attitude of tolerance it counsels toward those who are outside the circle of Jesus.  It is notable that this advice appears shortly after the account of the disciples’ failure to cast out a demon in 9:14-29.  Read in the context of a gospel written for a small Christian community facing persecution, this instruction would have encouraged a tolerant attitude toward adherents of other religious groups while reinforcing belief in the absolute centrality of the “name of Christ” in the economy of salvation.

Jesus promises a reward to those who show kindness toward his followers and challenges his own disciples to even greater perfection by avoiding whatever is contrary to life in God’s kingdom.

The disciples’ misunderstanding lead us to a greater understanding of both discipleship and Christology.

Follow the lead.

https://www.flipsnack.com/sjvhouston/liturgy-of-the-word-26th-sunday-ordinary-time-yr-b/full-view.html

Adult Formation

The opening passage of Sunday’s Gospel marks another milestone.

Jesus had now left the north country and was taking the first steps towards Jerusalem and the Cross which awaited him there. He did not want the crowds around him.  He knew he needed time alone with his apostles.  He needed to write his message on their hearts; anyone can leave behind a series of propositions; Jesus knew that was not enough. 

He tells them again about his impending arrest, execution, and resurrection, however this time the tragedy of his suffering and death is even more poignant.  If you compare it to what we heard a few weeks ago, when he foretold his death in Mark 8:31 and 9:12, we see that he now adds one phrase, “The Son of Man is to be handed over to men…” There was a traitor in the little band and he knew it.

Nonetheless, the disciples were still far from understanding the real meaning of Jesus’ messiahship.  Repeatedly he had told them what awaited him in Jerusalem, and yet, they were still thinking of his Kingdom in earthly terms and of themselves as his chief ministers of state.  Yet, in their heart of hearts, they must have known they were wrong for when Jesus asks them what they are arguing about, they are silent.

It is strange how a thing takes its proper place and acquires its true character when it is set before the eyes of Jesus.

If we took everything and set it in the sight of Jesus it would make all the difference in the world.  If, of everything we did, we asked, “Could I go on doing this if Jesus was watching me?”; if, of everything we said, we asked, “Could I go on talking like this if Jesus was listening to me?” there would be many things which we would be saved from doing and saying.   And, the fact of Christian belief is, there is no “if” about it!

He watches you read and ponder his word!

https://www.flipsnack.com/sjvhouston/liturgy-of-the-word-25th-sunday-ot-yr-b/full-view.html

Sunday’s Gospel takes us to a town with an amazing history. (Be sure to read the article I’ve included in the Liturgy of the Word.) It was called Balinas for it had once been a great center of worship of the pagan god, Baal. To this day it is called Banias, which is a form of Panias. It is so called because up on the hillside there was a cavern which was said to be the birthplace of the Greek god, Pan, the god of nature. From a cave in the hillside gushed forth a stream which was held to be the source of the River Jordan. Farther up on the hillside rose a gleaming temple of white marble which Philip had built to the godhead of Caesar, the Roman Emperor, the ruler of the world, who was regarded as a god.

It is an amazing thing that it was here of all places that Peter saw in a Galilean carpenter, the Son of God.

Peter’s confession of faith comes in the middle of Mark’s Gospel and is the Gospel’s peak moment. No sooner had Peter made this profession than Jesus told him he must tell no one of it. Why? Because, first and foremost, Jesus had to teach Peter and the others what messiahship really meant.

When Jesus connected messiahship with suffering and death, he was making statements that were to the disciples both incredible and incomprehensible. All their lives they had thought of the Messiah in terms of irresistible conquest, and now they were being presented with an idea which staggered them. That is why Peter so violently protested.

Why did Jesus so sternly rebuke Peter? Because at that moment Jesus was refighting the battle temptation of the wilderness. This was the devil tempting him again to fall down and worship him, to take his way instead of God’s way.

No one of us could ever say that we were induced to follow Jesus by false pretenses. He never tried to persuade us by the offer of an easy way.

Jesus left no middle ground. There is no room for fair-weather disciples in the kingdom of God. Those following Jesus merely for free meals and quick access to healing need not waste their time or His. The path to glory, he tells the crowd and disciples, is to “take up one’s cross.”

Such an exacting message had a way of thinning the crowd.

