The Great Challenge

Gospel: Matthew 5: 43-48

The commandment of love applies to all people without exception, including our enemies.  It is a shocking teaching for Jesus' time as well as our own.  We struggle with the commandment of love even for those we claim to like; how often is our love fickle and self-centered even in these relationships.  But now imagine the idea of loving our enemies when we are consumed with our murderous thoughts and things we say about other people.

Consider the modern Christian and his active to do list regarding the treatment of enemies: the constant drum of war justified at all times; the execution of prisoners and their maltreatment in a retributive inhumane system; the animus toward foreigners, immigrants, refugees, and migrants; the vitriol leveled against Muslims, Jews, non-Christians, other Christians not of our tribe, and anyone else who crosses our nativist theology.  The teaching of Jesus regarding our enemies is not one we remotely try to abide.  

This teaching of Jesus is one he lived in his own life.  He healed, liberated, and fed people of all backgrounds.  He ate with his friends and his enemies.  He ate at table with his betrayer, denier, and abandoners.  He forgave those who executed him, offering a general absolution to all.  Jesus practiced  this love and showed us the way in concrete terms.  This Lent let us imitate the Lord and walk away from the false Christianity of the day.   

The Killing Fields

Gospel: Matthew 5: 20-26

On the surface of things, the commandment against killing and murder seems easy.  Just don't violently murder someone and you're good with this commandment, right?  Well, not so fast.  Jesus tells us that we may not be angry with others, and we ought not speak ill of others.  And if we have a dispute with our neighbor to resolve it amicably, to be forgiving and seek mutual understanding so as to avoid any ill feelings and conflict.  Now the commandment is much harder.

Yet there is great depth of wisdom to what Jesus says here.  Consider all the many excuses and "exceptions" we create to this commandment against killing.  We justify war every time we engage in it.  We do the same for capital punishment and other state violence.  We have even justified genocide, slavery, and other horrid practices that kill our neighbor in body and soul.  The commandment is one we have really ignored and debased.  

We come to these atrocities because we have not attended to these smaller matters Jesus enjoins upon us in this Gospel portion.  When we look upon others as less than us, as objects and inhuman.  Jesus reminds us that every single human being is an image and likeness of God, as a son or daughter of God, a temple of the Holy Spirit.  If we fail to do so, then the murder in our heart lurks, leading to the bloodshed we claim is so easy to avoid.   

Asking and Receiving

Gospel: Matthew 7: 7-12

As self-interested beings we see this Gospel passage as about ourselves and what we can obtain from God in prayer.  We bring our petitions before God like a child bringing her list of toy requests to Santa: we want material things, relief from problems, healing from ailments, and mercy for our sins.  Our lists and demands are endless and incessant, and we believe we will receive these things because this passage tells us so, or the part that we choose for our focus.  

But perhaps this passage isnt' about prayer or our own self-interested pursuits therein.  Perhaps it is more about how we treat others.  We want God to give us all these things noted above, but are we willing to grant similar things to others?  We want material things - are we sharing such with others? We want relief and healing and mercy, but are we extending those things to other people? We cannot expect to receive such things if we ourselves are engrossed in a selfish suburban lifestyle.

Jesus went about providing healing, liberation, and nourishment to all sorts of people - friend and foe, native and foreigner, neighbor and stranger.  Jesus received nothing in return for such care for others.  He calls us to live such a life of mercy as well, a life not governed by self-intesrest but one animated by solidarity and the common good.  When we go to God with these requests for ourselves, let us remember how we are called to provide such to others in their need.   

The Call to Repentance

Gospel: Luke 11: 29-32

We seek a sign, just as the people of Jesus' day did.  We get the same answer: no sign will be given to us except the sign of Jonah.  We misinterpret this sentence.  We believe it refers to Jonah being in the whale for three days, just as Jesus would be in the belly of the earth for three days, only to rise again.  But this is false.  Jesus makes it clear that the sign of Jonah is much more uncomfortable for us than we would like to admit or accept.

