28th Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 13, 2024

Who or what keeps me from loving God completely?

Mark 10:17–30

As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up, knelt down before him, and asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

Jesus answered him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.

You know the commandments: ‘You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; you shall not defraud; honor your father and your mother.’”

He replied and said to him, “Teacher, all of these I have observed from my youth.”

Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him, “You are lacking in one thing. Go, sell what you have, and give to [the] poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”

At that statement his face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.

Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!”

The disciples were amazed at his words. So Jesus again said to them in reply, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!

It is easier for a camel to pass through [the] eye of [a] needle than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

They were exceedingly astonished and said among themselves, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “For human beings it is impossible, but not for God. All things are possible for God.”

Peter began to say to him, “We have given up everything and followed you.”

Jesus said, “Amen, I say to you, there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the gospel who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age: houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come.”

Music Meditations

• “Seek Ye First” (sung by Maranatha! Praise Band) [YouTube]
• “The Summons” (sung by Robert Kochis) [YouTube]
• “Be Thou My Vision” (sung by Fernando Ortega) [YouYube]

Opening Prayer

Jesus, you ask us to leave everything and to follow you. I think you mean all those things that insulate me from your love and from the love of others. Let me examine what is the one thing holding me back from freedom. I can walk away or I can ask you help me to deal with this stumbling block. Help me to see what is truly necessary and life-giving and to use whatever goods and talents I have for the purpose of loving. Help me to be free of those attachments, even to those I love, that hold me back, that weigh me down. Help me to set myself free to follow you.

Companions for the Journey

Adapted from “Living Space”, a service of the Irish Jesuits:

Today we have the story of a rich man, that is, a man who believed he was rich or who believed that in his material wealth was his happiness. He was a well-meaning man. “Good Teacher, what must I do to share in everlasting life?” “You know the commandments,” says Jesus and then proceeds to list only those commandments which involve our relations with others, omitting those relating directly to God: not killing; not committing adultery; not stealing; not bearing false witness; not defrauding; respecting parents.

“I have kept all these things since I was young,” says the man. He was indeed a good man insofar as he did respect his parents and he did not do any of the sinful things mentioned.

Jesus looked at the man with a real love. This is not a love of affection or attraction. It is the love of agape, a love which desires the best possible thing for the other. This man was good but Jesus wanted him to be even better. So he said to him: “But there is one more thing: go and sell all you have and give to the poor. After that come and follow me.”

On hearing this, the man’s face clouded over. He walked slowly away full of sadness because he was very rich. Jesus had asked him for the one thing he could not give up. Jesus had asked for the one thing which the man believed showed he was specially blessed by God. He had not expected this. After he had gone Jesus looked at his disciples and said: “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!” Now it was his disciples’ turn to be alarmed and shocked.

Their whole tradition believed that wealth was a clear sign of God’s blessings; poverty was a curse from God.

Jesus removes any misunderstanding on their part: “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God.” In other words, quite impossible. This was really too much for them. “In that case,” they asked each other, “who can be saved?” If those who have done well in this life cannot be saved what hope can there be for the losers? It would take them time to learn the truth of Jesus’ words. And it is a lesson that many of us Christians still have to learn.

And we might ask, Why is it so difficult for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God? Is there something wrong with being rich? The answer depends on what meaning we give to ‘rich’ and to ‘Kingdom of God’.

A person at a lower middle class level in Europe or the United States may be extremely wealthy with the same resources if living in some African or Asian countries. Similarly a ‘rich’ peasant in a remote village may live a life that is primitive compared to a family on welfare in Europe.

When Jesus uses the word ‘rich’ he means a person who has more, a lot more, than those around him and especially when many of those around him do not have enough for their basic needs. For a person to cling to their material goods in such a situation, to enjoy a relatively luxurious standard of living while those around are deficient in food and housing is in contradiction to everything that Jesus and the Kingdom stand for.

And we need to emphasize that the ‘Kingdom of God’ here is not referring to a future life in ‘heaven’. Jesus is not saying that a rich person cannot go to heaven. He is concerned with how the rich person is living now. The Kingdom is a situation, a set of relationships where truth and integrity, love and compassion and justice and the sharing of goods prevail, where people take care of each other.

The man in the story said that he kept the commandments. One should notice that, except for one, all are expressed negatively. The man could observe several of them by doing nothing! Jesus was asking him to do something very positive, namely, to share his prosperity with his brothers and sisters in need. That he was not prepared to do. As such, he was not ready for the kingdom. He could not be a follower of Jesus. Nor can anyone else who is in a similar situation.

We might also add that the teaching applies not only to individuals but to communities and even nations. There are countries in the world today enjoying very high levels of prosperity with all kinds of consumer luxuries available while a very large proportion of the rest of the world lives mired in poverty, hunger, disease. It is one of the major scandals of our day. This is not a Kingdom situation and much of it is caused not by an uncaring God, or natural causes but by human beings who just refuse to share their surplus wealth. As someone has said, the really rich are those whose needs are the least.

A final reflection. 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. It might be a relationship, it might be a job or position, it might be good health.

To be a disciple Jesus means that he is asking me to follow him unconditionally, without any strings, ready to let go of anything and everything (although he may not actually ask me to do so). It is the readiness that counts. The man in the story did not even seem to have that. And still Jesus looked at him with love…

Weekly Memorization

Taken from the gospel for today’s session…

How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the Kingdom of God.

Living the Good News

What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?

Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:

Reflection Questions

• Who are some people you know who might fit this description of the rich young man?
• Has there been a time in your life when you found “getting and spending” no longer enough and yearned for something else to focus on?
• Why did Jesus tell him to sell everything and give the proceeds to the poor before following Jesus?
  What are the implications for us?
• Realistically speaking, do I think Jesus us asking everyone, including me, to give everything I have to the poor?
  How then, do I interpret this suggestion, for myself?
• In my desire to enter the kingdom, is there some one thing that I lack?
• What are some hindrances besides wealth that can keep us from following Jesus?
• In your daily life do you think of wealth or talent as a blessing?
  How has your wealth or talent been a blessing in your life?
  How can it be a distraction from our relationship to God?
  Why do you think Jesus seems to find wealth a problem?
• Are riches always condemned in the gospels?
  How can we reconcile our “riches” with God’s kingdom?
• How does our consumer culture make it hard to say we have enough?
• Do you know people who seem to want to be sure that they will receive eternal life, or say that they know that they are saved?
  Do you feel that these people have a sense that they are guaranteed eternal life?
  Why is that so important to them?
  What, besides “keeping the rules” must we do to obtain eternal life?
  Were you surprised at Jesus reaction to the rich young man’s refusal to do what He suggested?
  Have you even been involved with someone who asked for advice, then refused to take it?
  How do we feel/react when people refuse to accept advice we give them “for their own good”?
• How does my family/society treat those who choose to turn their backs on wealth and success in order to, say, work with the poor or disenfranchised?
  Would your loved ones be happy or dismayed if you made such a choice?
  Or:
  Would I be happy if my child made such a choice?
• All normally feel bad if they do something bad.
  Have I ever felt bad about something good I DID NOT do?
• If we focus on the eye of the needle, trying to drag our particular camel through it, do we see it as a pretty discouraging responsibility? So how do we deal with those issues?
• What is the difference between an invitation and a command?
  If you were the young man, how would you have reacted?
  What does that tell you about your own spiritual life?
• How can we as individuals respond to God’s powerful gift?
• Nothing is impossible for God. When we invoke God’s power on our behalf, what do we humans usually ask for?
  What does Jesus seem to be saying we ought to ask for?