Liturgy of the Word | 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Yvonne Gill
Director of Adult Formation

 

Sunday’s Gospel passage begins by describing what is on the face of it an amazing journey. Jesus was going from Tyre to the territory around the Sea of Galilee. He was going from Tyre in the north to Galilee in the south; and he started by going to Sidon. That is to say, he started going due south by going due north! It may well be that this long journey is the calm before the storm; an extended communion with the disciples before the final tempest breaks.

When Jesus does arrive in the region of Galilee, he comes into the district of the Decapolis – Gentile territory – and there the people bring to him a man who is deaf and has an impediment in his speech.

The story is a prime example of the vivid quality of Mark’s narrative style. The ailment of the man is described in detail, as are Jesus’ initial contacts with him: He takes him aside, puts his fingers in his ears, spits, and touches his tongue. Prior to the healing command, Jesus “groans.” Then he utters a “foreign” word (ephphatha) and the healing occurs. Such gestures were familiar to the Gentile environment thus Jesus appears similar to pagan healers but superior to them.

The reaction to the miracle is strongly dramatized. The more Jesus commands silence about it, the more the people speak out (proclaim), and those who hear of it are “exceedingly astonished”. The narrative conveys the tension surrounding the “Messianic Secret” in Mark’s Gospel.

The people declared that Jesus had done all things well. That is none other than the verdict of God upon his own creation in the very beginning (Genesis). When Jesus brings healing to bodies and salvation to souls, he has begun the work of creation all over again. In the beginning everything had been good and now Jesus is bringing back the beauty of God to the world which man’s sin had rendered ugly.

Jesus continues his mission of announcing and enacting the Good News he began in the first chapter of Mark’s Gospel. With today’s proclamation from chapter 7, we see that his message and the power that he manifests will be heard and experienced by others than those originally called to be his disciples and will even extend beyond the confines of Jewish territory.

As disciples of Jesus, we too are to “be opened”: our ears open to hear the Good News and our tongues loosened to proclaim it – far and wide.

Ephphatha!

Liturgy of the Word | 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Yvonne Gill
Director of Adult Formation

In the Gospel passage we will hear proclaimed this weekend it is the actions of the disciples rather than those of Jesus himself that evoke opposition (a lesson for us).

A dispute arises between Jesus and the Pharisees and Scribes from Jerusalem over precisely how “loaves” are to be eaten.  The plural “loaves” links this dispute with the previous sequence of “bread narratives.” 

The dispute escalates into a larger one over food laws and over the relation of external and internal purity.  Jesus does not so much abrogate ritual laws as criticize their potential misuse.  The initial question about eating with unwashed hands is reframed into a debate about tradition.

It is important to note that around the time of this gospel’s composition, the destruction of the Temple had occurred or was imminent.  During this period Judaism was regrouping under the leadership of the Pharisees and was in a process of self-definition and revision.  Early Christian groups, in reaction to Jewish self-definition, often defined themselves over against Jewish groups.  Therefore, Mark 7:1-23 should be seen in the context of a Christian community formulating their view toward Jewish law and custom and in function of their missionary outreach to gentiles.

It is within this context that we hear Jesus arguing with the legal experts (Scribes) about different aspects of the traditional law.  He has shored up the irrelevance of the elaborate handwashing.  He has shown how rigid adherence to tradition can devolve into disobedience to the laws of God.  And then Jesus says something more startling.  He declares that nothing that goes into a person can possibly defile him.  In effect Jesus was saying that things cannot be either unclean or clean in any real religious sense of the term only persons can be really defiled; and what defiles a person is his own actions, which are the product of his own heart.  The Jews had a wide system of things that were clean and unclean and with one sweeping pronouncement Jesus declared that uncleanness has nothing to do with what a person takes into their body but everything to do with what comes out of their heart.

The Second Vatican Council called Scripture the “soul of theology”.  Sunday’s Gospel reminds us that there must be a constant and faithful interplay between Scripture and tradition lest we end up “nullifying the word of God.” (7:13)

Engage in some soul searching!

Liturgy of the Word | 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Yvonne Gill
Director of Adult Formation

This Sunday’s pericope concludes the Bread of Life Discourse. In it we will hear that Jesus, once again, encounters murmuring in response to his claim that he is The Bread Come Down From Heaven; the Bread of Life. However, this time it is his own disciples who are murmuring, “This saying is hard; who can accept it?”