Jonah is called by God to to the Gentile city of Nineveh to invite them to repentance.  Jonah reluctantly does so, and to his chagrin the people do repent, at a time when Israel was ignoring and even killing prophets who brought them the same invitation.  Jesus too came to invite us to repentance, and as in Jonah's day those who accepted the invitation were somewhat surprising, while those who did not accept the invitation were allegedly self-righteous and religious.  

The invitation to repentance is extended to us in our day.  We are invited to do so through works of mercy for others - to the hungry and thirsty; to the naked and homeless; to the sick and imprisoned; to the immgrant, refugee, and migrant.  And, by and large, we find similar patterns of acceptance and rejection of this invitation.  The self-righteous religious spurn the invitation while others take up the message of Jesus and carry it out in their lives.  Lent is our time to make this choice. 

Competitive Prayer

Gospel: Matthew 6: 7-15

The Olympic games are over for now, but the religious competitions continue uninterrupted as before.  In the category of competitive prayer, there is the individual and team competitions.  Individual pastors duel one another in spontaneous prayer, being judged on length, eloquence, and cadence.  The team category ranks liturgical prayer with similar criteria along with the age and origin of said prayers, the older and more traditional being in favor.  

Jesus is well aware of such games.  He saw them in his own day with the rattling of lengthy prayers, the public wearing of religious finery to impress, and the utter insincerity of it all.  So Jesus gives us a prayer, not that it might be formulaic, but one that is designed to teach us brevity, humility, and authenticity in our prayer to God.  That we have endlessly parsed the words of the prayer utterly misses the point as to what Jesus means for us to do.  

Lent is about the task of prayer, not in lengthening the prayers but that our prayers be more sincere, humble, and authentic.  Our discipline of Lent is once again returning to the Gospels in order to imitate the Lord Jesus in his prayer, in his deeds of love and mercy to others which in themselves are our most authentic prayer and offering to God.  It is in these deeds of love for others that we express our love for God, our sacrifice of praise.   

The Final Exam

Gospel: Matthew 25: 31-46

Consider the criteria Jesus provides for the final judgment of the entire world, and notice what it is not about:  it is not a test of knowledge.  It is not the recitation of a credal formula.  It is not about belonging to a particular group or sect, nor about one's liturgical preferences.  It is not about sexuality or the wearing of particular religious garb.  It isn't even about belief in God or not, let alone one's conception or ideas about God.

The final judgment, in short, is not about anything that religion concerns itself with most of the time.  It is rather about mercy extended to other people.  It is about providing food and drink to the hungry and thirsty; providing shelter to the homeless; giving clothing to the naked; providing care to those who are sick and imprisoned; providing welcome and love to strangers in our midst - the immigrant, refugee, and migrant.  That's it - that's the final exam.  

Recently a church building was dedicated wherein the congregation spent more than $1 million to build a choir loft with no access at all; it was simply decorative. It is an apt metaphor for modern religion. We can continue to go about the business of the pseudo-religious life of vicarious activities that have no real meaning or purpose except that they are easy and satisfy our egos.  Or we can set about the task of real religion which is the care of others and the extension of mercy in the world.   

The Call of Evil

Gospel: Matthew 4: 1-11

The temptations of Jesus in the desert are the gaps that exist between that to which we are called to be and that which we currently are.  Jesus successfully rejects the call of evil presented to him in his life - not just in this episode but throughout his life.  These temptations are not one time events in his life or ours.  They continually recur in the life of Jesus and in ours, presented and repackaged into a variety of different manifestations.

The temptation to change stones to bread has us ask ourselves whether we are led by our appetites and passions or by something deeper.  The temptation to the city and its riches is the constant struggle to overcome the desire for power, influence, and material things.  And the temptation to fling oneself off a cliff is the tendency to turn religion into a spectacle of our own ego rather than a pursuit of wisdom and grace in our lives.

Both the devil and Jesus use scripture in their back and forth with one another, but they use it very differently.  Satan uses it to justify self-interest and that which we already want.  Jesus uses it as a means of wisdom to consider our calling as human beings to relationship with God and with one another.  This story is our constant measuring stick in our spiritual life: am I growing closer to the ideal of Jesus, am I using scriptures as means of wisdom and grace, or am I seeking my own self-interest and ego? 

