Faith

Did you make Jesus sigh today? Monday, 6th Week in ordinary time – Mark 8:11-13

Read also https://www.pottypadre.com/hardened-hearts/

In chapter six Jesus has worked a miracle and fed five thousand people. In chapter eight he has worked another mega miracle and fed four thousand. He has healed the lepers, raised the dead, cured the sick in Jewish areas and in Gentile territory and has taught with authority. In the sane world this qualifies for praise not persecution. Yet persecution is what follows Jesus because it has become sufficiently evident that the religious establishment of the day has flopped and failed and their failings are now more than evident than their fervour.

When faced with the reality of the truth the wise make course correction, the foolish on the other hand go into attack mode. They will stop at nothing because it is hatred that drives them and jealously that fuels them. These words are not just cleverly written lines, they are the experience of the righteous when faced with the malice of the wicked.

I want to recall the words of St Paul in the second letter to the Corinthians when he says, “ We put no obstacle in any one’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, tumults, labours, watching, hunger; by purity, knowledge, forbearance, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; in honour and dishonour, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold we live; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.” (2 Corinthians 6:3-10)

Our Lord was innocent and yet the Jewish authority of the day come to ‘argue’ with him. He has worked miracles on earth but they want a ‘sign from heaven’. It is their intention to ‘test him.’ Did Our Lord experience sorrow? Yes indeed he did when he ‘sighed deeply in his spirit.’ Scripture tells us, ‘he left them’ and maybe even us when we become consumed by jealousy, when we falsely tear each other up into shreds even in the Church.

Hear the agony and the deep sighs of Our Lord you who speak evil out of a wicked heart. You who are jealous, you who see the miracles and good works done by your brother or sister on earth and yet demand a sign from heaven, beware! You will get the sign the Pharisees got; our Lord got into a boat and left them. Pray that he may not leave you.

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Faith

The challenge we see or the champion we know? Saturday, 5th Week in ordinary time – Mark 8:1-10

Read also https://www.pottypadre.com/providing-for-our-need-not-our-greed/
The disciples, like us, have short term memory lapse. In Mark 6:30 Jesus has fed the 5000 in a Jewish area. Now he is in Gentile territory with four thousand and his compassion does not change because these are not people of his race. At an ordinary human level, we are given a glimpse of Jesus’ tender concern for the crowd. They have left their homes, followed him into the desert and remained with him for days: he is full of compassion, being very conscious of their tiredness and pangs of hunger.

In the face of this pastoral need of feeding the hungry, Jesus airs a thought hoping that one of his disciples would say, ‘I know my Lord, he has done it before and will do it again.’ On the contrary, the disciples are self-absorbed and recoil at the challenge they are faced with. The see a challenge ahead yet they failed to recognize the champion they know. So, Jesus must step in and ask, “how many loaves do you have?”

We can begin today by asking ourself if we are like the disciples? They had plenty of common sense, but they had little faith that Jesus could do extraordinary things. They do not yet see that with Jesus all things are possible; even though Jesus performed a similar miracle a little while earlier.

So, Jesus begins from where they were and what they had. He began with what they had to offer. “How many loves do you have” is a question He asked them and He asks us. Don’t tell me what you don’t have, tell me what you do and let me work the miracle with you. Jesus asked them to give up their own food this time. A chapter and a half before they used the food of the little boy, but this time Jesus made the disciples give what they had.

Jesus did what He only could do, he worked a miracle. But Jesus left to the disciples to do what they could do; the distribution of the bread. The same is true today. It is our task to feed the hungry, both physically and spiritually. The kingdom of God is a partnership. We can’t throw up our hands because we perceive the job appears too challenging. We can’t roll over because ministry is daunting. We do what we can do; offer our meagre seven loaves or simply give a hand and distribute the food. Don’t sit on the side-lines or even worse, the centre of the Church and lament the situation at hand. What can I do for Jesus is the mantra of the day not what can he do for me!

Scripture now tells us something interesting; a little detail that gets lots with the familiarity of this miracle narrated for two thousand years. Ask any one and they will mention the miracle of the five thousand or the four thousand was the miracle of loaves and fish. Yet, so far in the narrative there is no talk of fish. We are only told that they gave Jesus their loaves not the fish.

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Faith

When actions speak louder – Friday, 5th Week in ordinary time – Mark 7:31-37

Read also https://www.pottypadre.com/caught-with-his-compassion-down-friday-5th-week-in-ordinary-time-mark-731-37/

The Gospels are filled with desperate people characterized by the word ‘begged’. Yesterday’s Gospel text had the Syro-Phoenician woman on her knees, bowed at Jesus’ feet begging of him. Today, some unidentified persons who find mention in the Gospel by the generic third-person pronoun “they,” bring a man who is both deaf and who has a speech impediment to Jesus. There is desperation in their action for they too begged him. Yet there is a difference between the intercession of the Syro-Phoenician woman and these unnamed persons.

The Syro-Phoenician came with a specific plea; her daughter was possessed by a demon. These unnamed persons also are desperate yet they make no specific request for a healing. Scripture simply tells us that they wanted Jesus to lay his hands on the man they brought. This is reminiscent of the healing of the paralytic, whose friends brought him to Jesus (2:1-12). It seems rather obvious what they wanted yet their rather indirect request itself manifested their faith. It is the same faith and humility that lead so many lay people to ask a priest or a religious for a Sunday blessing as they bow their heads and join their hands. The request is never specific but their intention is clear.