Meditations

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions:

What do you think the phrase “Kingdom of God” means? We have to think about this a lot, because many were taught that the kingdom of God only refers to heaven—the afterlife. But a more complete reading of scripture holds two images of the kingdom in a sort of tension: it is a world in this life which mirrors God’s ultimate plan for everyone, a world of justice peace and love. It is also life with God where all of these thing are ultimately completed. Beyond this life. Today’s passage does manage to conflate the two ideas: The Kingdom of God is now and not yet. If we only focus on getting into heaven, then we squander all our energies just trying to stay out of sin. Exhausting! But trying to make a better world is not exactly easy either.

This is where we need God. So I ask myself:
Where in my spiritual life have I focused all my energies?
What attachments do I need to free myself from to be free to love as Jesus did?
What if I cannot be perfectly good or perfectly generous of my time and treasure?
Do I ask God’s help in this mighty endeavor of a lifetime?
Do I understand that no matter where I am in my journey, God is right there with me helping my drag my particular camels through a narrow passage we call the saintly life?

A Meditation in the Ignatian Style/Imagination:

“Well, Well, Well! Look who has just come up to talk to this preacher guy! Aren’t you surprised to see the son of our local chief, with all the wealth and distractions he possesses, come to speak to this dusty, unimpressive little man whom they call Jesus? Everybody else is dressed for a coming journey with Jesus, in their worn tunics and dusty sandals. This young man is dressed in a lovely wool tunic, what loos like new sandals. He has some rings on his fingers and his beard is neatly trimmed; he surely stands out it this crowd. We all know that this young man is considered a sort of “straight arrow”, obeying all the rules. What could he possibly want from Jesus? He has everything any of us could ever hope to have. But wait, the young man exchanges some earnest words with Jesus, then turns and leaves, looking very downcast. Those standing around seem very quiet and it is as if all energy has left with this young person. It is sad. I wonder what Jesus said to him. Whatever it was, it was not an angry exchange, because Jesus is looking at this man who is leaving with love and compassion. Maybe I will find out later just what was said….

Well, all three synoptic gospels relate this story, and several things stand out: Jesus asked the man to give up everything he owned and follow Jesus, and the man was sad because he was not ready to make that commitment and to give up every material thing he possessed. But Jesus did not condemn him and hurl a curt dismissal of the man; instead Jesus seemed to feel a genuine sympathy for him. And every gospel account relates Jesus commenting how hard it is for those who are rich to enter the kingdom of God. Yes, how hard it is for me to enter into a kingdom where children do not go to school hungry, if they go to school at all; how hard it is to enter a kingdom where no one goes without healthcare, and other necessities like a place to live, IF IT MEANS THAT I HAVE TO GIVE UP SOMETHING I POSSESS IN ORDER TO MAKE IT HAPPEN. And yet, Jesus seems to understand my reluctance, and waits and hopes for me learn to let go of some of the trappings of power and wealth in order to bring the Kingdome of God to fruition. I hope I develop the wisdom and courage to get there….

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions:

Adapted from “First Impressions”, a service of the Southern Dominican Province, 2024:

Frequently people will say they are “blessed” because they are healthy, have a good family, comfortable home, food to eat, etc. What does that say about people who lack these “blessings” because of poverty, sickness, civil conflict, etc. Are they not “blessed?” Are they left out of God’s loving care and concern?

The rich man and his contemporaries would have regarded his wealth as a sign of God’s blessing. And more. They would have attributed their blessings” to their faithful observance of the law. Which was suggested by the man’s response to Jesus’ listing of the commandments. “Teacher, all of these I have observed from my youth.” To that response Mark tells us, Jesus looked at him with love and invited him to sell everything and join the rest of his disciples. “Go sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” But if he gives up his worldly possessions, what will he have to show he is “blessed” by God?

The question for me is: how do I regard the good things and the bad things that have happened in my life? Do I think of God as a dispenser of good luck as a reward for being good? Do I think God “blesses” those who follow the rules and are considered “good people”, with good luck and good fortune? Have I ever prayed for God to grant me a particular favor, because I have played by the rules and I have sort of earned it? On the other hand, have I ever looked upon those who have suffered a job loss, economic reversal, even bad health or the loss of a loved one as people who must have done something to deserve it? Have I considered them worthy of pity, but in a condescending, somewhat judgmental sort of way? How do I think Jesus viewed the rich and successful people he encountered? How do I think he viewed the poor, the sick, the outcast?

A Meditation in the Augustinian Style/Relationship:

Adapted from Sacred Space, a service of the Irish Jesuits:

I allow myself time to think about what Jesus loves about me. This is not attraction or friendship, this is AGAPE (a love that wants only the best for me, and is unconditional). I rest in the knowledge that anything Jesus hopes for me, wants for me is my happiness and joy—and I don’t move on until I do!

Jesus may show me the one thing that is holding me back from freedom. I can walk away or I can ask for help to deal with it.

Can I assure Jesus that I adhere to his basic commandments? If not, which one is most difficult for me right now?

Is Jesus asking more of me—a loving concern for my poorer neighbors that gives generously without counting the cost? Taking the extra time to talk to someone in my family or friend circle who is lonely—needy and maybe annoyingly so, yes, but also lonely? Jesus does not invite me to mediocrity. I need to challenge myself a little.

He asks everything but he does it with great love. What is Jesus asking of me right now? What is my answer? Do I realize he loves me no matter what my answer is?

Speak to Jesus about your response to his invitation; speak to him also about your recognition of his great love.

Poetic Reflection:

The rich young man in the gospel was asked to give up his wealth and his comfortable life, to “go further in”. What does Thomas Centollela (former Stegner fellow) say it means to “go further in”:

“At Big Rec”

A few hours spent in the dry rooms of the dying.
Then the walk home, and the sudden rain
comes hard, and you want it coming hard,
you want it hitting you in the forehead
like anointment, blessing all the days
that otherwise would be dismissed
as business as usual. Now you’re ready
to lean on the rail above the empty diamonds
where, in summer, the ballplayers wait patiently
for one true moment more alive than all the rest.
Now you’re ready for the ancient religion of dogs,
that unleashed romp through the wildness, responding
To no one’s liturgy but the field’s and the rain’s.
You’ve come this far, but you need to live further in.
You need to slip into the blind man for a while,
tap along with his cane past the market stalls
and take in, as if they were abandoned,
the little blue crabs which within an hour will be eaten.
You have to become large enough to accommodate
all the small lives that otherwise would be forgotten.
You have to raise yourself to the power of ten.
Love more, require less, love without regard
For form. You have to live further in.

Closing Prayer

Lord, your world is so wide, so big, and my heart is often so small, so narrow. Help me to focus less on sin and staying out of it, and more on love and staying in it.

27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 6, 2024

It’s all about relationships

Mark 10: 2–16

The Pharisees approached and asked, “Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?” They were testing him. He said to them in reply, “What did Moses command you?” They replied, “Moses permitted him to write a bill of divorce and dismiss her.” But Jesus told them, “Because of the hardness of your hearts he wrote you this commandment.

But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother [and be joined to his wife], and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh.

Therefore what God has joined together, no human being must separate.”

In the house the disciples again questioned him about this.

He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

And people were bringing children to him that he might touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this he became indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not prevent them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.

Amen, I say to you, whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it.” Then he embraced them and blessed them, placing his hands on them.

Music Meditations

• You Are Mine--David Haas
• Come Thou Font of Every Blessing--Mormon Tabernacle Choir
• All Creatures of our God and King--John Rutter

Opening Prayer

Lord, help me to be understanding of the problems facing many marriages and many families today. We are quick to judge and slow to perceive the pressures that face many people in the face of covid, and political and economic uncertainty. I hold up to you [a specific person, or people]. Please keep them in your care and give them the strength to carry on.

