Faith

In His name- Wednesday, 7th week in ordinary time- Mk 9:38-40

Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem and has just predicted his passion, death and resurrection for the second time. He has given his disciples a second teaching on what discipleship is all about and used a child to make more than just a point.

The   two verses that make up today’s Gospel seem to be a bit misplaced, for if you have your Bible in your hand and read verse 42 after 37 the two would flow seamlessly, as if Jesus continued to use the little child to explain his teaching. Many scholars have opined that perhaps these two verses were introduced because it reflected an issue that ailed Mark’s community.

The key words in verse 37 are the words, “in my name” and these words seem to attract the following episode of today’s Gospel about exorcism in Jesus’ name. The mention of ‘the name’ appears three times in this text and is used in relation to casting out a demon. So is this text only centred on demonic possession or is there more to it?

For Mark the battle against Satan, demons or unclean spirits is a central theme of his Gospel. So far we have encountered three incidences in the Gospel of demonic possession; this being the fourth. Jesus’ first public act was to cast out the unclean spirit from a man in the synagogue in Capernaum (Mark 1:21-28) followed by another incident in 5:7 and then in 9:14-18 when his disciples (nine of them were unable to cast out a spirit from a child).

The second passion prediction and teaching on discipleship( yesterday’s Gospel) is preceded and followed by incidents of demonic possession; the boy with the spirit (8:14) and today’s narration of the man casting out demons in Jesus’ name. How then is this demonic possession resolved? Mark introduces THE name of Jesus as part of the teaching on discipleship as a means to overpower Satan. It is by this name alone that the evil one is vanquished.

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Faith

Making a point or making a difference? Tuesday, 7th Week in ordinary time – Mk 9:30-37

Jesus has ended his Galilean ministry. He has begun his journey south to Jerusalem and his journey takes him via Capernaum, the home of Peter which Jesus had made his headquarters during his Galilean ministry.  

For Jesus this was an opportunity to instruct the disciples about his impending death and resurrection. He has already done so in chapter eight but starting with Peter they seem to find it hard to swallow such a teaching and Jesus has to reprimand Peter and disciples for “they have set their minds on human things and not divine” (8:33) and so for the second time he attempts to teach them.

There are three passion predictions in the gospel of Mark. The first one was in 8:31, today we hear the second and the next will be found in 10:33. With a slight change in words the prediction is the same’ the son of man will be betrayed, killed and three days later rise again. But the passion predictions are also followed by a teaching on discipleship. (See 8:34, 9:35 and 10:43).

Today’s teaching is set in the context of the disciple’s inability to comprehend the kind of leadership exemplified by the very manner of life that Jesus lived; Jesus is a servant leader and serving leader.    We are told that when  they settled in Capernaum, presumably in Peter’s house, Jesus confronts them about what they were discussing on the way. He knew that once again their minds had been set on earthly things (as do ours) and this time it was about power.

The disciples were arguing as to which of them were the greatest? Was this perhaps because Peter was able to acclaim that Jesus was the Messiah thus placing the eleven in his shadow? Or was it that Jesus chose Peter James and John to go up the mount of transfiguration while the remaining eleven struggled to heal a boy with a spirit (9:14-29) setting them in poor light? We will never know the answer for sure but this we know from our own experience, that the lust for power is innate in each of us.

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Opinion

Has ‘children’s mass’ become a colossal mistake?

I learnt rubrics from my mother. I doubt she ever heard of that word. The word rubric comes from the Latin word for red and in the Catholic Church forms the norms for various liturgical instructions. My mother taught me when to stand, sit, kneel or genuflect at mass. 

She also taught me faith. At the Epiclesis, the invocation of the Holy Spirit upon the bread and wine during the Eucharistic prayer she would glance at us to make sure we had our hands joined and would remind us at the  time of elevation to say,” My Lord and my God.”

My father taught me charity. We were by no means a wealthy family. We were taught to live within our means yet when it came to giving to God my father never skinched, in fact I dare say he was the charity commissioner and he certainly made sure his left hand did not know what his right was giving. At every Sunday mass he gave each of us a five rupee or a ten rupee note to drop in the offertory box. In those days that was quite a king’s ransom for a kid like me.

