One Shining Moment

Gospel: Mark 5: 21-43

After being driven out of the Gerasene district, Jesus goes to the opposite shore of the lake and encounters a very different reception.  Crowds are waiting for him in the hopes he would heal the daughter of a synagogue official.  Despite this hope, the crowd vacillates between hope and despair throughout the story.  They eventually think the girl to have died and have given up all hope of a remedy.

How often have we been in the position of this little girl? Our faith life appears dead, lifeless - but the good news is that we are only asleep like her.  Where there is life there is hope.  Jesus comes into our life through loved ones and others who care for us, and we are brought back to life.  Our spirit and our faith are reanimated by this moment and this encounter with the Lord.  

Now, we are no longer at the whim of the crowd.  As in the story Jesus has dismissed the crowd and its considerations from our lives.  Our life is now defined by this moment and this encounter we have had with the Lord Jesus.  We go about our regular life among the living, humble witnesses to the mercy God has shown to us. 

The Real Demons

Gospel: Mark 5: 1-20

We human beings are so captivated by this story of the demons and the swine that we will overlook who the real demons are in today's Gospel reading.  Consider the people of Gerasene: their entire economy is dependent on a profession that is unclean in Judaism - the raising of swine.  The man in their town who is possessed represents the entire town in the grip of a sinful economy of their own making.  

That the town is more concerned with their swine than the man's welfare represents the fact that this town is in the grip of a legion of demons.  The fact that they expel Jesus from their district indicates that they will return to their unjust economic system as soon as they are able, and they would prefer that the healed man follow Jesus rather than remain in their midst.

But Jesus orders the man - he orders us - to remain in the midst of these unjust systems in order to remind them of the mercy of God that has been extended to the world.  We are to stand as reminders to the world of the dignity of the human person, that the human person is prior to economics, that economic systems are to justly promote the flourishing of every human being.  Will we work to create a new economic order based on justice, or will we expel Jesus from our midst as the Gerasenes did? 

Be-Attitudes

Gospel: Matthew 5: 1-12

There is a vast difference between the commandments of Sinai and the Beatitudes of Jesus.  The commandments are laws of negative avoidance: don't do these things.  On paper they should be relatively easy to follow, though we do in fact find many of these prohibited activities to be quite popular in our world.  It begs the question as to whether a tactic of avoidance is best in overcoming our tendency to such actions.

By contrast the Beatitudes of Jesus  challenge us to positive actions that are not easy on the surface of things: to be merciful to others in a cruel world; to be peacemakers in a world of competition and strife; to be pure of heart in a world of degradation and lies; to suffer persecution for justice in an unjust world.  Jesus invites us to accept God's mercy in our repentance, and then to extend that mercy to others in our lives.  

However, this great challenge of the Beatitudes comes with it an additional blessing: a life of positive action - of mercy, peacemaking, purity of heart, and suffering persecution - is a far more effective tonic to the sins forbidden by the commandments than mere avoidance.  The Beatitudes call us to a life of positive interaction with the world, not avoidance or colonization of the like-minded.  The Beatitudes call us to a transformation of the world through mercy and peace.  

The Stormy Sea

Gospel: Mark 4:  35-41

We all desire to cross over to the other shore, to a place free from the rush of the crowd and worldly concerns, to a place of peace and union with God.  But in order to do so we must enter into the boat and cross a sea buffeted by a storm.  To enter the boat is to enter the life of faith, and how we handle the storm is a test of our faith and whether we are worthy of the opposite shore.

The storm comes upon us and the disciples - and us - are afraid.  But why are we afraid?  Is it because we might die? What is it about death that we are afraid of? In any case, we begin to complain to Jesus. who meanwhile is calm and asleep on the boat in the midst of the storm.  Jesus awakes and rebukes us for our lack of faith: why were you afraid?  

So we find that we are not yet worthy of the opposite shore.  We have many fears yet to overcome, and only love can conquer these fears.  But we have taken the first step.  We have entered into the boat, into the life of faith.  Our next task is to have that faith so envelope us that it enables us to rest calmly in the boat in the midst of any storm, just as the Lord Jesus did.  