Companions for the Journey

From “First Impressions”, 2006, a service of the Southern Dominican Province:

Jesus continues teaching his disciples on their way to Jerusalem. As a test, the Pharisees raise the issue of divorce and this allows him an opportunity for another teaching. The law the Pharisees refer to (Dt. 24: 1-4) allowed a man to dismiss a wife for “something objectionable.” The issue of divorce was not an insignificant one for the religious community in Jesus’ time. (It isn’t insignificant for our time either.) Many rabbis were asked their opinion on the matter and each had one to give. Rather than discuss the allowance for divorce in the law, Jesus calls them back to Genesis and reminds them of God’s plan for marriage.

What he says is a hard teaching since so many these days have had divorces; in our country almost 50% of new marriages are expected to end in divorce and many believers have to deal with Jesus’ teaching in the face of the realities of modern life. So, let’s wrestle with what Jesus says and what we experience among family, friends and maybe ourselves. First of all: the reason for a strict teaching against divorce.

In ancient societies, and even now, marriage laws were societal ways to protect women, who could not own property and would suffer without a husband or man’s support. The laws also protected children who were the most vulnerable in society. The laws safeguarded such members of the community from the whims of fathers and husbands. Some interpreted the law’s permission for divorce rather loosely. The “something objectionable” might be rather miniscule—a man could dismiss his wife for poor cooking or because she was elderly. When a woman was divorced she became vulnerable and dependent on the male members of her family for support. If they wouldn’t or couldn’t help her, remember the extreme poverty of the vast majority of the people, she was left on her own. So, stricter marriage and divorce laws helped those who needed protection. Jesus’ teaching is a difficult one. If we look at Matthew’s gospel for the parallel passage to this one in Mark, we notice that it can be found in the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus lays down other difficult teachings about: loving enemies; living the Beatitudes, the ideal of nonviolence; turning the other cheek; giving without expecting return. In the light of these ideals that Jesus places before us we must admit that we all fall short. Perhaps the teaching about marriage and divorce should be treated as we treat his other ideals; we fail in so many ways to live the life that Jesus has described for members of his kingdom and we are always in need of mercy from our compassionate God.

This is not to excuse ourselves from what he says to us today. We can’t close our ears to the teachings Genesis and Jesus place before us; that marriage is an indissoluble bond and that it represents, as our church teaches, the unbreakable bond between God and God’s creation. So, the union between man and woman calls for fidelity on many levels, not only sexual, but in the giving of one to the other in loving trust and support so as to make manifest a fidelity that resembles God’s fidelity to us.

That’s the ideal of Christian marriage, the one taught by our Church. We believe that the sacrament of marriage is to mirror God’s love for us and Christ’s love for his church. But in our human condition, we who strive for the ideal, often fail. We try to be faithful to living the life Jesus has modeled and taught, but we fall short. Today we bring that struggle and good intention to the altar as we offer ourselves to God and God, in return, gives us Christ and his Spirit to help us live what we profess. As church people we are not blind to human weakness. Over the years we have come to a deeper understanding of what makes full human consent possible. We realize that at certain stages of a person’s life or because of circumstances, a fully free and human consent is not possible. And so, with this newer awareness, there are more dissolutions of marriage in our church because of inadequate consent. But there are still other situations that do not qualify for such official declarations.

Pastors, in their care of the faithful, come across couples who may not be able to receive ecclesial declarations of nullity of previous marriages. These people have decided on remarriage and live good family lives, trusting that God will forgive whatever responsibility they bear for the failure of a previous marriage. They hunger to participate in their parish community and its sacramental life. These people, aware of their situation regarding the laws of the church, have decided, with sincere consciences and even the advice of their pastors, to return to the sacraments. Obviously this is not the official teaching of the Church; but still, it is not uncommon pastoral practice and has been an opening to a renewed spiritual life for probably many divorced Catholics. Other Christian churches have decided to allow second marriages under similar conditions.

Today’s gospel condemns divorce. Yet, we all fail in many ways to live up to the radical demands of the gospel and the question might be asked: why is the issue of divorce and remarriage any different? Perhaps strict laws are necessary to help protect the ideal. With them in place, married couples might be encouraged to work out or find help when problems arise. A friend, married for 30 years and still in love with his wife said, “Over the years, we almost got divorced about 5 times.” Or, as a young mother told me, “Being married is the toughest thing I have ever done.” Yet she and her husband continue to work hard at it. We’ll hold on to the ideal, but we need to find ways to tend to people caught in a crisis or who find themselves in situations for which they are not responsible. Even faithful Christians must deal with personal sin and live in and be affected by a broken world. When the ideal breaks down, we have the mercy of God as a refuge and that is Jesus’ most basic teaching, isn’t it? —God’s compassion for our broken and sinful nature. When, with all our best planning and good intentions for faithful and permanent married relationships, we fail, then God’s mercy comes forward and center stage.

If we, as a church, are to take Jesus’ words seriously then we need to do more, not only officially, but as family and friends to support married couples when their relationships are strained. It is harder these days to do that. The culture in which we live is not very helpful, divorce is so common. In addition: we live so far apart from those we love, it is hard to be there when they need us; we are busy multi-tasking; we have responsibilities, not only for our children, but for the care of aging parents; our careers and jobs demand more than the standard forty-hour work week from us, etc. But think of all the weddings we attend. Isn’t there an implied commitment we make at those ceremonies, not only to show up for the service and the party afterwards, but later on, when the couple needs our support, advice, and encouragement to help them “become one flesh.” That’s also the time for us to “show up.”

Weekly Memorization

Taken from the gospel for today’s session…

Whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it

Living the Good News

What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?

Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:

Reflection Questions

• Divorce laws, like most laws, protect the ideal. How do we deal with people who cannot live or have not lived up to the ideal?
• We fail and make mistakes in so many ways, and seek and receive forgiveness. Why is divorce itself, or divorce and remarriage treated so differently?
• Where does compassion come in, where does justice come in, and where does mercy come in?
• Are there some “rules” that are considered more important than others in our society?
  Are they spoken or unspoken?
  Are family “rules” sometimes different from societal rules?
  Are Church “rules” different from the “rules” of family or society?
• How do we, as church, deal with divorced people, single parents, or children of same?
• What do we do as a parish to support marriage and families?
  Can we do better?
  How?
• Is there ever a slight whiff of superiority that emanates from those who are in intact marriages (good or bad) toward those who have never married or who are divorced?
• What can I do or say to give support to those who are struggling in their commitment to one another?
• From Faith Book by Jude Siciliano, O.P. 2009
  Have I shown compassion and support for those struggling in their marriage?
  After a divorce, have I let one of the former spouses slip off my radar screen?
• What does it mean to accept the kingdom of God like a child?
• When do children these days lose some of these childlike qualities?
  Which childlike qualities are hard for adults to sustain?
• In what way is our cultural climate hostile to the physical, mental and emotional well-being of today’s children?
• Besides children, other groups were marginalized in Jesus’ time. What groups are marginalized in our present time?

Meditations

A Meditation in the Ignatian Style/Imagination:

Imagination:
My name is Sarah. Almost nobody knows my name because I am generally referred to as the “woman at the well”, or the divorced woman at the well I want share with you what my life has been like here in Samaria. My family married me off at 15 to an older man looking for sons, and since I was young and healthy, I was considered a good candidate. Unfortunately, no children came, and he decided to obtain a writ of divorce; I was summarily dismissed from his house, and my parents were ashamed but found me another husband. Unfortunately, I was not able to give him children either, and so I was divorced by him. This time, my parents were really not able or willing to have me live with them, and I had no brothers with whom I could live either. I begged a little, scrounged off other relatives and survived until I could find another husband. When husbands 3,4 and 5 found me defective as well, I was on my own again. Luckily, someone came along who was willing to have me. L “live with him” but as I was damaged goods, he was not interested in marriage. Throughout this whole experience, I lost both family and friends because of the stink of failure that surrounded my broken marriages. While I did not seek to divorce anyone, somehow the fact that I was divorced was an embarrassment —I was a loser. Who wants to hang out with a loser? In my little village I could see people consciously avoiding me, whispering to one another about the wreck I had become. Some children called me terrible names, ones they had heard from their parents, no doubt. Occasionally one of the wives of an elder would come up to me and berate me for the scandal I was causing in the community by living with someone to whom I was not married. I was lonely and isolated, and terribly afraid that I might be booted out of the house when my “protector” found a younger, prettier, more fertile potential wife.