The Call to Sinners

Gospel: Luke 5: 27-32

In today's Gospel portion Jesus states that he came to call sinners, not the self-righteous.  He states that sinners are the ones in need of a doctor while the self-righteous do not.  This exhortation takes place in the context of him calling the tax collector Levi to follow him.  There was no pre-condition or set of requirements Levi needed to accomplish before accepting the invitation.  Jesus simply invited him, and Levi left his taxing post to do so.  

The self-righteous Pharisees object.  Jesus had not called them to follow him.  Actually, he had, but they are unable to hear it, for the self-righteous cannot see themselves as sinners.  In their eyes they can do no wrong at all; they have nothing to change, nothing to reform, nothing to repent of.  They are incapable of self-reflection or examination of conscience.  They are only able to judge others.  For them, everyone else is the problem, everyone else has to change and conform to their way of thinking and doing.  

We began Lent by putting on ashes.  We did so in order to acknowledge our sins, to recognize our status at sinners in need of God's mercy.  Some, however, donned ashes as performative art, putting their pictures with ashes on social media for all to see.  To follow Jesus is to acknowledge our need for mercy, and then to be that mercy of God for others in the world, bringing healing to the wounded, liberation to the oppressed, and nourishment to the hungry in humble service. 

The Call of the Fast

Gospel: Matthew 9: 14-15

What are we about when we engage in fasting? For many it is a pursuit of the ego.  Some fast for some stoic pursuit of endurance or discipline.  Others do so in order to show others how much they can sacrifice.  Another set of people fast as a dieting exercise in order to lose weight and look better.  All of these may be perfectly fine in certain contexts, but as a religious practice they are inadequate to the task of authentic spiritual growth.

A fast is undertaken for the sake of others.  We give up things so that we might have more to give to others who are in need.  We who are privileged have way more than we need in terms of food, clothing, and other things.  We rob from the poor when we have these things in excess.  It is necessary for us to fast in order to provide for the poor, to identify with them in some small way, and to work toward lives of greater simplicity so that others may have what the need.  

Authentic religious fasting is directed to the care of others.  It is a work of mercy, not one of self-interest.  Fasting is about healing other people as well as the social stratum.  It is about liberating others from poverty, and ourselves from materialism and consumerism.  It is about nourishing others in body, mind, and spirit.  Let this Lent be for us about this intention, and to put away the motives of the ego that often accompany the fast. 

The Call of the Cross

Gospel: Luke 9: 22-25

In today's Gospel portion Jesus tells us two things. First, that he must suffer and be executed by the political and religious leaders of the day before then rising from the dead.  Second, that we who make the choice to follow Jesus must also take up our cross and suffer at the hands of political and religious leaders.  The same path that Jesus followed we too must traverse if we are to rise and find our way to the reign of God.

It is a religion of the evil one that makes Christianity into a religion of religious and political power that wields violence against untold numbers of people, that creates a false idol of a nation.  It is a sham Christianity that preaches comfort and ease, one where the episcopal mansion, the pastor's private jet, and the vast expanses of church campuses are the hallmarks of the new religion, coming at the expense of those we malign: the poor and marginalized, the immigrant, refugee, and migrant.  

The call of Jesus to follow him is a call to the cross, to a life of self-sacrifice lived in extending mercy and loving-kindness to others by going about healing, liberating, and nourishing people in direct encounter with them.  The religion of Jesus is to live among those in need, not to be in gated communities of privilege.  The call of Jesus leads us to Calvary, not to the spa.  It leads us to minister to the poor and needy, not serve as chaplains to empire and worldly power.  

The Call of Lent

Gospel: Matthew 6: 1-6; 16-18

Another Lent begins.  Another Ash Wednesday is upon us where in the modern age we go to receive ashes and post pictures of ourselves with ash on forehead for social media.  It is as if we had not heard the Gospel for today's Mass.  Did we not hear the words about avoiding doing things in order to be seen and receive attention?  As with so many things Jesus tells us to do, this is just one more that is set aside because we know better.  

