Speak Lord: Of focus and simplicity

This coming Sunday, the 26th of Ordinary Time, we hear a passage from the Gospel of Mark which continues our hearing of Jesus’ prediction of his Passion, and a renewed teaching on the quality of life required of the disciple. On the Sunday just gone we were reminded of the disciple’s need to take up his cross. This week we are called to learn to be last and least, if we want to be first and best.

After leaving the mountain Jesus and his disciples made their way through Galilee; and he did not want anyone to know, because he was instructing his disciples; he was telling them, ‘The Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of men; they will put him to death; and three days after he has been put to death he will rise again.’ But they did not understand what he said and were afraid to ask him.

They came to Capernaum, and when he was in the house he asked them, ‘What were you arguing about on the road?’ They said nothing because they had been arguing which of them was the greatest. So he sat down, called the Twelve to him and said, ‘If anyone wants to be first, he must make himself last of all and servant of all.’ He then took a little child, set him in front of them, put his arms round him, and said to them, ‘Anyone who welcomes one of these little children in my name, welcomes me; and anyone who welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.’
Mark 9:30-37

The disciples do not come out of this passage well. Jesus faces the crisis of his Passion, surely an immensely testing time. And yet he is surrounded by the disciples who do not understand, are afraid to speak to him, and are arguing among themselves. Imagine.

And yet Jesus, in his need, turns to them to help them. The ministry of the Lord to disciples demonstrates the truth and beauty of what he teaches.

• What in particular strikes you about the teaching and example of the Lord?
• How does that relate to your own life and challenges as a disciple?

Nicolaes Maes, Christ blessing the Children, in the collection of the National Gallery, London. 

Speak Lord: Of your Passion

The First Reading today, the 24^th Sunday of Ordinary Time, comes from the prophet Isaiah.

It is a reading familiar from Holy Week, a reading that is seen to anticipate the Passion of Jesus. This Sunday we hear it as preparation for the Gospel which contains the first ‘Passion Prediction’ of Mark’s Gospel – a prediction which Peter the apostle is unwilling to receive and accept, and which – Mark’s Gospel carefully and starkly shows us – the other disciples fail to deal with either.

The Lord has opened my ear.
For my part, I made no resistance,
neither did I turn away.
I offered my back to those who struck me,
my cheeks to those who tore at my beard;
I did not cover my face against insult and spittle.
The Lord comes to my help, so that I am untouched by the insults.
So, too, I set my face like flint; I know I shall not be shamed.
My vindicator is here at hand. Does anyone start proceedings against me?
Then let us go to court together.
Who thinks he has a case against me?
Let him approach me.
The Lord is coming to my help, who will dare to condemn me?
Isaiah 50:5-9

When we hear the voice of the Lord prefigured in the words of the prophet we are drawn into a moving anticipation of what Jesus would endure.

The passivity of Jesus in Mark’s Gospel is notable. From the moment of his arrest, Jesus is not the subject of an active verb in Mark’s narrative. Jesus has become an object, handled and ultimately disposed of by others. It is his choice to be victim, of course. He chooses to endure faithful in love. His love of God, neighbour and self brings about a moral triumph, and achieves victory,over evil, over death, restoring life and love and for always. The resurrection is its demonstration and its guarantee.

And all this for us.

• What is it about us that God so loves and cares for?

Photograph is detail of the Crucifix in the church of Nowa Huta, Cracow. © 2013, Allen Morris.

Taste and See: Ministering mercy

The Gospel reading yesterday, Sunday, the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, returned us to Mark’s Gospel. This, the third Gospel in canonical sequence, but probably the first of the four to be written, is the one most regularly used in the Sunday Lectionary during  Year B of the Cycle.

Mark has a keen sense for the ministry of Jesus in freeing people from oppression, both that which comes from within and from without.

The Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered round Jesus, and they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with unclean hands, that is, without washing them. For the Pharisees, and the Jews in general, follow the tradition of the elders and never eat without washing their arms as far as the elbow; and on returning from the market place they never eat without first sprinkling themselves. There are also many other observances which have been handed down to them concerning the washing of cups and pots and bronze dishes. So these Pharisees and scribes asked him, ‘Why do your disciples not respect the tradition of the elders but eat their food with unclean hands?’ He answered, ‘It was of you hypocrites that Isaiah so rightly prophesied in this passage of scripture:

This people honours me only with lip-service,
while their hearts are far from me.
The worship they offer me is worthless,
the doctrines they teach are only human regulations.

You put aside the commandment of God to cling to human traditions.’ He called the people to him again and said, ‘Listen to me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that goes into a man from outside can make him unclean; it is the things that come out of a man that make him unclean. For it is from within, from men’s hearts, that evil intentions emerge: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, malice, deceit, indecency, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within and make a man unclean.’

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

The Gospel is proclaimed to us to set us free from these potential corruptions, and to help us in our turn be ministers of mercy.

In his letter establishing the Year of Mercy, Pope Francis reminded (as did St James in the second reading yesterday) of the works of corporal mercy.

It is not enough for Christians to be free of sin, we are made and called to the good:

Let us rediscover the corporal works of mercy: to feed the
hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, welcome the
stranger, heal the sick, visit the imprisoned, and bury the dead….
We cannot escape the Lord’s words to us, and they will serve as the criteria upon which we will be judged: whether we have fed the hungry and given drink to the thirsty, welcomed the stranger and clothed the naked, or spent time with the sick and those in prison (cf. Mt 25:31-45).
Pope Francis, Misericordiae Vultus, 15

The washing of feet. Grantham Parish Church. (C) 2011, Allen Morris.

Speak Lord: Change and resistance

The start of an alternative approach:

Normally Living Eucharist posts the scripture passages used at Sunday Mass in the order they are heard on a Sunday. It makes immediate sense to observe that same pattern – the order of the scriptures (for it will be usually Old Testament followed by New Testament), and the order of the Liturgy.

However the selection of readings is determined by the Gospel, and most clearly so in Ordinary time when (except for any influence exerted by the particular passage and coincidence) there is no overall theme for the Sunday readings. It is fairly said that unless you know , in advance, what the Gospel reading is you may find yourself struggling a little with the import of the first reading, which will have no direct connection with the first reading or Gospel of the week before. The disadvantage of knowing the Gospel and hearing the first reading only as a precusor to the Gospel reading is that it reduces it to ‘an illustration’ or ‘context’ and robs it of its own integrity as scripture.

Swings and roundabouts come to mind. But by way of an experiment for the next while the order of postings leading up to Sunday will be reversed. The Thursday posting will be of the Gospel, and the Sunday posting of the First reading, usually an Old Testament reading.

Comments are welcome!

The Gospel reading for Mass on Sunday, the 14th Sunday of the Year, comes from the Gospel of Mark.

Jesus returns to his home town. He has caused something of a stir over recent days, as he has travelled the land. Now he’s back home…

Jesus went to his home town and his disciples accompanied him. With the coming of the sabbath he began teaching in the synagogue and most of them were astonished when they heard him.

They said, ‘Where did the man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been granted him, and these miracles that are worked through him? This is the carpenter, surely, the son of Mary, the brother of James and Joset and Jude and Simon? His sisters, too, are they not here with us?’ And they would not accept him.

And Jesus said to them, ‘A prophet is only despised in his own country, among his own relations and in his own house’; and he could work no miracle there, though he cured a few sick people by laying his hands on them. He was amazed at their lack of faith.

Mark 6:1-6

Change is often hard to take. Especially change which challenges the status quo.

Nazareth cannot accept what Jesus offers, because it cannot accept it from Jesus.

And yet under the surface rejection, some turn to him. The goodness of God and the ministry of Jesus has its effect, even if it begins in a hidden way, beneath the surface.

• What of the gospel do you resist and why?
• What signs might there be of the gospel winning out, even our your reticence?