Seed Scattered and Sown

Gospel:  Mark 4: 26-34

For centuries farmers have been planting and harvesting crops.  Farmers know a great deal about what is needed for crops to be successful.  This knowledge has come through many years of experience passed on from one generation to another.  Every now and then new information becomes available to them - new techniques, fertilizer, and the like that will add to their knowledge and skill set in order to be successful at farming.

But most people do not know the intricate biological science of how plants come to grow from a seed to a full plant.  Botanists and cell biologists have this knowledge, and it is important.  But as long as the necessary conditions for growth exist, growth in a plant will take place whether we have knowledge of its processes or not.  

And so it is in the spiritual life as well.  The inner life of God and his interaction with the heart of a human being will forever be a mystery we will never know.  But the growth of this relationship will ever grow as long as the right conditions are present - a heart that receives the mercy of God and extends that mercy outward toward others.  

Revelation in Time

Gospel: Mark 4: 21-25

" Things are hidden, only to be revealed at a later time." Jesus uses this phrase in reference to tools and implements in our everyday lives.  We do not always have lamps lit and out in the open.  Only when we need light in a room do we turn on the lamp.  The same is true of our phone apps.  We may have dozens on our phone, and we only use them at particular times when needed.  When they are not in use, they remain hidden in the background of our phones.

And so it is with God's wisdom.  It is given to us at the appropriate times of our lives when it is needed.  A person could take a course on death and dying, but it would have no relevance to their life or work until one is in the moment with those experiencing death.  It is only then that God's wisdom comes to us and we are able to experience God's revelation.  

The spiritual life is not something that can be learned in a textbook.  Spiritual reading is important, but the real wisdom of the spiritual life comes from a continual dialogue with God and a daily reflection and examination of our lives.  For it is there that God reveals himself and his wisdom to us all; it is the experiences of life that are the common textbook of all humanity around which we can all have profound reflections and conversations with one another.

The Conversion of Saul - The Conversion of All

Text: Acts 9: 1-22

The official title of today's feast is the Conversion of St. Paul, but today's feast is more about our own conversion as a people of God challenged by God to a more expansive love and acceptance of others.  Paul's conversion is famous enough and we marvel at it even if our own experience of God is not like Paul's.  Our conversion and experience of God is more like that of Ananias in this story.

God comes to Ananias and instructs him to admit Paul into the company of the believing community  Ananias protests: Lord, this man has persecuted us and seeks to destroy us - how can we accept him into our community, how can we accept his change of life?  But God insists that Paul be admitted, and Ananias does as God instructs him, much to the enrichment of the early Christian community?

How many times have we perhaps quashed the faith of a potential Paul in our communities? How many times have we rejected or actively sought to remove others from the Christian assembly because we think them unworthy and cannot accept that God can have a relationship with that person? How much do we know the intricacies of church law, but so little of what lies in the depths of the human heart! Today's feast is a call to our own conversion as individuals and communities on our capacity to love and accept others as Ananias did for Paul.

Who Belongs

Gospel: Mark 3: 31-35

In ancient religions belonging to a deity or religious tradition was a matter decided beyond one's control or purview.  Such considerations were already decided based upon your gender, race or nationality, or one's socio-economic status.  These represented the fate of one's life, the choice made for you by the gods themselves.  It was a fixed system that could not be changed.

Jesus, however, comes along to change this paradigm entirely with two important teachings.  The first teaching is that God chooses everyone to be in his family, to serve in his kingdom.  No one is excluded, all are invited by virtue of the fact that one is a human being made in God's image and likeness.  The second teaching comes in today's Gospel, and it is that we have agency in this matter as well.  We belong to God's family in choosing to follow God's will for us in our lives.  By accepting God's invitation to belong to the family we seek to do God's will daily.

So belonging to God's family and kingdom is not arbitrary, nor is it exclusive.  The invitation is extended to all without qualification, and our response to the invitation has real and profound implications as well.  The relationship between us and God is authentic and reciprocal, one based on love, not coercion. 

The Unforgivable Sin

Gospel: Mark 3: 22-30

Investigators are sent from the fortress of the institutional religion to investigate this new phenomenon of Jesus' ministry, though the judgment has already been passed.  There will be illusions of "listening sessions" and observation, but the task of the investigator is to render a negative judgment in whatever way possible in order to protect the power and status of the institutional religion.  