At the heart of all religion there must be mystery, for the simple reason that at that heart there is God. In the nature of things man cannot ever fully understand God.

Jesus was well aware that some would not only reject his claim but would reject it with hostility.

When he was in Jerusalem many saw his miracles and believed in his name; many were baptized. In Samaria and Galilee great things happened and crowds flocked after him.

But the tone of things changed.

There was defection. Some turned back and walked with Jesus no more. They saw he was headed toward a confrontation with authorities and they were getting out in time; they were fair-weather followers. Fundamentally, their point of view was that they had come to Jesus to get something from him but when it came to suffering for him, giving something to him, they quit.

We also hear of determination and conviction in this passage. It is John’s version of Peter’s great confession at Caesarea Philippi (see also Mark 8:27; Matthew 16:13; Luke 9:18). It was just such a situation as this, a moment of decision, that called out the loyalty in Peter’s heart. To him the simple fact was that there was no one else to go to. Jesus alone had the words of life.

Peter’s loyalty was based on a personal relationship with Jesus. There were, most likely, many things he did not understand and was just as bewildered and puzzled as anyone else but Peter had something else – a personal relationship with Jesus.

In the last analysis Christianity/discipleship is not a philosophy which we accept nor a theory to which we give our allegiance. It is a personal response to Jesus. It is the allegiance and the love which a person gives because his heart will not allow him to do anything else.

To whom shall we go?

To Him who has the words of eternal life. Ponder them!
Liturgy of the Word | 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time

Yvonne Gill
Director of Adult Formation

Sunday’s Solemnity, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, crowns the series of liturgical celebrations in which we are called to contemplate the role of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the history of salvation.

Indeed, the Immaculate Conception, the Annunciation, the Holy Mother of God, and the Assumption, are the fundamental, interconnected milestones with which the Church exalts and praises the glorious destiny of the Mother of God, but in which we can also read our history – and destiny.

The mystery of Mary’s conception recalls the first page of the human event, pointing out to us that in the divine plan of creation humanity was to have had the purity and beauty of the Virgin Immaculate. This plan, jeopardized but not destroyed by sin- through the Incarnation of the Son of God, proclaimed and brought into being in Mary – was recomposed and restored to the free acceptance, in faith and with trust, by the human being.

In Mary’s Assumption we contemplate what we ourselves were created to attain in the following of Christ and in obedience to his word at the end of our earthly journey.

The last stage of the Mary’s earthly pilgrimage invites us to look at the manner in which she journeyed on toward the goal of the glorious eternity.

And lastly, the Assumption reminds us that Mary’s life, like that of every Christian, is a journey of following – following Jesus – a journey that has a very precise destination, a future already marked out: the definitive victory over sin and death and full communion with God.

Our life on earth is a path that unfolds in the tension of the battle between the dragon and the woman (First Reading); between good and evil.

Mary’s “yes” was the gate through which God was able to enter into the world, to become man. Thus, Mary participates in a real and profound way in the mystery of the Incarnation, which is the mystery of our salvation.

The whole of life is an ascent; the whole of life is meditation. Meditate on God’s word to us!

Click here for Sunday’s Liturgy of the Word celebration, reflections, and more!

Yvonne Gill
Director of Adult Formation

The Gospel passage proclaimed in next Sunday’s liturgy continues the “Bread of Life Discourse” we began to hear two weeks ago.

Jesus, the bread of life, is essential for life.  In the story in the Book of Numbers the Israelites wandering in the desert refused to brave the dangers of the Promised Land after the report of the scouts and as a result they were condemned to wander in the wilderness until they died (Numbers 13-14).  Because they would not trust and believe the protective word of God they were forever shut out from the promised land.

To refuse to believe Jesus is to miss life in this world and in the world to come; to accept and believe him is to find real life in this world and glory in the world to come.

This Sunday’s Gospel passage from John opens with the Jews murmuring about Jesus and his claim about being “the bread from heaven”.  They said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of the carpenter, Joseph?”  They were judging things by human values and external standards.  Why – Jesus was only a carpenter’s son; they had seen him grow up in Nazareth!  They could not accept that one who was a mere tradesman could possibly be a special messenger from God.

The passage cautions us to be careful that we never neglect a message from God simply because we despise or do not care for the messenger.  God has many messengers and his greatest message came through a Galilean carpenter.

Read his text messages!