So my routine was to creep out of the house in the middle of the day, when it was hottest and the well was absolutely deserted. There, I would fill my buckets in peace and scuttle back to the sanctuary of my empty house, there to wait for my protector to return home and keep me company. It was lonely and sometimes boring, but I really hate confrontation. You can imagine my surprise when a small group of men came to the well and left their leader there while they went into town and the one left behind asked me to give him a drink of water. Men do not talk to unaccompanied women; men do not talk to divorced women; Jewish men do not talk to Samaritans, period. What was this man all about? It was clear to me that he was something special. It was also clear that what he was talking about was way over my head, and I kept asking for clarification. When he asked me to summon my husband to conduct this conversation in a more appropriate manner, I had to admit that I had no real husband. That’s when he revealed that he knew all about me, somehow—my divorces, my current living situation. I read no condemnation or horror in his voice or words; I heard sympathy and honesty. I finally realized how special this dusty, thirsty little man was, and that God’s messiah might be at hand. When the man’s friends returned, I learned that their friend’s behavior was not something they were totally comfortable with. But he was comfortable talking to me and teaching me, and for that reason I decided that this man was truly someone sent by God. No matter what had happened to me before, no matter how shamed and isolated I had felt before, his kindness, intelligence and understanding of me as a human being, not as a failed divorcee, gave me the courage to go back into my town and bring others to experience his message for themselves. His love gave me courage; his understanding gave me back my identity, my name. My name is Sarah.

Reflection:
Too often, Mark 10:2-16 and the conventional preaching on marriage only serves as a further reminder to those who have experienced divorce, that somehow they are failures, are bad people, are losers. If only they had done something different, had behaved better, they would not be in this plight. Many divorcees in the Church feel like they are not quite welcome because they failed to meet the standards that should mark all good Christians. And if they are divorced and remarried they have committed a sin that cannot be forgiven unless they break up their current marriage and family. So I need to ask myself how I view the situation of someone in my life or my church community who has been divorced. Have I passed judgement on them, their parents or their children? Do I look for who is to blame for so failing to meet the standards set by God? Do I recognize the actuality of cultural or societal prejudice against those who have undergone a divorce? In this country, and in many others around the world, one spouse can file for divorce, and the other has no choice but to accept that reality. Do I realize that not everyone who is divorced actually wished to be divorced? Do I view the children of divorce with a kind of superior pity that seeks to cosign them to lesser ranks because they come from what used to be called “ a broken home? How do children experience the stigma of divorce and how do they survive it? ? If I am divorced, do I feel that God understands my imperfect, messy life? How can I myself uphold the aspirational ideal of a forever marriage and still avoid judging or excluding someone (including myself) for whom that ideal was not possible? How can my church?

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions:

Jesus said, in speaking of children, that to such belongs the kingdom of God. What childlike qualities commend themselves to us as qualities which should characterize those seeking to enter the Kingdom? (Here are a few that Father Walter Burghardt, S.J. suggested in a homily written in 1985):
Open, not cynical
Trusting, Rarely suspicious.
Responsive to love and affection
Are not prized only for what they have accomplished
Delighted to be surprised
Every day is often a new day, old hurts forgotten
Forgiving
Honest
Aware of their powerlessness, their dependence on another
See the humor in the ridiculous
Open to a new adventure
(You add some here)
Which qualities come naturally to you?
Which qualities do you admire in others?
Which qualities do you criticize in others
Which qualities are the hardest for you?

A Meditation in the Augustinian Style/Relationship:

From “First Impressions”, a service of the Southern Dominican Province:

From today’s Gospel reading:
Jesus said,
“Whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it.”
Then he embraced them and blessed them, placing his hands on them.

Reflection:
Jesus not only shows his affection for children, but he takes advantage of the moment to speak on behalf of society’s most vulnerable members which, in the light of the context, would not only include children, who had no legal status, but divorced women as well. In Jesus’ statement against divorce he followed his usual pattern of protecting the poor and most vulnerable members of society.

So we ask ourselves:
Have I shown compassion and support for those struggling in their marriage?
After a divorce, have I let one of the former spouses slip off my radar screen?

Poetic Reflection:

Read this humorous and satirical love poem by Billy Collins. What does it tell you about the all-too-human imaginary speaker of this litany to his or her loved one? Are we ever slightly competitive with those we love?

“Litany”

You are the bread and the knife
The crystal goblet and the wine.
—Jacques Crickillon

You are the bread and the knife
the crystal goblet and the wine.
You are the dew on the morning grass
and the burning wheel of the sun.
You are the white apron of the baker
and the marsh birds suddenly in flight.

However, you are not the wind in the orchard,
the plums on the counter
or the house of cards.
And you are certainly not the pine-scented air.
There is no way you are the pine-scented air.

It is possible you are the fish under the bridge,
maybe even the pigeon on the general’s head,
but you are not even close
to being the field of cornflowers at dusk.

And a quick look in the mirror will show
that you are neither the boots in the corner
nor the boat asleep in the boathouse.
It might interest you to know,
speaking of the plentiful imagery of the world,
that I am the sound of rain on the roof.

I also happen to be the shooting star,
the evening paper blowing down an alley,
and the basket of chestnuts on the kitchen table.

I am also the moon in the trees
and the blind woman’s tea cup.
But don’t worry. I am not the bread and the knife
You are still the bread and the knife.
You will always be the bread and the knife
Not to mention the crystal goblet and—somehow—the wine.

Closing Prayer

Lord, we know your way is one of faithful love, but we also know that human love of all kinds can be fragile. Help me to bring compassion to all who are finding relationships and commitments difficult right now. I hear you calling me to love, to forgiveness, to fidelity and patience; I realize that I need courage and resolve in each of my relationships to be able to answer that call.

26th Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 29, 2024

Who is a true disciple; who is a false disciple?

Mark 9:38–43, 45, 47–48

John said to him, “Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us.”

Jesus replied, “Do not prevent him. There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name who can at the same time speak ill of me.

For whoever is not against us is for us.

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.

“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe [in me] to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were put around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.

If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed than with two hands to go into Gehenna, into the unquenchable fire.

And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life crippled than with two feet to be thrown into Gehenna.

And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. Better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna, where ‘their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.’”

Music Meditations

• Make Me a Channel of Your Peace---Vincent Ramkhelawan
• We Are Called (see YouTube @maryelizabethanne2)
• Here I am, Lord---John Michael Talbot

Opening Prayer

Lord, open my eyes to all the good that is being done in your name, whether it be by people in my religious group, or by others. Help me to understand that discipleship is not a competition to prove that I and my religious cohorts are better, more faithful followers. May I show generosity of spirit in welcoming others to join in your mission to save all. I especially commend to you [a specific person], who is not of my religious tradition, but who is a powerful witness to your message.