So, they accuse Jesus of being possessed by a demon, a charge easily dismissed by observation and logic.  Jesus, however, cautions us all to avoid possession by the worst of all demons, the sin of hypocrisy that cannot be forgiven.  Hypocrisy cannot be forgiven because the person in its thralls can only see and condemn sin within others, but not themselves.  They have become such ardent apologists for their own way of doing things, their own institutions, that sin is overlooked within but seen everywhere without.  

Regular examination of conscience and participation in the sacrament of penance are important ways to avoid this demon of hypocrisy from entering our household.  A life of humble repentance and mercy extended outward to others are sure tonics to avoid this worst of all sins.  

Christian Unity

Gospel: Matthew 4: 12-23

Last week we began the week of Prayer for Christian Unity with the Baptism of the Lord.  Today we close this week of prayer with Word of God Sunday.  These are two things Christians hold in common - baptism and God's Word, who is Jesus.  Today's Gospel of the call of the first four disciples provides for us a roadmap to Christian unity.

Consider: Jesus calls together two sets of brothers who are economic rivals to one another.  Brothers don't often get along, even less in business dealings, and on top of it we bring together rival groups of brothers to this common ministry.  No one would do this, and yet Jesus does and it works!  Why?  These men had heard the preaching of John and accepted the baptism of repentance.  They sought forgiveness for their past sins.

Now they accept the ministry of mercy that is the invitation of Jesus to follow him.  They set about to preach good news to the poor and to heal others.  They become an extension of the mercy of God they themselves had received.  The key to Christian unity lies in these two things: repentance for our sins, and setting aside our self-interest, our power, our material wealth - and engaging together in the works of mercy, to go about healing others and proclaiming good news.   

Ever Shifting Attitudes

Gospel: Mark 3: 20-21

"He is out of his mind." We are shocked to see these words attributed to Jesus' family about him, unless we are completely honest with ourselves and we admit the fact that we have had the same view of Jesus at times as well.  

A relationship with God is like any other relationship we have with other human beings: relationship pass through cycles and run through a range of emotions.  From deep love to anguishing doubt our relationships pass through these and everything in between.  The same is true with our relationship with God.  

And yet when we step back from these scene in the Gospel we catch sight of something: Jesus' passionate love and concern for others.  This is something new we have not seen before in God.  It is this love that drives Jesus to the point of madness.  This causes us to stop and reflect on our own lives.  Perhaps I should have a greater passion and devotion to love and care for others.  What might the world look like if I did? 

A Risky Mission

Gospel: Mark 3: 13-19

Jesus sends us out to preach the good news and to expel demons.  Both of these are risky and dangerous work.  On the surface preaching good news sounds easy and pleasant, but it is not.  The term "good news" had been used exclusively to refer to imperial decrees: it was the empire that brought good news to lands through conquest, violence, and coercion.  In taking over the term and changing its content we set ourselves in conflict with the dominant culture, for we bring the good news of peace, solidarity, love, and compassion.  

In expelling demons from people's lives we are to go out to those on the farthest margins of society, to people no one wants to associate with, people deemed hopeless.  And we are to bring light into these lives as well - release from the bondage of whatever demon holds them captive.  This is indeed dangerous work, not only in dealing with this population but also in receiving the skepticism and derision of the larger society.  

When God calls people to follow, it is always a calling to something uncomfortable, to something that will challenge us to expand our love for others more and more.  God never calls us to complacency, to the comfortable and familiar, to the easy and bland.  It is always an invitation to a larger heart, a more generous spirit, a life of service to others. 

Following the Crowds

Gospel: Mark 3: 7-12

Today we discover why Jesus commands us not to broadcast to the world his healing and mercy in our lives.  Crowds come from all over, pressing Jesus to help them.  Those possessed by demons come and announce Jesus is the Messiah.  Jesus rebukes them and seeks a way to escape from the crowd in order to regroup from all this.

Jesus does not trust the crowds and nor should we.  Crowds judge things by a set of standards that are antithetical to the Gospel and the way of the Lord Jesus.  Crowds care about numbers - attendance and money; they care about self-interest and instant gratification.  Crowds are placated as long as their desires are met, but the second they are not or they have to wait, they will instantly turn.  How much is modern religion like this? Note the perseveration on all these things by modern religion.  