I learnt all this because the ones who guided my feet to the Lord were my parents and they did this both at home and at mass. We went to Church as a family, came back as a family, to a family breakfast and then our treat was to watch ‘Magic Lamp’ on Doordarshan.  My Catechesis took place in school both in St Mary’s and St Stanislaus, at the hands of great Jesuits like Joe Aran and Peter Ribes; I never once went to catechism class in Church till I had to receive confirmation. That’s when family mass ended for us.

Today for pastoral reasons we have ‘children’s mass’ and this is followed or preceded by catechism class also known as Sunday School. The children’s mass is meant to be a mass where the liturgy is ‘child friendly’. At these masses the children sing in the choir or are lectors. Though liturgically not permitted, some parishes enact the Gospel or have a skit to make the liturgy easier on the senses. While I am part of the system, this simply does not sit well with me anymore.

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Faith

One last time- Saturday, 7th Week in Eastertide – Acts 28:16-20, 30-31

“One last time let me try to convince the Jews”, that must have been Paul’s rationale when he stepped off the boat in Rome. For even now, after his message of salvation was rejected by the Jews at every port, he still does not give up. The message of Christ must be preached in season and out and so Paul is even more determined not to give up as he docks in Rome.

We are now in the final chapter of the Acts of the Apostles and Luke (the author of Acts) will not tell us what will happen to Paul, though we know from tradition he will suffer martyrdom. Luke rather tells us about the kind of person Paul was by narrating his last ditch effort to convince the Jews. Luke also records in the last verse that Paul continued “to proclaim the kingdom of God and teach about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.”

The boldness comes from the Spirit that God sets in the heart of Paul, for we know that when he lands in this city of a million slaves and a million citizens, the city was no longer what it used to be. Rome is no longer a happy republic for it has now fallen into the hands of imperial dictators. Niro was dictator in Rome and as history records, this man has already put to death his own mother and wife. The disparity of wealth was sharp in Rome and to distract the people, Niro kept them entertained in the Circus where free bread was distributed.

Paul being a Roman citizen was permitted to live in his own lodging which we are told he pays for. Verse 30 tells us that he resides in Rome for two whole years and he does this at his own expense. But Paul is still a prisoner awaiting trial and while he is under house arrest, literally chained to a guard, (verse 16 and 20) he is permitted visitors.

It takes Paul all of three days to once again swing into ministry; this after such a harrowing journey to Rome. He would have loved to go to the synagogue, but being a prisoner he asks the elders of the Jews to come to him. We are told that at one time Rome had twelve synagogues but we do not know how many of these still existed at the time when Paul arrived. Paul bears no animosity to the elders whom he receives. He places his case and message before them, addressing them as “brothers”.

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Faith

Captive for Christ- Friday, 7th Week of Easter, Acts 25:13b-21

Paul’s ordeal in Jerusalem is temporarily brought to a halt. He has cleverly argued his case as a Roman citizen and a Pharisee, thus preventing the tribunal from executing a punishment that would be illegally imposed on a Roman citizen at the same time dividing the Jews by declaring his sectarian orientation; he is a Pharisees.

The Jews, not to be outdone, swear an oath to neither eat nor drink till they kill Paul and so they hatch their plan with the help of the chief priests and elders. On the pretext of further examining Paul in the presence of the tribunal, it was decided that forty men would assassinate Paul.

Paul’s nephew gets wind of the conspiracy and takes it to Paul who alerts Lysias, the tribunal. Sensing that this was now clearly out of his control and in order to protect Paul, the tribunal sends 470 armed soldiers at night to accompany Paul to Caesarea to be handed over to Felix  the governor, so that a fair trial may be conducted.

Five days after the arrival of Paul in Caesarea the Jews arrive to present their case, this time armed with a lawyer by the name of Tertulus, who with his tongue dripping of honey in praise of Felix the governor, then begins to make his true agenda known and spins every charge from accusing Paul of being an agitator to the ringleader of the sect called Nazarenes.

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