Companions for the Journey

By Jude Siciliano, O.P. (jude@judeop.org). From “First Impressions” 2021, a service of the southern Dominican Province:

I wonder why Eldad and Medad weren’t at the great meeting with Moses and the seventy elders when God bestowed the spirit of prophesy on them? Did they forget the time and date of the gathering? Had there been a disagreement between them and the others and so they refused to attend? Still, Eldad and Medad received the spirit of prophecy, just like the rest. Joshua, part of the “in group” protests, and wants Moses to restrain Eldad and Medad. Joshua has a restricted spirit and a small heart. If things aren’t done by the standards of the inner circle they must be stopped. Only those who are on our side and who think and do things according to our ways get to share in the gifts of God and experience God’s presence. But Moses will have none of that kind of thinking because he has met and experienced God’s bigness of heart. We don’t have to clutch God to ourselves as our private property. Some religious people do that, restricting God’s presence and activity to conforming members and in precisely enacted rituals.

The gospel parallels the reading from Numbers. A person who is not a member of the disciples’ community is driving out demons using Jesus’ name. Wouldn’t you think the disciples would be happy to know a person had been cured of a dreaded ailment? Why didn’t they also celebrate that Jesus’ name was spreading and others would be learning about the master they had left everything to follow? Apparently, when they chose to follow Jesus and leave their possessions behind, they did not leave their sense of entitlement behind as well. The disciples were closest to Jesus and they had never given permission for some stranger to use Jesus’ name to heal – a power that Jesus had shared with them. You would think that if good is being done and evil overcome in the world, what does it matter who is doing the good deed, especially if they are doing it in Jesus’ name? We do not belong to an exclusive and privileged club with strict rules for participation. God’s love breaks out beyond our restrictions and borders. Nor is God’s activity limited to our using the right words and formulas and performing the proper gestures.

As a Christian I look for Christ’s presence in the world doing what he did in his lifetime. The details may differ from the gospel’s; someone may not be invoking Jesus’ name in doing the good they do. Still, when someone forgives a wrong done; a neighbor sacrifices time and resources to help someone in need; medical personnel travel across the country to relieve a pandemic-swamped emergency room; a grammar school collects food and clothing for the poor – though the name of Jesus may not be spoken, and the people involved might not be Christian, still, I see him present, doing what he always did, reaching out to raise up the fallen and rejected. A quote from THE INTERPRETERS BIBLE sums up this part of the passage: “These words of Jesus, then, are a rebuke to all our blind exclusiveness, our arrogant assumptions, that God’s action in the world is limited to the forms with which we are familiar. ‘Something there is that does not love a wall.’ It is the mind of God. The church has suffered terribly, and the world has suffered terribly, from this fence-building frenzy. If one tenth of the time which Christians have devoted to building fences had gone into building roads as a highway for God, the world would be a far better place today. Jesus came to heal the sick and help the poor. If a doctor dedicates her life; giving of her free time; not charging indigent patients who don’t have health care; even providing free medication – but doesn’t explicitly invoke the name of Jesus – would she also come under Jesus’ banner -- “For whoever is not against us is for us”? Mother Theresa thought if you gave a cup of water to a thirsty person out of love, you were in fact a follower of Jesus. While we don’t need to “baptize” every good, non-believer for their works still, we can say they are living in a way Jesus would recognize and applaud.

There is a shift in today’s gospel that may be hard to hear, the part about putting a millstone around the neck of a scandalous member and casting them into the sea; cutting off an offending hand; casting someone into an unquenchable fire in Gehenna, etc. What’s going on here? We must recognize Jesus’ Middle Eastern way of speaking and the use of hyperbole to make a point. Note, that Gehenna wasn’t another name for hell, but referred to Jerusalem’s smoking, foul-smelling garbage dump – a perfect metaphor to warn disciples of the consequences of sinful behavior, being cast into a smelly, burning garbage dump! Mark follows the conversation between John and Jesus about the disciples’ sense of entitlement, with this teaching about extreme measures to avoid sin. In the context, the disciples’ elitist attitude can be a scandal to the “little ones” in the community. Those of rank in the community, or the “established members,” must set an example of humility and sensitivity for the believing faithful. In the images of the gospel, if we seek the place of honor in a procession we should cut off our foot. If we refuse to see the abusive behavior of some in the community, we should pluck out our eye. Could Jesus have made his point in any stronger terms? We know from recent coverups of abusive behavior by some of our church leaders, that Jesus’ words have not worn out their meaning.

Weekly Memorization

Taken from the gospel for today’s session…

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.

Living the Good News

What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?

Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:

Reflection Questions

• Why does there seem to be competition between religious groups, or between certain members of our own religious group?
• Do we regard our Catholicism as some sort of personal privilege to be jealously guarded, refusing to acknowledge any good being done by those of another faith tradition?

• Too oft we think our church is right
  The other branches wrong
  It’s we! who spread the gospel light
  Who sing the one true song
  —author unknown

  Can we often be proprietary about our own religion, dismissing what good things others are doing, or good ideas others may have who are not part of our "tribe"?
• Do we assume that someone who is not speaking with specific approval from our religious authorities or institutions has nothing to say?
  Has anyone ever criticized our Church and been right?
• What is the difference between “Whoever is not against us is for us”, and “Whoever is not for us is against us.”?
  Which adage do we seem to follow in our present culture?
• In our personal secular lives, have we ever seen the negative effect of jealousy and possessiveness or the positive effect of being able to rejoice that good is being done, irrespective of the person who is doing it?
• How do we discern when someone is speaking or acting in God's name and when someone is merely self-promoting, or simply causing trouble to be provocative?
• How hard is it in our world to “empower” others and let go of the need for personal praise or gain?
• In Baptism we are anointed as priests and prophets. Do we believe this? Do we live it?
• How DO we preach? How ARE we disciples in our own little sphere of influence?
• Overemphasis on the sheer drama of this passage may lead us to forget that Jesus was about love… Basically, anything that denies or negates that love is not what Jesus wants us to embrace.
  Have you ever done something for someone and had its positive effects ripple out beyond your expectations?
  Have you ever done something negative to someone and had this action cause more damage than you ever intended?
• Can you think of anyone who has led others astray and caused great damage to Church or society?
• Is there anything in my life which I need to “cut out” in order to follow Jesus more closely?
• When has my need for affirmation or self-gratification let to behaviors that hurt myself or others?
• Ignatius: “Everything on earth is created by God to help us get close to him.”
  What gets in the way?
  What gifts can be misused?

Meditations

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions:

Adapted from “Sacred Space”, a service of the Irish Jesuits:

Jesus noes not jealously protect his power. Rather, He empowers others, of whatever religion or none, and whether they know it or not. He even says that his followers will do greater things than he has done (John 14:12) Do we ever need this reminder? Does it warn me against thinking that I, or my group, have a corner on God’s grace? When I see others doing good or tackling evil, and just because they are “not following us”, do I feel a proprietary resentment? Do I understand that the salvation of the world is collaborative event and not given to one group alone? How can I overcome my narrowness of heart and jealousy of the good others do?

A Meditation in the Augustinian Style/Relationship/Memory:

I think of those in my own life who have been an example to me, or who have nurtured my growth and development. Did their religion matter? Why or why not? Who, besides those of my own religious tradition, were mentors and advisors to me? Have I ever let any of them know how much they changed my life for the better? Have there been others from whom I learned how to be more Christ-like, even if they did not know they were mirroring Christ for me? Do you think there is anyone in your life new for whom you might be an example or a mentor? Do I ever stop and appreciate the good deeds done by others? Have I ever acknowledged that to them?

A Meditation in the Ignatian Style/Imagination:

Read the gospel story of the Good Samaritan, (Lk 10:29-37) putting yourself in the place of the outcast who stopped to help a stranger from another culture. How did you feel when you saw this severely wounded person who clearly was a Jew –someone who traditionally hated people like you? Were you tempted to pass him by? What led you to stop and help? Were others around you looking at you strangely, such as the innkeeper suspicious of your motives when you brought this bedraggled stranger to his door? What led you to go the extra distance and leave money for the stranger’s care?