The way of the Lord Jesus is the way of self-denial: repentance of our sins and extending mercy and healing to others.  Jesus' way is about humble service without fanfare or adulation.  What might it look like if we modeled our faith communities and ministry along these lines?  The time has come to find out.

What is Lawful

Gospel: Mark 3: 1-6

"Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath? To preserve life rather than destroy it?"  

We might well consider what it is we do when we gather to worship together in our congregations each week.  This story takes place within the context of a synagogue service on the sabbath, and a man comes forward in the midst of the congregation needing healing. But the congregation and leaders were not willing to provide him with that healing, so Jesus provides it to him.  

Very often we look upon our weekly communal worship as an end in itself rather than a means to an end.  It is as if what we do in our congregations each week has no connection at all to our daily living.  But communal worship is designed to assist us in our mission of doing good, of being part of Jesus' mission of mercy each and every day.  If we cannot heal a person who comes in our midst during worship, then we cannot heal anyone at any time ever.  If we are unwilling to help a person among us in our sabbath service, then what makes us think we would be willing to do so on any other day?

This is why the law of love must be the lens through which we see all other laws and duties in our life.  The law of love must be the light that illumines everything else.  For it is only then that we come to realize that mitzvah - good deeds - are always allowed and encouraged, that preserving, nourishing, and cultivating human life for full flourishing is the end goal of the Sabbath and all other days. 

Competing Duties

Gospel: Mark 2: 23-28

A great deal of the ethical life involves the discernment of competing duties we have that come into conflict with one another.  We have many duties in life and we often have to decide which one takes priority.  You have a sick child at home in need of care; you also have to go to work - which do you choose?  Only an ogre would demand you work and neglect your child.  

This is the issue we face in today's Gospel.  The disciples have a duty to nourish and sustain their lives; they also have the duty to obey Sabbath laws.  Which do you choose when they compete with one another?  We choose life.  In every instance when Jesus is faced with the choice to heal and preserve life on a Sabbath versus obeying the Sabbath law of work, he always chooses life.  

The example of Jesus provides us with a tool of discernment for us when faced with these ethical dilemmas of competing duties.  In every instance we are to choose life and whatever nourishes, protects, and enables human life to flourish.  

New Wine

Gospel:  Mark 2: 18-22

We human beings are conditioned to make decisions and determinations based on the categories we create.  Typically these categories are ones of custom and tradition.  If something could be determined to follow standard custom and tradition, if it could be determined to be ancient, then it has legitimacy.  This way of thinking was standard in the ancient world, and it still forms part of our standard operating procedure.  

But along comes Jesus who does not fit any of the categories.  Today's Gospel presents us with two groups using both custom and tradition in an attempt to judge Jesus and his disciples.  But Jesus tells them that you are dealing with new wine which cannot be contained in old understandings.  Instead, he gives us a metaphor of love, a wedding image, that now becomes our standard of discernment.

No longer are we to determine the truth or goodness of a matter based on law, custom, or even tradition.  We are to measure truth and goodness based on love, which itself has no measure and which cannot be contained by any receptacle.  Love is as infinite as God, for God is love.  If we seek to be like God, then our only way is through love. 

Recognizing the Lord

Gospel: John 1: 29-34

"I did not recognize him."  These are stunning words from John the Baptist, but we ourselves might well understand what they mean in our own experience.  For of ourselves we cannot recognize the Lord; our own lights are unable to see him.  The Lord Jesus has to be revealed to us by God as in the life of John and everyone else in the Gospel stories.

For John, he came to know the Lord Jesus through the voice of God at the Jordan River.  For others in the Gospels it is through an experience of healing, his presence at a meal, or an invitation to follow him.  Every experience is different and unique.  God did not create a race of clones.  God created individual human beings, each one unrepeatable and unique.  And so each person has a unique and unrepeatable relationship with God.

Today we are invited to reflect upon how God has revealed himself to us in our lives.  What is our unique and unrepeatable relationship with God?  Where and how do we encounter the Lord each day? 

A Transformative Table

Gospel: Mark 2: 13-17

Today's Gospel presents us with two table fellowship meals.  Let us consider them separately.  The first is at the house of Levi, a notorious public sinner.  At this table other notorious public sinners come to dine with Jesus and a transformation takes place.  As the elements of food are transformed, so too are those at table.  They are aware of their sin and seek to lead different lives.  The table fellowship enables them to seek and attain this transformation in their lives.