Mosaic from the Basilica of the Annunciation, Nazareth. (c) 2012, Allen Morris.

Speak Lord: Overcoming temptation: sharing Good News

The Gospel for today, the first Sunday of Lent in Year B, comes as we might expect from Mark. And again, as we might expect, the account is briefer and less elaborated than the perhaps more familiar accounts of the Temptations that we read in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke.

The Spirit drove Jesus out into the wilderness and he remained there for forty days, and was tempted by Satan. He was with the wild beasts, and the angels looked after him.

After John had been arrested, Jesus went into Galilee. There he proclaimed the Good News from God. ‘The time has come’ he said ‘and the kingdom of God is close at hand. Repent, and believe the Good News.’

Mark 1:12-15

In Mark’s account the focus seems to be less on the nature of the temptations and more on the contrast between the time of preparation and the beginning of the preaching of Good News. The fact of that preaching is all the more remarkable for its taking place in the time immediately following the arrest of John the Baptist, which – the readers of the Gospel will know – led to his execution.

Even in the bleakness of that injustice and murder, Jesus preaches Good News.

• What bleakness shadows your life?
• What Good News enlightens it?
• How might you share that Good News with others?

Photograph of the Judaean desert. (c) 2007, Allen Morris.

Taste and see: the merciful healing the Lord offers us

The Gospel at Mass on Sunday, the 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time, continues to offer us spiritual nourishment as we come to Shrove Tuesday, the last day before the beginning of Lent.

In Lent we are provided with safe space for acknowledging our sins and uncleanliness. The whole Church, beloved by God and precious to him as instrument of salvation, is called to that same examination of life and to conversion.

There is safety in crowd, even as there is supreme comfort in the individual’s intimate and personal encounter with the Lord.

A leper came to Jesus and pleaded on his knees: ‘If you want to’ he said ‘you can cure me.’

Feeling sorry for him, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him. ‘Of course I want to!’ he said. ‘Be cured!’And the leprosy left him at once and he was cured.

Jesus immediately sent him away and sternly ordered him, ‘Mind you say nothing to anyone, but go and show yourself to the priest, and make the offering for your healing prescribed by Moses as evidence of your recovery.’

The man went away, but then started talking about it freely and telling the story everywhere, so that Jesus could no longer go openly into any town, but had to stay outside in places where nobody lived. Even so, people from all around would come to him.

Mark 1:40-45

• What is out of order in your life? Why? What are its consequences for you and others? What are your feelings about this?
• Find time to meditate on the passage above. Place yourself in the scene – perhaps as the leper, perhaps as a bystander… Let the scene unfold. What do you see? What do you hear? What do you feel?
• Bring to the Lord your own ailment. Bring to him your response to his love. What do you want to say to him? What do you hear him say to you? Hear his offering of healing and know his love for you.
• Consider how this meditation might prepare you for the season of Lent.
• Bring your response to this time of meditation to God in prayer.

Picture is of A Gentleman in Adoration before the Baptism of Christ by Giovanni Battista Moroni (c.1555) found here. Our gospel is of the healing of the leper, not the Baptism of Christ, and maybe you are not a gentleman. However the painting depicts a prayer exercise such as that proposed above. We are part of a long tradition drawn to faithfulness to the Lord, and finding inspiration in his living word.

Speak Lord: Alive and healed by the love of the Lord

 

The Gospel at Mass today, the 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time, speaks of healing and reintegration through the love of God.

A leper came to Jesus and pleaded on his knees: ‘If you want to’ he said ‘you can cure me.’

Feeling sorry for him, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him. ‘Of course I want to!’ he said. ‘Be cured!’And the leprosy left him at once and he was cured.

Jesus immediately sent him away and sternly ordered him, ‘Mind you say nothing to anyone, but go and show yourself to the priest, and make the offering for your healing prescribed by Moses as evidence of your recovery.’