Now, imagine you are one of Jesus’ audience listening to this story. Does it make you irritated or even angry that he makes a hero out of someone from group of people that are considered enemies of God and enemies of Israel by those in your culture? Do you believe such a story is possible, or does it seem like a tall tale or purely provocative teaching to you? How do you feel when he discusses the callousness or religious scrupulosity of “your own? Does this parable simple make you angry, does it close your mind to what Jesus is teaching, or are you provoked onto looking at “the other” differently?

In your own life, have you ever run into religious and sincere people who clearly have nothing good to say about what is being done in the name of Jesus? Have you ever fallen into the trap of slyly belittling the good works done by another tradition, as if it were a competition between Roman Catholicism and all other religions?

Poetic Reflection:

Here are two poems roundly criticizing the smugness of those who think their religious tradition and beliefs are better than others. What do they seem to say about how God views them and those of us who sometimes think we have a corner on the truth and on God’s regard?

“The Hippopotamus”

The broad-backed hippopotamus
Rests on his belly in the mud;
Although he seems so firm to us
He is merely flesh and blood.

Flesh-and-blood is weak and frail,
Susceptible to nervous shock;
While the True Church can never fail
For it is based upon a rock.

The hippo's feeble steps may err
In compassing material ends,
While the True Church need never stir
To gather in its dividends.

The 'potamus can never reach
The mango on the mango-tree;
But fruits of pomegranate and peach
Refresh the Church from over sea.

At mating time the hippo's voice
Betrays inflexions hoarse and odd,
But every week we hear rejoice
The Church, at being one with God.

The hippopotamus's day
Is passed in sleep; at night he hunts;
God works in a mysterious way --
The Church can sleep and feed at once.
I saw the 'potamus take wing
Ascending from the damp savannas,
And quiring angels round him sing
The praise of God, in loud hosannas.

Blood of the Lamb shall wash him clean
And him shall heavenly arms enfold,
Among the saints he shall be seen
Performing on a harp of gold.

He shall be washed as white as snow,
By all the martyr'd virgins kist,
While the True Church remains below
Wrapt in the old miasmal mist.

—T.S. Eliot

“The Cambridge ladies who live in furnished souls”

the Cambridge ladies who live in furnished souls
are unbeautiful and have comfortable minds
(also, with the church’s protestant blessings
daughters, unscented shapeless spirited)
they believe in Christ and Longfellow, both dead,
are invariably interested in so many things—
at the present writing one still finds
delighted fingers knitting for the is it Poles?
Perhaps. While permanent faces coyly bandy
scandal of Mrs. N and Professor D
.... the Cambridge ladies do not care, above
Cambridge if sometimes in its box of
sky lavender and cornerless, the
moon rattles like a fragment of angry candy

—e.e.cummings

Closing Prayer

Lord, help me to be open to bringing your word to others regardless of their religious inclination, their political allegiances, or my particular biases. Help me to prune from my life the “branches” that are impeding my growth, or hurting others with their sharpness, especially [a particular behavior].

25th Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 22, 2024

What it means to be first in the Kingdom of God

Gospel: Mark 9:30–37

The Second Prediction of the Passion.

They left from there and began a journey through Galilee, but he did not wish anyone to know about it. He was teaching his disciples and telling them, “The Son of Man is to be handed over to men and they will kill him, and three days after his death he will rise.” But they did not understand the saying, and they were afraid to question him.

The Greatest in the Kingdom.

They came to Capernaum and, once inside the house, he began to ask them, “What were you arguing about on the way?”

But they remained silent. They had been discussing among themselves on the way who was the greatest.

Then he sat down, called the Twelve, and said to them, “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.”

Taking a child he placed it in their midst, and putting his arms around it he said to them, “Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the One who sent me.”

Music Meditations

• “The Summons” (sung by Robert Kochis) [YouTube]
• “The Servant Song” (sung by Maranatha! Vocal Band) [YouTube]
• “Baba Yetu” (music by Christopher Tin; words by Chris Kiagiri) [YouTube]
  Christopher Tin is a Stanford alum. The words of the song are a Swahili adaptation of the Lord’s Prayer.

Opening Prayer

Jesus, keep me innocent and trusting of you and others… Help me to view everyone as beloved, as you did. Give me wisdom to discern what matters and who matters in my life. I lift up my prayers to you for all those who feel lost and abandoned, all those in pain and sorrow… [think of and name those specific people for whom you especially pray]. Lord, keep my eyes open for opportunities to serve.

Companions for the Journey

From Living Space, a service of the Irish Jesuits:

Commentary on Mark 9:30-37

Jesus was now spending more time with his disciples alone and teaching them. He was teaching them things that the crowds were not yet ready to hear. As we will see, his disciples were not too ready either.

Today we have the second of three predictions of Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection which he communicates to his disciples. On each occasion, the pattern is exactly the same:

1. a prediction of what is going to happen to Jesus
2. total lack of comprehension of the meaning of what Jesus is saying on the part of the disciples
3. a teaching of Jesus arising out of their lack of understanding.

The prediction is stated simply:

• Jesus will be “handed over into the hands of others”. This is the standard term used many times. John the Baptist is handed over; Jesus is handed over; the disciples later on will be handed over; and, in the Eucharist, the Body of Jesus is handed over for our sakes (“This is my Body, which will be handed over [tradetur] for you”).
• he will be put to death
• three days later he will rise again.

They arrive in Capernaum and, in the house, Jesus asks them a question. (Once again we have a reference to the “house” with overtones of the church, the place where God’s people gather, as they do here to listen to the Word of God.) Jesus asks his disciples what seems an innocuous question: “What were you arguing about on the road?”

Here we have another important word of Mark’s: “road” (Greek, hodos, ’odos). In the context of the Gospel it has theological overtones. Jesus is the Way or the Road and Christians are those who walk on this Way or Road. The disciples arguing then has implications about Christians arguing among themselves as they follow Christ ‘on the road’.

Jesus’ question is met with an embarrassed silence because they had been arguing among themselves which of them was the greatest. The minute the question was asked they knew they were in the wrong. Why were they arguing about this? I once heard it suggested that, as Jesus had now for the second time announced his coming death, they were beginning to accept the possibility of it really happening. They began to wonder what would happen to them as a group without Jesus. Who would be in charge? Which of them had the best qualifications? Hence their argument. If that was the case, then Jesus’ question was even more embarrassing. They could hardly say, “Well, we were wondering which one of us would take over when you are no longer with us.”

Jesus, of course, knew exactly what was going on in their minds so he gave them some guidelines if they wanted to be truly his followers. “If anyone wants to be first, he must make himself last of all and servant of all.” This is quite a hard saying and most of us find it difficult to put fully into practice. It is, of course, totally in opposition to what goes on in the secular world where “success” means being on top, being in charge, being in control, calling the shots.

Yet, who are really the greatest people in our society? Is it not those, especially those who are especially talented intellectually or in other ways, who use their talents totally for the well-being of others to the point of even sacrificing their lives?

Apart from the obvious example of Jesus himself, we have many of the great saints. In our own times we have marvelous people like Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Dorothy Day, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Oscar Romero, Jean Vanier, Mother Teresa. It is a long list but they all have one thing in common: they put themselves totally at the service of their brothers and sisters. Success, promotion, status, material wealth, executive power meant nothing to these people. They served and in serving was their power, a power which inspires in a way that no mere politician or business tycoon or dictator could ever do.

To serve is not to be submissive or weak; it is not putting oneself on a lower level than those being served. It is simply to be totally committed to the good of others and to find one’s own well-being in being so committed.