But if we are serious about Lent, about the fast and the putting on of ashes to repent of sin, then the words of Jesus must be taken seriously.  We need not create a spectacle of ourselves in our work of repentance.  People will know we have repented only when our lives have changed and we act differently than we did previously.  If we are extending mercy to others, performing deeds of loving kindness in the care of others, then the fruit of repentance will be evident in those deeds and not in performative acts of the ego.

Another Lent, another opportunity to make progress in the spiritual life through prayer, penance, and acts of mercy.  The only way to do these deeds authentically is to do them humbly, quietly, and with no fanfare.  Perform deeds of mercy the world does not care about: visit the sick and elderly in hospitals and care facilities; visit the imprisoned with prison ministry; provide welcome to immigrants, refugees, and migrants.  And don't post it on social media.  Don't tell anyone.  Just do it.   

Varieties of Bread

Gospel: Mark 8: 14-21

Jesus warns his disciples against the yeast of the Pharisees and Herod, contrasting their bread with the loaves he himself multiplied for the crowd.  Both the Pharisees and Herod are about the business of power, influence, and wealth.  Herod was in allegiance with the Roman Empire, doing whatever it took to retain power, committing atrocities, abusing the populace, and engaging in the pleasures of the world as any Roman leader would do.  

The Pharisees were zealous for the law, but not as a means to holiness and care for others.  They too wanted political power and influence.  They wanted the overthrow of the Roman occupation and the restoration of the kingdom of Israel.  They would go on to ally themselves with zealots, committing violence and revolting against the occupiers, only to see nothing but ruin for the people.  The quest for political power, influence, and wealth leads to ruin.

But the leaven of Jesus is the leaven of love and mercy.  He multiplied the loaves in order to feed people, nothing more.  The action was not a means of securing influence and worldly power.  It was simply to feed people, to extend the mercy of God to others.  Jesus went from place to place doing exactly this work by healing, liberating, and feeding people.  That too is the mission of the authentic disciple.  When shopping for bread, we must choose wisely... 

A Vain Search

Gospel: Mark 8: 11-13

We human beings look incessantly for signs.  We play Bible roulette to seek for answers.  We consult mediums, tarot cards, the entrails of chickens to see what the gods portend.  We stare at the skies and pore over our English muffin to see if the Virgin Mary is appearing there.  We strain every ounce of our body to see if God is speaking something aloud to us, some allocution - anything at all - in the hopes that we might get some sign, even though we could not explain what it is we are looking for.

Why do we do this?  We are not content with God's language which is silence.  Silence makes us uncomfortable.  It makes us uncomfortable, for silence reveals God fully to us.  Silence reveals us completely to ourselves.  And we like neither, for what we learn therein is often unpleasant.  We learn that we have work to do.  We have repentance and conversion to undertake, and we do not want to do that.  So we create some other reality, some false religion filled with sign seeking.

Jesus was completely comfortable in silence.  He would spend entire nights alone on a mountain in silence.  This is how he came to know God.  This is how he came to understand himself.  This is how he came to clarity regarding the world around him.  We too can come to these places of awareness if we but give up the vanity of sign seeking and learn to be in silence, listening to the voice of God within.  Lent is coming, a perfect time to enter the desert and encounter the silence. 

Minding What Matters

Gospel: Matthew 5: 17-37

After first giving us the Beatitudes, Jesus then oddly tells us that not one bit of the law is to be ignored until all has been fulfilled.  The statement is odd because we have seen, and will see, how Jesus repeatedly ignores different aspects of the law himself.  He ignores the Sabbath law when healing others or when the disciples pluck grain while traveling.  He disregards the cleansing and purification laws while interacting with those who are unclean.  So what is happening here?

Jesus goes through various parts of the law, but notice carefully what parts he emphasizes: those that involve our interaction and relationships with other people: murder, oath taking, divorce, adultery.  In each case he will quote the law and then apply the Beatitudes to them.  Do not murder means not thinking or saying anything harmful of another - the law of mercy.  Not committing adultery means not even looking at another lustfully - purity of heart.  