At the other table are the Pharisees.  Jesus welcomes them to table as well, but it becomes a very different dynamic.  Those at table focus entirely on the sinfulness of other people, their unworthiness to be at table fellowship.  They perseverate on what Jesus does and does not do.  It is a table of judgment.  While the elements are transformed, the people at table are not, for they see no need to change themselves, only others.  

To which table do I belong?  Which table might describe the community to which I belong and associate?  Are we at a table of transformation, or a table of judgment?  Where we sit matters a great deal. 

Which is Easier?

 Gospel: Mark 2: 1-12

Jesus forgives the sins of the paralytic and his friends in today's reading.  The Pharisees protest that only God can forgive sins, at which point Jesus poses a challenge to them and to us:  which is easier to do - to heal someone of a physical infirmity, or to forgive sins?  Let us consider this question from our modern perspective of medicine and treatment, leaving aside the question of miracles.

Damar Hamlin was unconscious with no heartbeat on a football field.  He was revived by a team of trainers, brought to a hospital via ambulance with EMT staff, and remained at the hospital in Cincinnati for nine days, after which he was transferred to a hospital in Buffalo for another two day stay.  Damar is now under the care of therapists for ongoing healing and rehabilitation.  Physical healing is a long process that requires many hands, time, and resources.  

Now consider what it takes to forgive others of sins.  All that is required is that we let go of our pride, to remember that God has forgiven us so many things for which we are not worthy of forgiveness, and that in turn we must forgive others and extend mercy to them in the same way mercy has been shown to us.  

Which is easier?  This question is a challenge to us in our own lives as individuals and communities of people.  

Don't Tell Anyone

Gospel: Mark 1: 40-45

From the very beginning of Jesus' ministry of healing, he commands those healed to tell no one about it.  As in today's Gospel, the healed person is commanded to perform the required rituals of thanksgiving and visit to the priests for their healing, but also to tell no one about it.  We might well wonder why Jesus makes such a request, especially since no one obeys this command.  

It is worth looking about at the many today who go about Christian-land on book tours, talk shows, made for tv movies, and the various strata of social media talking on and on about their experience with Jesus.  But the reality is that these all are less about Jesus and more about the person healed, more about us.  What invariably happens is that such figures eventually fall from grace as it was in reality all about themselves and not about Jesus.

But if we follow the command of Jesus we live a life of humility.  We give humble, private thanksgiving to God and then go about living a life of mercy caring for others.  In living this way we are truly healed and live the core of God's law - loving God and loving others - with no thought of self-interest or self-promotion at all.  

The Boat and the Wind

Gospel:  Mark 6: 45-52

After the multiplication of the loaves miracle, the crowd is dismissed to return home.  The disciples get into a boat to go to the opposite shore.  They encounter a strong headwind that prevents any progress.  They all begin to row but to no avail; despite all their efforts they make no progress.  In the midst of all this, Jesus appears walking on water towards them.

They become frightened, much as our first parents were frightened in the garden at God's presence.  The disciples had relied on their own powers in the midst of the difficulty.  They had not recognized the Lord in their midst.  Jesus now enters the boat, rebukes them for their lack of faith, and the journey gets easier.  The winds subside and their efforts bear fruit.

Is this not the way with us as well? How often do we rely on our own efforts - our strategic plans, market studies, professional consulting firms - and to what end?  In our individual lives how often do we forget the presence of the Lord and are frightened when he appears?  When we receive the Lord's rebuke and allow him into our boat, how much easier is the voyage, how less menacing is the headwind?

The Exchange

 Gospel: Mark 6: 34-44

The exchange between Jesus and his disciples prior to the multiplication of the loaves and fishes is a fascinating one.  The disciples come to Jesus with a problem: we are in a deserted place and have no food for the people.  Their solution: send the people away to different towns to look for food.  But Jesus does not want to break the unity of the group, so he offers a suggestion: feed them yourselves.  The disciples protest: that would cost too much money!  Jesus then asks for whatever food they have and provides for the crowd in abundance.  

This same dynamic plays out in our world today.  We ask God to feed people, both spiritually and materially, but we ourselves are not willing to put forth the effort and expense to do so.  We would rather have people go their separate ways to find food rather than maintain the unity of the human family and feed them ourselves.  We protest at what it might cost to feed people, though we have funds in abundance to do so!  We expect Jesus once again to do it all for us.  