Jesus then takes a little child, as a symbol of all those who are vulnerable, weak and exploitable. Children are used by Jesus as symbols of the anawim, the lowly and weak in our society. They are the ones who are most of all to be served and protected and nurtured. In so doing one is recognizing the presence of Jesus and the presence of God in them.

As Christians, we have much to be proud of in our record of service to our brothers and sisters, especially those who are weak and vulnerable. But we also have to confess that within our Church and in our dealings with the “world” we have had our fair share of hungering for power, status and position. And we have so often argued bitterly with each other “on the Road”, about just such things.

Weekly Memorization

Taken from the gospel for today’s session…

Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last

Living the Good News

What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?

Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:

Reflection Questions

• What are the up-sides and the down-sides of ambition?
• What is the role of ambition in our spiritual life?
• Is spirituality a competition for some as well?
  How does it manifest itself?
  Do you know anyone who is a spiritual braggart?
  How do we avoid it?
• In our culture, how much do we dwell on what makes us different, separate, better than those around us?
• What does it mean to cultivate “downward mobility”?
• Thomas Merton said; “No person enters heaven alone.” What does that mean in terms of our own spiritual development?
  How does one “wish to be last”?
• Walter Burkhardt, S.J. wrote a homily on the occasion of the jubilee celebrations (50 years) of several priests. In it, he defined a true priest as a man of joy, a man for others, and a man of prayer.
  Did Jesus fit this description?
  Do you know any priest who fits this description?
  Do you know any non-priest who does so?
  Do you fit this description?
  Which quality is the hardest for you?
• To be disciple means more that spreading Christ’s message; it means living his life. Where am I on the road to discipleship?
• Do I live to serve the gospel?
• What does Jesus’ willingness to endure whatever came his way do to help us through some miserable times in our own lives?
• Am I willing to suffer humiliation to become a servant of Jesus?
  Have I ever made someone feel “lesser” because of the way I related to him or her?
  Was I aware of it at time?
  How can I avoid the habit of viewing people on a scale and consciously or unconsciously competing with them?
  What is the cost of being “a servant of all”, which can also be translated “deacon”?
  How do we view deacons in our church?
  How has the term “servant of all” been used against women historically?
• How does our call to social justice find resonance in this gospel?
• From “First Impressions” 2021:
  What “Christian Servant” role am I currently involved in?
• What is the role of openness to God’s plan (another word: obedience) in being a servant of the Lord?
  How hard is this?
• Walter Burghardt says faithful servanthood is a movement from a person to a person through a person. It is making it easier for another man or woman to live a more human, a more Christian existence. How, exactly, does that play out in our lives?
• Why did Jesus choose to focus on children in this passage?
  What was the position of children in the ancient middle east?
  What is the role of children in our culture?
  Does the difference affect how we hear this passage?
  What does the tragedy in our own country of children ripped from their parents at the border tell us about how well, as a people, we listen to Jesus?
• How does the notion of children as powerless extend to all those in this world who lack power and are at the mercy of others (anawim)?
  Name some people who have worked and given up much to serve those without power.
  What is my personal obligation to the powerless, here and now?
• What, as a Church, do we owe our children?
  What do we do as a Church to welcome children?
  What have we done as a Church to marginalize children?
  To hurt some of them?
• What is my “inner child”? How do I honor that?
  Do I really accept and nurture the child within myself?
• Do I ever try to “tame” the gospel so it is not uncomfortable or threatening?

Meditations

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions:

Read the following passage from Sunday’s Letter of James (an early Christian author). How does it mirror the sentiments of the gospel? Does any of it apply to you? Speak to Jesus about your desires to live as He would want you to.

For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there you find disorder and every evil practice. But the wisdom that comes from above is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness. What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

A Meditation in the Ignatian Style/Examen:

Spend some time this week, just before bed, going over the events of the day and making a little “Examination of Consciousness”. First, become present to God in your life right this moment. How aware were you of God in your life today? Take time to give thanks for all the good things that happened, however small. Like a child, revel in small things like sunshine or cool weather, for a text from someone you care about, for simply being alive. Did you receive any kindness from anyone today? Did you extend kindness to anyone today? Is there anything you did which might reflect your understanding of yourself as a “servant of the Lord”? Reflect on even the smallest details of your day, including any slights, hurts or failures that might have occurred. What did you learn about yourself from those experiences? Be sure to thank God for them, as well. Throughout the week, in each prayer experience, be sure to reflect on gratitude as a spirit building mindset, and reflect also on one habit of the heart you might wish to cultivate this week in order to be the person Jesus calls you to be.

A Meditation in the Augustinian Style/Relationship:

Adapted from Songs of Life: Psalm Meditations from the Catholic Community at Stanford by Anne Marchand Greenfield, 2004:

In New Seeds of Contemplation, Thomas Merton said:

I am thinking of the particular unreality that gets into the hearts of saints and eats their sanctity away before it is mature. There is something of this worm in the hearts of all religious people. As son as they have done something which they know is good in the eyes of God, they tend to take its reality to themselves and make it their own. They tend to destroy their virtues by claiming them for themselves and clothing their own private illusion of themselves with values that belong to God.

The saints are what they are not because their sanctity makes them admirable to others, but because the gift of sainthood makes it possible for them to admire everybody else.

I write my own letter to God in my journal, thanking God for my own particular spiritual gifts, but being very careful not to think those gifts make me better than others. Talk to God about the ways in which you want to avoid comparing yourself to someone else, good or bad.

Poetic Reflection:

How does this poem by Ed Ingebretzen, S.J. serve as an antidote to spiritual competitiveness?

“Lonely Christ”

Lonely Christ
I pray to you.
You are a puzzle to me
as those I love
always are.

My soul is at odds
with the words.
What mad reach of mine
touches any thread of you?
Or what of mine, arms or eyes,
ever shares with people
where they may lie—
as they always do—
in a hard place!

What of mine shall make good
their taking of a breath,
their rising, caring, feeding
their sleeping in fear—
what shall make good
their slight faith,
their enormous promises
made in iron
for a child, man, a woman—

what of mine shall be with the people
as they caress a special grief
fondled again and again
In bludgeoned love?

What do I bring
with which to clutch
the merest hint of your shadow?

Closing Prayer

Lord, you know my heart; you know its generosity and its venality. Help me to notice the thinking patterns in myself what wish to deny reality. Help me to face life squarely and honestly, as you did. Help me also to avoid the temptation to vie with others for your attention and the attention of the world. Help me to be an island of healing and calm when there is squabbling and backbiting among those I love or those with whom I work. Make me an instrument of peace, not competitiveness.

23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 8, 2024

The need for healing; the need to be healers

Mark 7: 31–37

Again he left the district of Tyre and went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, into the district of the Decapolis.

And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment and begged him to lay his hand on him.

He took him off by himself away from the crowd. He put his finger into the man’s ears and, spitting, touched his tongue; then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him, “Ephphatha!” (that is, “Be opened!”) And [immediately] the man’s ears were opened, his speech impediment was removed, and he spoke plainly.

He ordered them not to tell anyone. But the more he ordered them not to, the more they proclaimed it.

They were exceedingly astonished and they said, “He has done all things well. He makes the deaf hear and [the] mute speak.”

Music Meditations

• Healer of My Soul—John Michael Talbot
• Open my Eyes, Lord
• Shepherd Me, O God

Opening Prayer

Deep inside myself, Lord, I can be both deaf and dumb. Help me to “be opened” the your words and to the needs of others, Help me to speak out on behalf of those who cannot do so for themselves. I also need to thank you for the body you have given to me, whether it is perfect or very imperfect, whether it is old or young, whether it is healthy or sick. Help me to be grateful for the time I have had in this body, and help me to navigate the challenges this body may afford me at some point in my life, now or later.