The man went away, but then started talking about it freely and telling the story everywhere, so that Jesus could no longer go openly into any town, but had to stay outside in places where nobody lived. Even so, people from all around would come to him.

Mark 1:40-45

The gospel also tells of how, with typical Markan irony, the healer takes the place of the outcast. Once the leper had to stay in the wilderness: now it is Jesus. Fame, and being popular with the populace, can be corrosive of good civil order and moral life, outside of the kingdom of heaven!

• Where do you feel called to go beyond what is generally held acceptable for the sake of the excluded? To witness to the love of God?
• When do you court popularity? With what effect?

Photograph is of a much publicised encounter between Pope Francis and Vinicio Riva, who is afflicted with neurofibromatosis. Read more here.

Taste and See: Christ teaches – who learns?

The Gospel reading at Mass on Sunday, the 4th Sunday in Ordinary time, spoke of Jesus as teacher and healer

Jesus and his followers went as far as Capernaum, and as soon as the sabbath came he went to the synagogue and began to teach.

And his teaching made a deep impression on them because, unlike the ,scribes, he taught them with authority.

In their synagogue just then there was a man possessed by an unclean spirit and it shouted, ‘What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are: the Holy One of God.’ But Jesus said sharply, ‘Be quiet! Come out of him!’ And the unclean spirit threw the man into convulsions and with a loud cry went out of him.

The people were so astonished that they started asking each other what it all meant. ‘Here is a teaching that is new’ they said ‘and with authority behind it: he gives orders even to unclean spirits and they obey him.’

And his reputation rapidly spread everywhere, through all the surrounding Galilean countryside.

Mark 1:21-28

Sunday was Education Sunday. A day for thanking God, and praying, for those who have the vocation to be teachers.

In the Gospel the people are quick to distinguish Jesus from other teachers and to identify the difference in the authority he displays and the power he exercises.

As the Gospel narrative proceeds Jesus remains authoritative and powerful, but many people prove themselves unwilling to learn from him.

It is easy to ‘blame’ teachers for people’s failure to learn, and of course good teachers often have good strategies to engage unwilling learners and tease them into helpful engagement with the matter at hand. Even so teaching and learning is always a cooperative venture.

• What might the Lord be seeking to help you learn, that you might be resisting?
• What might you be longing to help others learn that they might be resisting? What other approaches might you take to help their learning?

Image derived from photograph of mosaic of Christ from Hagia Sophia, Istanbul. (c) 2002, Allen Morris.

Speak Lord: Set us free.

The Gospel reading at Mass today, the 4th Sunday in Ordinary time, speaks of a healing in Capernaum, in Galilee.

Jesus and his followers went as far as Capernaum, and as soon as the sabbath came he went to the synagogue and began to teach.

And his teaching made a deep impression on them because, unlike the ,scribes, he taught them with authority.

In their synagogue just then there was a man possessed by an unclean spirit and it shouted, ‘What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are: the Holy One of God.’ But Jesus said sharply, ‘Be quiet! Come out of him!’ And the unclean spirit threw the man into convulsions and with a loud cry went out of him.

The people were so astonished that they started asking each other what it all meant. ‘Here is a teaching that is new’ they said ‘and with authority behind it: he gives orders even to unclean spirits and they obey him.’

And his reputation rapidly spread everywhere, through all the surrounding Galilean countryside.

Mark 1:21-28

The Gospel is spoken and shared today that there may be healing of our hearts and our minds.

Often, like the unclean spirit in the gospel, we know about Jesus, but are unwilling for, even fearful of, his exercising power over us.

Good Christians are not so much those who ‘do for Jesus’ as those who allow him to ‘do for them’. It is frightening to contemplate what change he might bring about in our lives, for we have often grown used to our accommodations. But he calls us to freedom, to newness, and the life that comes from love, flourishes by love, and produces a harvest of love.

Pray to Holy Spirit for the courage to say yes to God today.

Photograph of carving from the Church of St Peter in Capernaum. (c) Allen Morris, 2013