We will spare no expense to build a new sports arena.  We will endure any capital campaign to build a lavish church building.  Yet we struggle to find funds and space for the poor. We cut back on Mass times and close parishes because of lack of sacramental ministers rather than look at new and old models of ministry. Today's Gospel challenges us once again to examine whether we are engaged in authentic ministry in keeping with the example of Jesus.

The Two Things Necessary

Gospel: Matthew 4: 12-17, 23-25

Where do we go from the Jordan River?  We have repented of our sins and received the baptismal waters of renewal.  If this were the only part of our lives - a ritual, a creedal statement, an act of repentance - then our lives end at the Jordan River.  But Jesus does not remain at the Jordan with John, and nor can we.  

Jesus moves on to the whole region of Galilee to first continue the message of John to repent, but there is more.  The work of repentance moves into the work of mercy as Jesus goes about healing people in body, mind, and spirit.  

Our life begins at the waters of the Jordan River, but they must move forward to follow Jesus into the works of mercy extended out to all.  This is the essence of love for God and love for others.  Love is not about our own selves but about that of others and their good.  

A Repenting God

Gospel: Matthew 3: 13-17

Jesus presents himself to John for baptism, for a ritual of repentance for sin.  John is shocked by this and protests, but Jesus insists.  This gesture is not a mere show.  Jesus comes to repent.  This may seem shocking to us until we remember that there are various places in the Old Testament where it states God repented of the evil he had done or intended.  

Parents feel a sense of failure in themselves when their children fail.  They ask what more they could have done or do in order to have their children succeed.  Parents would gladly take the place of their child in the event of serious illness or death.  And is this not what we see in the gestures of Jesus at the Jordan River and throughout his life? Does he not in fact come to take our place in dying as any parent would for a child?

When a relationship is broken someone has to make the first step in repairing the relationship.  God makes that first step by entering the Jordan in a posture of repentance in the person of Jesus. We human beings are the ones who should be making the gesture, but we do not.  We are the ones who should be abandoned to our many failures, but we are not.  God comes to save - again, and again, and again.  What, then, is our response to this great love? 

A Remarkable Transformation

Gospel: John 2: 1-12

Ignatius of Loyola has a method of lectio or holy reading in which we are to imagine ourselves as being in the scene of the Gospel as one of the bystanders or characters in the story.  We are to take note of all that we see, hear, smell, taste, and feel as the story progresses.  In the story of the miracle at Cana it is easy to imagine oneself as the headwaiter, Mary, or one of the guests and see the story from one of those perspectives.  But today we are going to imagine ourselves as the six stone water jars.

Consider how humbly this miracle is performed.  Only three people are aware of the problem and solution.  Everyone else is unaware a miracle has taken place, though they are beneficiaries of the miracle.  The stone water jars were empty; they are the stone water jars used for ritual purification for those who are guests at someone's house.  We have been purified by the waters of baptismal repentance, emptied of our sins.

But we cannot remain empty.  We are now to be filled with the wine of mercy - the waters of repentance are transformed into the waters of mercy.  We are now to provide mercy to others, providing for their needs, even if they are unaware and unconscious of their need or the source of the solution to their need.  We are as humble as the miracle itself, pouring ourselves out for the sake of others, just as the Lord Jesus had done in his life, death, and resurrection. 

Breakfast at Epiphanies

Gospel: Matthew 2: 1-12

In modern times the word 'epiphany' has come to mean a coming to awareness or having some insight on some weighty matter.  Yet, the word simply means 'manifestation' or 'revelation'.  Its original meaning had to do with the fact of God revealing himself to the world.  It is less about ourselves and more about God's work in the world that we later have some awareness or realization about.  

Epiphany is a three-fold event: the manifestation of God to the Magi in the person of the infant Jesus; the baptism of the Lord wherein God manifests Jesus' identity to the world; the wedding feast of Cana where Jesus performed his first miracle.  Each of these events represents the various ways God is made manifest in the world: in the works of nature and in persons; in sacramental actions and signs; and in the quiet and hidden events of each day where the miraculous occurs amid the ordinary.  

