Faith

A dish not on the menu – Friday, 4th week in ordinary time – Mark 6:14-29

Today’s Gospel finally answers a question that has been holding the reader in suspense since Mark 1:14. Mark who had hinted at the political arrest of St John the Baptist earlier saved the full report until chapter 6. In Mark chapter 1 he had reported, “now after John was arrested…” after that we do not hear of John the Baptist till this moment. Now having heard of him and his gruesome death we are bound to ask the question; where is the good news in Mark 6:14-29? The passage is sickening even when told as a flashback. This was certainly a b-day; not birth day but beheading day.

The text of today is sandwiched between the mission of the twelve (6:6b-13) and its conclusion in 6:30. Mark sandwiches the martyrdom story within the mission story for a reason. The disciples’ mission is quite successful (6:12-13). Mark wants to reassures us that God’s work continues unabated even in the face of the martyrdom of a great servant like John the Baptist. More than any one, Mark’s church needed to hear this because they too were suffering through a great persecution. We need to hear it too, because we, like God’s people through the ages, are prone to interpret difficult times as a sign that God is either impotent or uncaring.

The villain here is quite obvious. Herod Antipas is not really king, but a tetrarch. That term originally meant “one of four rulers,” but came to mean a governor with limited authority. Herod Antipas ruled over Galilee and Perea (Matthew 14:1; Luke 9:7). His brother, Archelaus, ruled over Judea and Samaria and a half-brother, Philip, ruled over Gentile territories on the far side of the Jordan River and northeast of Galilee.

Herod Antipas ruled at Rome’s pleasure, and was subject to Rome’s guidance. He reigned from 4 B.C., but was finally deposed and sent into exile in 36 A.D. Herod’s forty-year reign came to an ignominious end not long after his involvement in the deaths of John and Jesus. Most people, like Herod, think they can mess around with people lives till they meet their Waterloo! Herod who thought he was invincible, met his!

The reason given by Mark for John the Baptist’s killing differs considerably from that of the Jewish historian Josephus. According to the latter, Herod was alarmed at John’s popularity and feared a rebellion if he were not stopped. Herod decided therefore that it would be much better to strike first and be rid of him before his work led to an uprising.

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Hymns

Mass time: 6 pm
Mass Link : https://bit.ly/fr-warner-youtube

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1. Into your hands
I commend my spirit O Lord
Into your hands,
I commend my life.

It’s you, O Lord, who are my sanctuary
So let me not be put to shame.
Into your hands I commend my spirit, Lord
Redeem me, Lord, and set me free.

Both friend and foe run far away from me
They look at me with fear and scorn
I have become an object of reproach
A man forgotten placed with the dead.

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2. Christ became obedient unto death,
Unto death. A death upon the cross
Therefore God has raised him to the heights
Giving him a name above all names

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3. Response to the Passion

a. Jesus of Nazareth.

b. Aren’t you also one of his disciples?

c. If this man were not an evil doer, we would not have handed him over.

d. It is not lawful for us to put any one to death.

e. Not this man but Barabbas.

f. Hail King of the Jews (2)

g. Crucify him Crucify him.

h. We have a law and by that law he ought to die because he has made himself the Son of God.

i. If you release this man you are not Caesar’s friend, everyone who makes himself a King sets himself against Caesar.

j. Away with him, Away with him, Crucify him crucify him.

k. We have no King but Caesar.

l. Do not write the King of the Jews but this man said, I am King of the Jews.

m. Let us not tear it but let us cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.

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4. Behold, behold the wood of the cross
On which hung the saviour of the world.
O come, O come and worship the Lord,
O come let us worship the Lord.

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5. जो क्रूस पे कुर्बान है, वो मेरा मसीहा है
हर जख्म जो उसका है, वो मेरे गुनाह का है,
वो मेरे गुनाह का है

देने को मुझे जीवन, खुद मौत सही उसने,
खुद मौत सही उसने
क्या खूब है कुर्बानी, क्या प्यार अनोखा है,
क्या प्यार अनोखा हैहै

इस दुनिया में ले आये, मेरे ही गुनाह उसको,
मेरे ही गुनाह उसको
यह जुल्म सितम उसपर, मैंने ही कराया है,
मैंने ही कराया है

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6. घ्या नि खा देह माझा,
छिन्नविछिन्न तुमच्यासाठी
घ्या नि प्या रक्त माझे,
भळभळ वाहे तुमच्यासाठी

मी भुकेला कुणी न पाही,
मी तहानलेला जीवन एकाकी
मी अनाथ मायबाप नाही,
एकटा मी कुणी मज नाही

जातिभ्रष्ट मी, शोषित मीची,
लोक निंदय मी, भग्नह्र्दयी मी
दुषित मीची, शापित मीची,
शोषित मीची, मीची पापी

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Opinion

Simple Truth – don’t bite the first worm that swims by you

Recently, I met a couple of people who have come to me regarding marital issues. While I make it amply clear that I am not a professional councillor, I do lend a pastor’s ear. Listening is a good thing; it allows the other to speak freely especially when you are approached because you are trusted. Make no mistake, listening attentively is also emotionally draining for the one who listens because you inadvertently enter into the suffering and pain of the one pouring out their heart.

But listening also means that one has to make sense of several emotions and slot the many incidents ranging from rage to fear into a clear storyline. By doing this one begins to realize that most people have similar storylines. While the number of villains may vary in each life story the plot seems similar. In all of this a pattern of fault lines begin to emerge. Like all fault lines they are dormant till one day the earth begins to shake beneath your feet and one is swallowed in an abyss of misery.