What matters in the law is the law of love - love God, love others.  And we only love God when we love our neighbor.  God is not loved by building shrines or adorning altars.  God does not need these things.  God needs us to love others.  If we want to build a shrine, build one within our hearts and in the hearts of others.  Use the values of the Beatitudes - mercy, meekness, purity of heart, peacemaking, empathy - to care for others, building a shrine of love in our hearts and in the hearts of those for whom we care. 

Checking Our Privilege

Gospel: Mark 8: 1-10

In today's Gospel portion, we see Jesus having compassion on the crowd that is hungry, while the disciples are indifferent to the hunger of the crowd.  We come to realize that the source of the disciples' indifference lies in the fact that they have food while no one else does.  They do not have empathy because they themselves are not and they have food.  And yet even though Jesus has access to food, he does have empathy for the crowd.  

Jesus asks the disciples to give him their food.  He multiplies it so that all now have access to food, and Jesus requires his disciples to give this food to everyone.  The disciples must have a direct encounter with those in need, and they must provide for those needs out of their own resources.  This is the fundamental mission of the Church, and Jesus continually calls us out of our lives of comfort to provide for a world hungry and starving.  

This feeding is twofold.  First, it is literal food for physical sustenance.  But it is also the food of the Eucharist that we are to provide for a hungry world as well.  For too long we have hoarded both of these things - the material wealth of the world and the gift of Eucharist and communion.  The Lord Jesus has multiplied both for us so that we might distribute it to all so that none go hungry either in body or soul.  He continually calls us to this work each and every day. 

Religious Grandstanding

Gospel: Mark 7: 31-37

Time and again in the Gospels Jesus tells people not to tell anyone about the miracle he has provided them in their lives.  In today's reading the injunction is even more pronounced: he strictly ordered them to tell no one.  But we always know better than Jesus.  Look at all the people following us!  And look at all the money coming in!  Look all we can do with it all, and look at all the influence we can have with such a large following!

That's exactly why Jesus told us not to tell anyone.  Jesus is utterly indifferent to the crowds, and quite often he is leery of them.  They - we - want to make him a king, but that is not what he is about.  And how often did Jesus condemn the love of money and reprimand the rich!  Money was also not something Jesus trusted.  And we are more likely to spend that money on episcopal palaces and private jets for the pastor than we would on care for the poor.  

If we are not willing to obey Jesus in this particular matter, in what other areas will we find ourselves in opposition to him?  If we put in our lot with the crowds and moneyed interests, we will find ourselves demeaning the poor and the marginalized; scapegoating immigrants, refugees, and migrants; justifying violence of every kind.  And we will create a twisted theology to justify all these things so that we might still call ourselves Christians...

Healing the Stranger

Gospel: Mark 7: 24-30

Today's Gospel is shocking to us.  Jesus is approached by a woman asking him to expel the demon from her child.  The woman and child are foreigners, and Jesus treats her harshly.  He tells her that his own should be healed before any foreigners receive any consideration.  But she implores him, and eventually Jesus heals the child, liberating her from the demon that possessed her.  Jesus himself is changed by this encounter with this woman and her child.  

We often hear from Christians today about how a nation should take care of its own before helping foreigners, or how we should not help foreigners at all.  Leaving aside the fact that these same Christians would not want to help their own citizens either, this Gospel story challenges us in the same way it challenged Jesus.  Need is need regardless of who needs it.  Everyone is a child of God regardless of race or any other category.

This encounter with the Syrophoenician woman is a direct challenge to us today in our times.  Significant parts of the Christian world seek to make God's love ever narrower and exclusionary.  The entire panorama of salvation history and the Gospel suggest the exact opposite.  God continually calls us to an ever wider scope of love.  God continues to seek to dilate our hearts ever wider to care for all of humanity and not just one narrow corner of it.   

The Blame Game

Gospel: Mark 7: 14-23

We human beings are highly adept and laying blame on other people and things when in point of fact we should be blaming ourselves.  We attribute evil in the world to the devil, or to liberals, or to conservatives, or to any object or people we deem unclean.  We then believe that if we come in contact with such things that such will make us unclean and evil.  We then invent a whole religion around banning such things and people and cleansing ourselves from contact with them.

