31st Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 31, 2021

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Do not obsess about rules; instead, act out of love

Gospel: Mark 12:28–34
One of the scribes, when he came forward and heard them disputing and saw how well he had answered them, asked him, “Which is the first of all the commandments?”

Jesus tells us throughout the gospels that if we do all sorts of good things, observe the most stringent practices, avoid even the occasion of sin, we are missing the mark if our motivation is only religious self-preservation or personal happiness.

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30th Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 24, 2021

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What about my own blindness? What do I want from Jesus?

Gospel: Mark 10:46–52
Jesus said to the blind man, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man replied to him, “Master, I want to see.”

We might go through life so focused on certain tasks or pleasures, that we fail to notice many things… We might cultivate a sort of selective blindness which allows us to be efficient and successful, but may cause us to skip the nuances which can make us more like Christ, who noticed everybody…

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29th Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 17, 2021

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What it means to travel the road with Jesus

Gospel: Mark 10:35–45
Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.

What leader of a movement for total change can expect followers to stay with him or her by promising suffering, a life of service and obedience—and asking them to choose the last place—as Jesus has been instructing his disciples?

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28th Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 10, 2021

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Who or what keeps me from loving God completely?

Gospel: Mark 10:17–30
Go, sell what you have, and give to [the] poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.

We may feel that, in our society, we personally could by no stretch of the imagination be called rich and so the story does not apply to us. But we can cling to other things besides money. I might profitably ask myself today if there is anything at all in my life which I would find it very difficult to give up if God asked it of me.

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26th Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 26, 2021

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What it means to be first in the Kingdom of God

Gospel: Mark 9:38–43, 45, 47–48
Anyone who gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ, amen, I say to you, will surely not lose his reward.

You are missing the depth and the thrill and the joy in Catholic living if you carry Christ only into Church, if you fail to carry him from Communion to the concrete and glass outside, to the condo and the slum, to the desk and your bed—in a word, to the men and women who people your days.

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