Companions for the Journey

Adapted from Lovely in Eyes Not His: Homilies for an Imaging of Christ, by Walter Burghardt, S.J. (part of a homily on Mark 7:31-37 for the opening of the school year):

This God we celebrate today operates somewhat as Jesus did in the gospel. All of us are slightly or dreadfully deaf; speak with some impediment; we don’t listen as we ought to man, woman, or God; we stammer and stutter to communicate, with man or woman, or God. We need the spirit of Jesus to touch our ears and our tongues, our eyes and minds, our hearts and hands, to command our flesh and spirit: ”Be opened!”. Open not only to what we like, love, agree with; not only what looks good, sounds good, smells good, tastes good, feels good. Open as well to the new and the strange, the painful and the perilous. Open therefore, to ideas that challenge or affright, teachers who rouse or drowse, people who attract or repel. Open to ways of living alien to us, life situations that millions on this planet are challenged by this very moment – from the shivering homeless on the warm grates of the city where they can find them, from those living on El Camino in cars and campers because their families have no place to live, to those refugees fleeing violence, repression and grinding poverty in places like Afghanistan and right here in our own hemisphere. Open to a God who no longer exists in your space to solve your problems for you; rather a God who shed that glory that was His to wear your flesh, share your sweat, bleed your blood, a God who never forsakes you however faithless you be, pursues you however far you flee, promises you on the earth a dignity and a delight beyond your wildest dreams: nothing less than to be God’s daughter, God’s son.

Weekly Memorization

Taken from the gospel for today’s session…

Ephphatha! Be opened!

Living the Good News

What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?

Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:

Reflection Questions

The symptoms of physical deafness are obvious. What are some of the symptoms of being spiritually deaf? In the gospels, illness is usually a sign of alienation of some sort, and when Jesus heals someone, He brings them back into community. What sorts of illnesses in our present day alienate people from the rest of us? How does our culture deal with illness? Have people sometimes been blamed for their illnesses? (Think of AIDS, lung cancer, or heart problems which people attribute to lifestyle choices) Have people been sort of ostracized for mental illness which has behavioral implications that are hard for others to deal with? When you have been ill, have you ever felt that you inhabited a place where no one else was, either because you were contagious, (flu) in terrible discomfort which made it hard to interact with others, or because the seriousness of the illness itself catapulted you into a realm of dire choices? Have you ever, in your life, in your workplace, in your personal relationships, felt as if you were rendered mute? Why was that? How did you deal (or how are you currently dealing) with the enforced silencing? As a church, (and WE are church, folks) whom do we not hear? Do I feel my church hears me? As a church, whose need for healing do we ignore? Where do we as a church bring others into reconciliation with us? From Orchard Church: How does Jesus meet the deaf man where he is? How dies Jesus meet you where you are? How can you be a friend who brings people to Jesus? Do you trust that Jesus does all things well? How are you showing that trust right now? Where are we called to play Christ the Healer? Where do I need healing? Am I deaf to what God is speaking to me? In what parts of my life am I deaf to the needs of someone else? Do we sometimes expect God to be a miracle worker, to solve all of our problems? What exactly, is God's role in our lives? Jesus told people not to tell others about his curing of the deaf man—probably so people would not follow him for the wrong reasons. To what extent is our culture drawn to those who seem larger than life? What is the danger in this?

Meditations

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions:

Psalm 38 (excerpts) But I am like the deaf who cannot hear, like the mute, I cannot open my mouth. I am like the one who hears nothing, in whose mouth is no defense. I count on you O, Lord, it is you who will answer. I pray: ”Do not let them mock me, those who would triumph if my food should slip.” For I am at the point of falling, and my pain is always before me. My God, do not stay far off! Make haste and come to my help, O Lord, my God and Savior

Serious illness, and especially a terminal illness can separate the sick person from those around her. Perhaps friends and family members do not want to be infected. Others do not want to think about the suffering of another for too long; it reminds them of their own mortality. This psalm captures very well the sense of isolation that comes from illness; isolation that can lead to depression and hopelessness. The psalmist asserts that healing, either in body or spirit, only comes from God. Has there been a time in your life when you needed God’s healing? Did you ask for it?

Pray to God for the confidence to trust in the Spirit’s healing powers.

A Meditation in the Ignatian Style/Imagination:

I imagine that I am deaf and also cannot be understood because my speech is impaired. How isolating it is to be with others and not be able to hear what they are saying or to respond. People all around me are sharing their lives with each other, and I am on the fringes, ignored or forgotten. I feel so alone. Others might wonder if I did something to offend God and therefore have brought this catastrophe on myself. There are few jobs I can do, because of the communication problem, so I must rely on the good will of my family and friends to take care of me. It is humiliating. But people do try, and they are so kind.

My friends bring me to see this itinerant preacher and “wonder worker”, asking for him to do something for me. This man takes me aside and does some strange things, but all his actions are in private, so I am not on display for others to see and comment out of scorn or genuine pity. First he puts his finger into my ears, then spits on that same finger and puts it on my tongue. I am at first repulsed, but I see his concern and his kindness. I feel that soft touch, those healing fingers. He cares. When he groans and looks at heaven, he then commands my ears to be opened. And they are! My speech impairment is gone and I am restored to my community of loved ones! Before I had life, but was not really living. Now I live fully in the joy of my return to the community. I think this man’s touch was more than magic: it was a healing and restoring of relationships I need to thrive. Through him I have learned that God is all about compassion, forgiveness, reconciliation and unselfish love. No one will remember my name, but we will all remember his because through him “the mighty God has done great things for me”, and for the world. A lesson for the ages.

I ask myself if I have even been deaf to the calls of Jesus to me, who wants to heal, and save. Have I ever remained dumb instead of witnessing to the Good News? I remind myself that I am called to be Christ on earth, acting in His name in my own time and space. I ask myself if there is anyone in my life who is isolated and needs a helping hand, or simple some sign of connection. I pray for a those who have no one to pray for them.

I resolve to look at each day (daily examen) and ask myself how I became Christ for another today…..

A Meditation in the Franciscan Style/Action:

There are several lessons for us in this story. First and foremost, the deaf man himself did not ask to be cured. He was brought to Jesus by some caring friends. Is there anyone in my life right now who could do with some intervention on his or her behalf? Do I really see or hear the pain in another’s life ? How can I be more attentive to what people are NOT saying? Can I make even a small effort to help someone out? Notice also that Jesus drew the man away from onlookers, so that he and the man could have some privacy for what was a very graphic and intimate experience. When I see someone hurting, do I take him or her aside and try to help while reserving that person’s dignity and privacy? Am I willing, then, to keep it all a secret, or do I slyly reveal what I have done to others??

Poetic Reflection:

What sort of healing does Father Ingebretsen speak of in the following poem?. Have you ever felt this way?

"Like a Stone"

I wait like a stone and the waters have no answer; though I must be carried over mountains through deserts and fear though I must drop through ceilings still the freedom of the Lord will find me waiting on the movement of His spirit. And those waters stir silently: they bring to breath long wishes and desires that have lain stagnant by this pool. Move me, Lord, as the moon does the sea; I ebb, I flow, I sink and fill in response only to you. I wait like a stone: touch me and even this stone shall have voice, shall sing.

—Ed Ingebretsen, S.J., from Psalms of the Still Country

Closing Prayer

Dear Lord, you have given me this beautiful body to glorify your creative powers. Help me to use it wisely and to hold it sacred. Teach me to continue to give thanks when I am sick or in pain, remembering that that is part of the gift as well. Please be present and walk with those suffering illness at this time.