But Jesus declares all of that to be utter rot.  The source of evil is not some thing out there.  Evil is within each one of us, and our choices alone bring evil upon us and the world.  Acknowledging that fact and our own need of repentance is the fundamental and foundational piece of authentic religion.  Examining our own consciences and accusing our own selves of sin rather than doing so on others is the real work of religious practice.  

The religion of Jesus is a hard one because it forces us to do two things we do not want to do:  encounter God, and encounter other people.  Both of those things reveal our shortcomings and flaws and our need of reform in our lives.  So we invent other things to do and practice and pretend that is real religion.  But it is not.  The authentic way of religion is the encounter with God and an encounter with other people, in seeking and extending mercy and love in the world. 

Empty Shows

Gospel: Mark 7: 1-13

In today's Gospel we see two very different visions of religion.  In the first, religion is presented as a series of external practices involving interaction with things that are not human - the cleansing of food, purifications, worship practices, and the like.  This is a vicarious religion of ease as it does not involve human interaction or anything ethical really.  It is safe, and we can create elaborate external practices that exclude other people so that we can make ourselves feel special with our actions and distinctive garbs.

But the religion of Jesus is much more challenging because it is in the realm of the ethical, in the care of others through love and mercy in specific ways.  Authentic religion is about the direct encounter with others in their need and our need.  True religion is about vulnerability.  Jesus encounters everyone.  He does not shy away from any encounter, no matter what background, no matter how unclean, no matter their status in the world.  

It is easy to see why religion often invents other things for it to be about.  We don't like being vulnerable.  We don't like encountering other people.  Like the priest and Levite, our Temple rituals are more important than caring for the other in need.  Our condemnation of others is much easier than meeting people where they are at and accompanying them on their journey.  Today we must choose which religion is ours - the pretend religion of dress-up and cosplay, or the religion of Jesus and encounter.

Open to All

Gospel: Mark 6: 53-56

As today's Gospel portion highlights, people follow Jesus wherever he goes, bringing to him people in need of healing.  What each of these scenes have in common is that Jesus heals every single person brought to him.  In not a single instance does he refuse to heal anyone.  Without regard to race, creed, gender, socioeconomic background or any other category, Jesus heals everyone brought to him for healing, liberation, and nourishment.

The second important feature is that Jesus never places any conditions on this healing, deliverance, and nourishment of others.  He does not require any prior action or statement.  He does not demand any quid pro quo or anything of the sort.  Jesus simply heals, liberates, and nourishes people simply because they have a need:  they are ill or lame; they are beset by demons; they are hungry.  That is enough to elicit the love and mercy of Jesus.

We Christians have a lot to learn in this regard.  We who love to be gatekeepers of sacramental grace and care.  We who demand conditions and quid pro quo for helping others.  We who think God is only for us and not for others.  We who are obsessed with our programs and processes.  With Jesus there are no conditions, no exclusion, no processes or programs.  There is just encounter and care based on the need others have for God's love and mercy.   

Salt and Light

Gospel: Matthew 5: 13-16

Salt and light have something in common, perhaps why Jesus uses them in today's Gospel portion on what a disciple should be.  Salt and light are not the main attraction.  No one orders salt and eats just it.  And no one puts on a light in order to look at the light.  Salt is used to enhance the flavor of something else or to preserve that item.  Light is used in order that we might see other things by it.  Salt and light are used to complement and enhance other things.

A disciple of the Lord Jesus, then, does not exist for themselves.  They are not to be the main attraction.  A disciples is supposed to exist in order to make others better, to shine a light on the good in the world.  We are to preserve and season those around us.  We are to shine light through the works of love and mercy on the good that the world does not regard as good - those cast off to the margins: the poor, the marginalized, the foreigner, immigrant, migrant, refugee.  

The Good Samaritan uses his oil and wine to save and preserve one left on the margins, one who was in the eyes of the world his enemy.  Today we are called to use our salt and light in the same way: to go out into the byways of the world to save and preserve those the world regards as dross.  And we are to do so as humby and quietly as salt and light do their work - not to be seen, but to be effective in this work of love and mercy to others. 