Click here for Sunday’s Liturgy of the Word celebration, reflections, and more!

Yvonne Gill
Director of Adult Formation

This Sunday we hear the first of the seven “I am” sayings recorded in the Gospel of John. In the Old Testament God revealed his name to Moses: “I AM WHO I AM”. “Say this to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you’”. (Exodus 3:14). Thus, in Judaism “I AM” is unquestionably understood as a name for God (Yhwh). Whenever Jesus made an “I AM” statement he was identifying himself as God. The seven “I AM” sayings are:

“I am the bread of life.” John 6:35
“I am the light of the world.” John 8:12
“I am the door.” 10:7,9
“I am the good shepherd.” John 10:11, 14
“I am the resurrection and the life.” John 11:25
“I am the way and the truth and the life.” John 14:6
“I am the true vine.” John 15:1

The Gospel of John shows us many instances of how Jesus, the Incarnated God, came to meet our many needs. In the last sentence of this Sunday’s Gospel passage Jesus reveals this by saying, “whoever comes to me will never hunger and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”

This brings to mind the well-known story of the Samaritan woman at the well also found in John’s Gospel (John 4). Jesus tells her: “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give will never thirst; the water that I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (4:13)

Only Jesus is the real “thirst-quencher.” Drink from the well of his word!

View/Download the Liturgy of the Word Celebration

Yvonne Gill
Director of Adult Formation

We are told in this Sunday’s Gospel that a large crowd was following Jesus because of the “signs” he had performed. We are also told that the Feast of Passover was near; this may explain why there would be such a large crowd on the roads at that time. It is likely the crowd was swelled by pilgrims on their way to the Passover celebration in Jerusalem.

Jesus could see they were hungry and tired and must be fed. Philip was the natural man to whom to turn, for he came from Bethsaida and would have local knowledge. Philip’s answer was despairing. But then Andrew appears on the scene with a young boy who has with him five barley loves and two little fish; the boy had not much.

Jesus tells the disciples to have the people recline. The “great deal of grass” noted recalls the Psalm from last week, (#23): “In verdant pastures he gives me rest.” Jesus then takes the loaves and fish and, acting as father of the family, gives thanks, and then distributes them. Again, Psalm 23 “…You spread the table before me..”

The people ate and were filled – more than filled – for we are told that the fragments were gathered and filled 12 baskets (recall the significance of the number).

The promise of Psalm 23 is fulfilled: “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.”

We never know what possibilities we are releasing when we bring someone to Jesus as Andrew did. The young boy had not much to offer but in what he had Jesus found the materials of a miracle. Jesus needs what we can bring him. If we would lay ourselves on the altar of his service, there is no telling what he could do with us and through us. Little is always much in the hand of Christ.

Give a little of your time to ponder his word! 

View the Liturgy of the Word | 17h Sunday in Ordinary Time

Yvonne Gill
Director of Adult Formation

The verse we hear in this Sunday’s Gospel concludes the story Mark began in 6:7-13 in which Jesus sent the Twelve out to minister, two by two. Their ministry saw amazing success; they accomplished through the Lord, what no mere human could apart from God.  When they return Jesus suggests that they go to a deserted place to take time out to rest and eat. 

However, by the time they arrive to the “deserted place” the ever-present multitude greeted them with a host of expectations.  From a horizontal, human viewpoint, the mass of people looked like a multitude of burdens.  No doubt a few disciples said, “Let’s keep sailing.”  But Jesus saw something different.  The Good Shepherd saw aimless, vulnerable sheep. 

Jesus used this incident to teach his Apostles – and us – something that would impact their understanding of ministry for the rest of their lives.  Explicit mention that they had no time to eat prepares for next Sunday’s narrative when, ironically, the disciples will not eat but will instead serve the hungry. 

However, before the feeding (next week’s Gospel) is the teaching.  We are told this week that Jesus began to teach the vast crowd many things.  As we know from every Mass, teaching and feeding are not in opposition.  We are called on to realize that the teaching of Jesus handed down to us in the Gospels is as important for life and sustenance as the bread in the wilderness was for the Exodus generation.  “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” (Mt 4:4)

And, as the Psalmist tells us: The Lord, our shepherd, spreads the table before us.  Be nourished at the table of his word! 

Click here for this Sunday’s Liturgy of the Word.

Yvonne Gill
Director of Adult Formation