One such fault line that I have begun to notice is a desperation that seeks solace in any arm. Many people that I have met these days narrate a litany of woes, many of them related to their growing up years; years of abuse or rejection or lack of self-esteem. Some of it may be self-inflicted but it exists in some form or the other. Depending on circumstances these feelings of rejection may be transitory or those that hover above like a dreary dark cloud on a stormy day. Often, the only ‘apparent solution’ for those who feel this way is to escape from it all, to run away from the four uncomfortable walls that they call home in the hope that some other person will be their matrimonial angel with a happy ever after by line.

The first worm that wriggles in these murky waters of fear and frustration often seem to be the most tempting bite. The apparent solution for many is that it is better to risk biting any worm that floats by (even though there is a deadly hook that might kill you) than to continue in choppy and tempestuous waters of family strife. Here is the simple truth; the solution rarely works and mostly you end up with a hook in your throat.

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Faith

Come and see! Second Sunday in Ordinary Time – John 1:35-42

The author of a play takes great care with the first words spoken by the main protagonist. These words must grab our attention and they usually reveal something of that person’s character. Here we read the first words spoken by Jesus in the Gospel of John. It begins with Jesus addressing John’s disciples who are following him. Jesus always asks pointed, direct questions in the Gospel of John. The question is not a teaching, a precept, or a challenge (as we might expect), but a simple question address directly to them: “What are you looking for?” or “What do you want?” That’s a good question isn’t it? The two disciples are asked a deceptively simple question.

Jesus asks about our desires so that he can respond to them. At one level, the question asks why are they walking after him or following him. But fundamentally, this is the existential question asked of any potential disciple: What do you seek when you come to follow Jesus? Are you looking for a comfortable life? Are you looking for the glory that comes from being one of God’s servants? Are you looking for praise and recognition? Or are you ready to do whatever it takes to serve in God’s kingdom – even if it means suffering the way Jesus did? Are you ready to take up a cross in order to follow Jesus?

Such a searching question, ‘what are you looking for?’ may also have many responses, ‘I’m not looking for anything! I am just trying to survive.’ But in sober moments we realise that we would like our lives to amount to more than just getting and spending, eating and sleeping.

Today, on vocation Sunday the calling of Jesus is written all over this and every Gospel. In the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus calls the disciples away from their fishing boats to follow him (Matthew 4:18-22). In the Gospel of John the disciples come to Jesus as the result of John’s witness rather than in response to Jesus’ call. Instead of leaving their boats, they leave their apprenticeship to John. Our lives of witness are therefore imperative to evangelisation.

Note the pattern of witnessing that occurs in these verses. John the Baptist witnesses to two of his disciples concerning Jesus. One of these disciples, Andrew, witnesses to his brother, Simon Peter, who becomes a key figure in the Gospel story. The ripples move ever outward, and only God can predict how far they will reach.

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Faith

Pithy Parables – Thursday, 3rd Week in ordinary time – Mark 4:21-25

In Mark 4:21-25 we have two short parables of Jesus, one which is a matter of plain common sense and the other a bit obscure in its meaning. When the word parable is used, we normally think of long stories spanning several verses, like the parable of the sower (Mark 4:1-9) or the famous parable of the prodigal son (Luke15). But as we know, a parable is literally “something thrown beside something else”; it’s a comparison of something earthly with something spiritual. So, they can be long narratives or short, pithy comparisons of a verse or two. Today’s text illustrates how Jesus could use the shortest of little comparisons to illustrate deep spiritual truths. Both the parables are two verses long, separated by a warning in the middle.

In the Old Testament, a lamp is a metaphor for three things: God, Messiah, and the Torah. The original Greek text does not read as ‘a lamp’ but THE LAMP. In short, Jesus is revealing his identity and mission in this text, indicating that the lamp refers to himself as the Messiah. Putting all this together, Jesus is saying, “Does THE lamp come to be put under a measuring bowl or under a bed? Is it not to be set on a lamp stand?”

Jesus wants his followers to let his light, his teaching shine out. Jesus the light, is not a searchlight to expose, shame or embarrass others. Some have mistakenly interpreted verse22 as referring to the sins of humans and that on judgment day; everything we have ever done will come to light. While this may be true it is not the correct interpretation within this context. So, if sins being exposed is not what Jesus was talking about here, what was he talking about? Verse 22 begins with the word ‘for’ indicating that verse 22 is a continuation or an elaboration of verse 21 concerning the eventual revelation of Christ’s divinity.

We have seen in Mark’s Gospel, as in the case of the leper in chapter one, that Jesus concealed his identity as God for a time. Rather than immediately boldly declare he was God and get himself killed before he had hardly begun his ministry, he first established his uniqueness through his healings, his immediate and absolute command of demons and his amazing teachings. So, when Jesus says, “For there is nothing hidden except to be disclosed; nor is anything secret, except to come to light,” he is speaking of himself. That which was hidden about him, even from his most ardent disciples up to this point—that is, his divinity and his mission to go to the cross and pay the penalty for sin—would eventually be revealed so that it should all come to light.

When Jesus, the light of truth shines, all is understood and forgiven. One has no need to hide nor does one need to choose to stay in the dark, be indifferent or hostile. The Gospel reading also tells us that Good News is to be shared; Jesus must be spoken about. Pope Francis, speaking to people who were concerned about the shortage of priests spoke about people who lived authentically Christian lives as being preachers of the Good News in today’s world.

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