Mark 6:7-13 Called to the Journey Through Humility

For today's readings (http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/020416.cfm)

In today’s Gospel Jesus sends the disciples out two by two with instructions to take nothing with them except a walking stick and the authority over unclean spirits.  It was a faith walk.  We have all been on them to some degree.  Where they were welcomed, they could stay.  Where they were not welcomed, they should move on and “shake the dirt from their feet” meaning they should leave everything, even ill sentiments behind.  They went and preached repentance, drove out demons, anointed, and cured the sick.

Jesus is the eternal Word of God that came and lived among us.  He is the fullness of God’s Revelation to us.  Our faith is the free affirmative response to God’s calling to us.   Grace is God’s life in us.  God’s love for us, as through the Son, is limitless.  Living our faith, like the disciples do when he calls them on their journey, is saying “yes” to Jesus’s call to bring the reign of God.  This reign of God is His saving love fully manifest in the world.  We this transmitted to those who have faith, to the disciples, to us. Miracles are only one sign of this love, and we hear about them a little today as the disciples share the reign of God through their call for repentance and to receive God’s love.  It is an affirmation too that although God is everywhere, although temporarily limited in His human form, we are likewise called to share in His work.   By professing God, by sharing the teachings of Christ, the disciples were publicly professing their faith.  We are called to do that too.  This is one of the reasons that we state our creed, our beliefs at mass.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church states, “Whoever says ‘I believe’ says, “I pledge myself to what we believe.” (CCC 185) 

In the first reading today we meet David and Solomon.  Solomon receives the kingdom to rule and keep.  They are our examples of men of faith.  Both, like us are sinners.  The difference is that David, as many bad things as he did, repented of his sins and asked God forgiveness.  He received the gift of humility.  We do not see that with Solomon.  So which do we use as our example today when we hear the call to follow the Word of God?  Are we ready to go with as little as the disciples, except for our great faith?

Mark 6:1-6 Forgive Me, Lord

For today's readings:  http://usccb.org/bible/readings/020316.cfm

We have heard variations of this Gospel reading a couple of times in January.  Hearing it so much we are mindful of those times that he inflate ourselves and think ourselves all-powerful, losing sight of the fact that we should be humbled before the presence of our all-might ever-living God the Most High. 

The early Christian church was plagued with heresies in which Jesus was considered totally God, or completely man.  Even the Jewish people, many of them in Jesus' time took him merely as a prophet.  Yet it was revealed to a few, and then to billions of people throughout the last two millennia that this was truly God made manifest.  We are called to reflect on our sins and bow down before him in true contrition to ask forgiveness before he turns his back on us as he did those who rejected him at Nazareth.  The Lord offers us the opportunity to repent just as he did his servant David.  We are given the Sacrament of Reconciliation in which we can be given absolution for our sins and given new life with purity of soul and a clean heart.  Let us embrace this Sacrament while we can. We are the Lord's beloved and he wants nothing more than to be in full communion with us.

"Lord, forgive the wrong that I have done." (Today's responsorial psalm.)

Mark 3:20-21 What does it mean to be out of one's mind?

What does it mean to be out of one's mind?  Does it mean that we mourn when our enemy dies, as David did at Saul's death?  Does it mean that we show compassion to those in need?  Does it mean that we give even the shirt off our back? 

In today's Gospel the crowds had again gathered around Jesus just as they do around Pope Francis today because they want to touch holiness, to be healed, to have their hope renewed.  We are all like that.  We want to be in God's presence.  God calls us to his presence so that we might be in communion with him.  Jesus will not turn away those in need for he has such great love and compassion. 

His family thinks that he is out of his mind.  But aren't all things possible in God?  And so, if one must be crazy, why not be a fool for God?  Why not love as he loved?  Why not enact his spiritual and corporal works to grow that love?  Our Good Shepherd is teaching us and leading us in this path, for this is the path to eternal life.  In this path we give up our will, what we think we ought to do, and are drawn out of our comfort zones, and perhaps others will think we are also out of our minds. 

St. Ignatius of Loyola has a prayer, let us join with him today:

Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty,
my memory, my understanding
and my entire will,
All I have and call my own.

You have given all to me.
To you, Lord, I return it.

Everything is yours; do with it what you will.
Give me only your love and your grace.
That is enough for me.

Mark 2: 23-28 Picking the Grains of Wheat

Have you ever judged anyone before learning about their circumstances?  Sometimes this happens to each of us.  This happens within today's Gospel, and even the first reading (1 Sam16:1-13 where Samuel is seeking for God's anointed one, not the strong and mighty, but the young inconspicuous boy, David.) In today's Gospel the scribe watches Jesus picking the wheat and eating it on the Sabbath.  Based on his strict religious laws, he is judging Jesus and the disciples.  The scribe isn't looking at them with the love, compassion and understanding that they laws could originally have held, especially if he understood how hungry they were carrying nothing for food and wandering for days without shelter overhead.  No, the scribe looks upon them in judgement with the rigidity of the old law. 

Jesus on the other hand reminds the scribe of how David long ago ate what was apportioned to the priests even though it was unlawful because he and his companions were hungry.  Then he makes a further statement, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. That is why the Son of Man is lord even over the Sabbath."  The Sabbath is that day set aside for rest and worship.  Yes, what Jesus and the disciples was doing was considered work, but it was necessary so they did not starve.  Jesus' point is that it was necessary for life and thus overruled the law.  The Sabbath was created to remind all of human kind to give thanks to their creator, and that is why the Son of Man, God made manifest is ruler of the Sabbath.