The initiative for this healing miracle did not come from the deaf man himself. It was others who brought Jesus to him. It was these people of good will who “begged him to lay his hand on him”. Perhaps we should remember that many of the good things that happen to us come from the good will and prayers of others on our behalf.

This healing is very different from that of the woman’s daughter. In that story, Jesus took no action other than to report the healing to the mother (v. 29). If Jesus seemed too-little-engaged in that instance, he seems too-much-engaged in this one. He puts his fingers into the man’s ears. He spits and touches the man’s tongue. Yet to a Jewish audience, this would only reassure the person, for these actions were common healing procedures.

But within all this lies the humility of the Son of God who “Looking up to heaven, sighed, and said to him, ‘Ephphatha’ (v. 34).” Looking to heaven demonstrates Jesus’ dependency on the Father. His sigh demonstrates his sympathy and compassion. Jesus was distressed at the suffering of this man. This Gospel reassures us that Jesus cares for each of us his heart.

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Faith

A model of intercessory prayer.- Thursday, 5th week in ordinary time – Mark 7:24-30

This series of Gospel reflections are written as a resource for personal reflection and points for prayer. If you want to get a deeper Biblical insight into the text, click this link https://www.pottypadre.com/right-from-the-start/

In the previous parable Jesus made it clear that food can’t defile a person. Now he wants to challenge another old age belief; that race also cannot defile us. The next three miracle stories will take place deep in Gentile territory. Jesus will move from Tyre on the Mediterranean coast to Sidon, and then eastwards by way of the Sea of Galilee to the area known as Decapolis (Greek for ten cities). All of these places were dominated by Gentiles.

The people of the region of Tyre and Sidon were the traditional enemies of the Jews. This was once the home of Jezebel, Elijah’s enemy (1 Kings 16:31). Tyre and Sidon inspired the ire of the prophets (Ezekiel 26:15-17; Zechariah 9:3). It is remarkable then that Jesus would visit such a place, except that he was not here on a staycation but he came with a specific purpose; to break down the barriers that divide people, to save people not to exclude them.

It is here, that he is recognized once again and this time he is approached by a Syro-Phoenician woman. Phoenicia is the coastal plain of modern-day Lebanon. “Syrophoenician” links this woman with Syria and Phoenicia.

No self-respecting Jew would be found dead in Gentile land, yet here is Our Lord ministering where civil society of his time would not be found dead in their tracks. He is approached by a Gentile woman of another race. While most of us have trained our eyes to pick up what divides us, Christ sees an opportunity to draw people to himself. Yet this narration is hard to swallow for Jesus seems to be so harsh with his woman.

I want to focus on the woman, not on the seemingly harsh words of Jesus to the woman; which by the way has a perfectly good explanation. (see https://www.pottypadre.com/right-from-the-start/ ) While no self-respecting Jew would be found mingling with a Gentile, no self-respecting Gentile would have wanted to ask a Jew for anything, much less beg. And here she is begging not for herself but for her daughter; she has bowed down at his feet; her desperation is evident.

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Faith

Can Christians eat pork? Wednesday, 5th Week in ordinary time – Mark 7:14-23

Read also another article on this Gospel by clicking this link https://www.pottypadre.com/not-what-your-eating-but-whats-eating-you/

Of all the titles that I have chosen to begin my teachings with, this to me is the oddest and yet I felt compelled to entitle this article thus so that we can move beyond this discussion and settle on what Christ truly intended to teach us.

It is my stated opinion that by and large the university of WhatsApp offers you the worst advice. It is written by the uninformed and disillusioned that have mastered the art of selective text or video edits, backed with sensational headlines like the one I have entitled today; headlines that feed the insatiable curiosity of our world. Their mission is clear; spread hate, misinformation or their brand of whatever they call truth. Their mission is to disturb and sow doubt not to comfort or bring truth. Many Catholics are active members of this WhatsApp university that requires no admission fee or attendance of any class. You just need Whatapp and a very fidgety finger that feels compelled to forward uninformed or half-baked teachings.

One such uninformed message floating around these days relates to Catholics eating pork. These devious followers of their version of home baked Catholicism will strongly pull out more than several dozen scripture lines from the Old Testament (only) and PROVE to you the foundations of their truth; pork was not intended by God to be consumed. The Gospel of today exposes their lies and even more exposes the hankering of some, who focus on external actions without a personal reflection on their interior attitudes.

At the heart of today’s Gospel is a public declaration of Jesus to the crowds when he says, “LISTEN TO ME, all of you and understand.” Christ wants us to listen to him not to the WhatsApp university; understanding comes from listening to Christ. Jesus too had to battle with his version of the WhatsApp university, they were called the scribes and the Pharisees. Remember that for four hundred years before Christ, the prophetic voice was silent and in these years of no prophets, the Jewish religious establishment emerged as the ‘guardians of the faith.’ By the time of Christ, they had distorted the written teaching with their oral traditions and several times, Christ, in Matthew Chapter five, is compelled to declare, “you have heard it said to you but I say to you.” Once again, he asks us to listen and understand.

What was the controversy at hand? Diet is a subject of taboo in many religions, and both Judaism and Islam have strict laws about lawful and prohibited foods. Abrahamic religions like Judaism, Islam fall back on texts taken from the Old Testament that forbid the consumption of animals that do not have divided hooves and that do not chew their cud. (Leviticus 11:3 and Deuteronomy 14:8.) For them such food is considered kashrut or haram

During the persecutions of Antiochus IV that forms the background to the Hanukkah story in the book of Maccabees, Jews accepted martyrdom rather than eating pork in public, since they understood this action as a public renunciation of their faith.

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