The Incessant Crowd

Gospel: Mark 6: 30-34

In this Gospel scene we find Jesus moving about from place to place in order to avoid the crowd.  No matter where he went or however he traveled, they would find him and continue to press upon him.  What were they looking for? He had healed their infirmities, liberated them from their demons, and provided them with food and nourishment.  Jesus sets about to teach them, but were they listening to what he was saying? Do they really understand what he is saying?

They are looking for someone to lead them, to tell them what to do.  They are hoping for a Messiah, someone to liberate them from Roman occupation.  Jesus offers them neither.  The kingdom of God is within us.  If we discover this inner kingdom and learn to heed this inner voice, then we have no need of an external leader of our soul.  Even less do we need a political leader offering false promises and even emptier solutions.  

The Roman empire came and went.  So too have many other empires and regimes.  The world ever strives for power, wealth, influence, and fame.  The kingdom of God is not about those things.  The crowd desires these things.  Jesus teaches us to seek God's kingdom and justice.  The crowd does not understand, and it will take part in Jesus' execution.  The kingdom of God is not of this world.  It is the world within, a world in opposition to this one, a world that offers true peace. 

Role Reversals

Gospel: Mark 6: 14-29

Consider the career of John the Baptist.  He goes into the desert to baptize and preach repentance.  Many come to hear him and receive his message.  Many too will receive baptism at his hands.  This activity is perfectly fine for those in power, as long as it remains out there on the edges and addressed to the commoners.  But when John challenges Herod with his own sin, well, that cannot be tolerated.  So John is arrested and executed on a whim.  

Now consider the modern Christian who praise John the Baptist as a hero of faith.  We find the modern Christian now as apologist for those in power, justifying the sins of the elite - everything from serial adultery to pedophilia and human trafficking.  What is more, this modern Christian rejoices over the open execution of those who would challenge the illegal activity of those in power, nonviolent protestors who stood up to challenge those who abduct others without due process or evidence whatever.  

Modern Christianity looks to blame all sorts of things for its demise other than its own behaviors and hypocrisies.  They would arrest and silence John the Baptist for challenging them for these behaviors as well.  But for those who seek an authentic Christianity, follow the way of John the Baptist, the way of Jesus.  It will likely lead to persecution, prison, and possibly death.  But it is authentic and real.  It is an authentic Italian meal in Milan, while modern Christianity is Olive Garden. 

Mission of Peace

Gospel: Mark 6: 7-13

In today's Gospel portion we are given the mission of the Church and of all Christians.  Jesus sends the disciples out two by two in order to anoint the sick with oil; to provide healing of body, mind, and spirit; to liberate people from the demons that oppress them; and to provide nourishment at table.  We are to do these things living simply with few possessions, accepting the hospitality of others wherever we go in this work of mercy.  

It is worth pondering this dynamic.  Disciples are sent into all sorts of lands, places where they are foreigners and strangers.  They fully expect to be treated well in many places as the law of hospitality was a universal one in ancient times.  Yet, even in the places where they would be mistreated, Jesus instructs them not to be vengeful or hateful.  We are to simply shake the dust from our feet and to move on to the next place.  This is an extension of the mission of peace to which we are sent.

It is ironic that so-called Christians who are so harsh to immigrants, migrants, and refugees want to be welcomed into other countries in order to "evangelize".  They are perfectly OK with Christians violating the laws of other nations in order to do so.  Yet they are unwilling to practice the universal law of hospitality to others, especially the poor, destitute, the refugee and migrant fleeing dire poverty and violence in their homelands.  Today's reading gives us much to ponder... 

Son of Mary

Gospel: Mark 6: 1-6

In ancient times it was customary that a man was identified as the son of his father - Simon, son of John; James the son of Alphaeus.  Yet in today's Gospel portion Jesus' townspeople refer to him as the Son of Mary, a way of insulting both the man and his mother.  This slur alleges that a man has no father, and that the mother was not connected to a man, or that Jesus' origins were out of wedlock.  This slur is added to a host of others who mock the work of Jesus.