God still manifests himself to us each day in these various ways.  We can become aware of these realities and come to realize their presence in our lives by a daily examination and reflection of the events of our day.  Today's feast is a call to reflect on how God has manifest himself to us in our own lives, and what our response and gift back to God will be.   

What Good Can Come from Nazareth?

Gospel: John 1: 45-53

Nazareth was an insignificant village in Galilee.  Its inhabitants were poor laborers, most likely under the employ and servitude of the Roman occupiers.  Most of the surrounding villages were in a similar situation.  Jesus himself was likely a slave in this system, manumission being granted at age 30, the time he began his public ministry.  

In this environment Jesus saw revolts and uprisings against the Roman occupiers.  All of them ended in the same way - in greater oppression and misery.  Moses had been a slave and delivered his people from this state not through revolution but through the calling of God to life under God's law on pilgrimage to the Promised Land.  

Jesus, the new Moses, envisions a revolution of the heart that will transform both the oppressed and the oppressor through the power of love.  Love is the core of the law and only love can permanently end the oppression of all forms of sin and slavery in our world.  And so good things indeed will come from Nazareth, and through love we come to see greater things in our world as the kingdom of God builds a civilization of love in our midst.

From John to Jesus

Gospel: John 1: 35-42

Perhaps more than any other Gospel, the Gospel of John provides us with the most salient connections between John the Baptist and Jesus.  John points out to his disciples the identity of the Messiah, encouraging them now to follow Jesus.  Now that Jesus is present to the world, the ministry of John transitions to the ministry of Jesus.

This transition is most important in terms of theme and for the practical living of our own lives.  John's ministry was one of bringing people to repentance and the washing away of sin in baptism.  Now that we have repented sincerely of our sins, what is next?  Is it enough to merely repent of our sins and go about our regular lives again?  By no means.

In pointing to Jesus, John points out that the next stage of our lives after repentance is necessary and essential, for now we enter the ministry of Jesus, the ministry of mercy.  Now that we have experienced the mercy of God in our repentance, so now we must extend mercy to all in our lives: forgiving others of sins; providing healing, comfort, compassion, and hospitality to all we encounter in our lives.  In short, we must do all that Jesus did in his ministry within the context of our own lives.  It is only in this way that God can be made manifest to the world - only by our actions of mercy in the world.

Coming to See

Gospel: John 1: 29-35

The Christmas season presents us with people who both fail to see who Jesus is as well as those who do.  Those who come to recognize Jesus are Mary, Elizabeth, the shepherds, the Magi, Simeon, and Anna.  John the Baptist will come to recognize Jesus after initially failing to do so, much like his father Zechariah.  John will require the voice of God and the descent of the Spirit at the Jordan river in order to recognize Jesus for who he is.

We might well forgive ourselves, then, in our failures to recognize Jesus in our daily life.  After all, someone like John the Baptist had his failures, and so will the disciples throughout Jesus' life.  All of these saw marvelous things, too!  We are not likely to experience such phenomena as they did, and yet we have as much access to the Lord Jesus as they did.  

God is born among us each day in the person of Jesus in every encounter we have with another person.  Each person is someone we are called to love and have compassion for in our lives.  Each person is another Christ, one who reveals Christ's presence to the world, my neighbor whom I am called to love.  The more we recognize this truth, the more loving and compassionate we will be.   

Failing to See

Gospel: John 1: 19-28

The Gospel of John will explore a theme in great detail that is a central problem in all religious traditions: the inability of religious leaders to see God at work in their midst.  John will begin the exploration "from the beginning" with John the Baptist's ministry, and then continue this theme throughout the ministry of Jesus, as in today's Gospel John will note that these same religious authorities who come to question the Baptist will fail to recognize the reality of Jesus the Lord.

The authorities come from Jerusalem with their preset categories of inquiry, but John does not fit into any of their categories.  But the presence of these categories right away suggests that religious leaders are not interested in really listening and looking for God's work in the moment.  If they were looking for God, the categories would be set aside as God cannot be contained by such things.  

When our sense of security, power, and comfort are the primary driver of an inquiry, we can be pretty sure that we are not searching for God at all, that we are in fact making ourselves God.  For God calls us to uncomfortable places - to the margins - in order to expand our hearts for greater love and our communities to be ever wider in their outreach and acceptance of others.