In spite of these slurs, Jesus was still willing to heal and liberate and nourish others in his hometown as he had throughout other towns in Galilee.  Yet the people of Nazareth were not willing to receive or accept these acts of love and mercy.  Undeterred, Jesus simply moved on to other towns to carry out this mission of mercy.  He does not allow the slurs and rejections to prevent him from extending the mercy and love of God in the world.

This scene provides much for us to consider in our own lives and ministry.  Many both in the world and in church life itself mock those who care for the poor and marginalized, the sick, imprisoned, immigrant, refugee, and migrant.  It is for us to imitate the example of Jesus and simply continue this work of love and mercy in the world.  May we too be Sons and Daughters of Mary going about healing, liberating, and nourishing others.  

Preference for the Poor

Gospel: Mark 5: 21-43

In today's Gospel portion an influential person named Jairus in the community comes to Jesus asking him to heal his ailing daughter.  Jesus agrees to do so.  As they were making their way to his house, a poor unnamed woman gets the idea that if she but touch Jesus's garments, she will be healed of her infirmity of many years that has left her destitute and utterly desperate.  Being in a large crowd she can maintain her anonymity too.  

Jesus senses that someone touched his garments in an intentional way.  He stops and wants to meet this person.  His disciples and the crowd are annoyed.  He is holding up an important person! How can he stop to talk with someone so insignificant! But to Jesus no one is insignificant.  This woman matters.  It is not enough that she be healed.  She must also have a personal encounter with the Lord that provides meaning and compassion for her.  

This important man Jairus will have his daughter healed, but he had to wait so that this poor woman could be healed.  Jesus in this scene and in many others shows the preference for the poor that should mark our own lives and the ministry of the Church.  If we think the borders of a wealthy nation are more important than the needs of starving immigrants, refugees, and migrants, then we are a long way off from the kingdom of God.  

Presenting the Lord

Gospel: Luke 2: 22-40

If we have been paying attention, we come to the realization that reconciling the various stories of Jesus' infancy from a historical point of view is utterly impossible.   Fleeing into Egypt and going through the rituals of Jewish presentation and returning to Nazareth are mutually exclusive options, especially given the fact that Luke does not reference the Magi or the flight into Egypt in any way.  There is simply no way to reconcile the two accounts.

But that is not the point.  As with all things in Scripture our goal is not to put together a history but to derive the religious truths of the story for our own spiritual life.  In today's feast the parents of Jesus scrupulously follow the prescriptions of Jewish law in going to the Temple to present Jesus as first born to the Lord, offering the required sacrifice of the poor, and in Mary being purified after giving birth.  Along the way they encounter Simeon and Anna, two unknown figures awaiting the Messiah of God. 

Todays' feast invites us to consider our own presentation of the Lord within us to the world, to our own dedication to the Lord, and our own purification before God.  Today we light candles signifying the light of the world present in the person of Jesus, present within each one of us.  We are to let that light shine before the world just as in the Temple of Jerusalem and beyond where Jesus brought that light wherever he went healing, liberating, and nourishing others.

The Eightfold Noble Path

Gospel: Matthew 5: 1-12

Jesus begins the Sermon on the Mount with the giving of the New Law - the eight Beatitudes.  Rather than a set of rules to follow, Jesus provides us with ways of being in the world - poor in spirit, meek, pure of heart, peacemaking, long-suffering, merciful.  These ways of being become the lens through which Jesus sets about the reinterpret the entire Mosaic law in the rest of the Sermon.  They become the path through which the Christian is to navigate in the world.

The Beatitudes are to be our daily examination in our path through life.  Some days we will find ourselves connected to a particular Beatitude, while similarly finding another one particularly challenging.  Each day of examination of our lives with these Beatitudes reveals to us more about ourselves, and more about how Jesus embodied each of these ways of being in his own life.  These maxims become our measure of progress in the spiritual life.

That we Christians have somehow neglected these precepts of the Lord Jesus and focused instead on the ten commandments is somewhat telling.  The Beatitudes are a great challenge to live, for they encompass the whole person.  They are not about merely external actions as the commandments proscribe, but more importantly they are about internal dispositions that inform our entire way of being, thinking, and acting.  Would that we had monuments for the Beatitudes instead of the commandments!