Faith

Religion hanging by a thread – 6th Sunday in Ordinary time – Matthew 5:17-37

For four hundred years before the coming of Jesus, the prophetic voice of God was silent. In the time from the prophet Malachi to John the Baptist there arose among the Jewish religious leadership groups people who desired to be devoted to God. When called a Pharisee today, the only connotation that conjures in your mind is that of a hypocrite. This was not the case when these religious men ‘separated themselves’ (that’s what Pharisee means) in order to devote their lives in greater fidelity to the law of God. In time however they lost the plot.

By the time of Jesus, the Mosaic law had taken on several interpretations. These oral laws and traditions had more restrictions than prescriptions. The love of God was replaced by rigidity to these many traditions and oral teachings. The Mishnah, a collection of oral laws supplementing scriptural laws, listed 39 primary kinds of labour that were not allowed on the Sabbath day. God on the contrary had just one law, ‘Keep it holy.’ The rest, was interpretation and more interpretation.

Sadly, tradition seems to have more of a sway on us than the core element of the faith. Who places the crown on our blessed mother and how it is placed and when it is placed seems to take more precedence than the example of faith that should have been imbibed. It is for this reason that Matthew lists six hyper theses in rapid successions in the Gospel of today.

What is the point that Jesus wants to make? The Pharisees had wrapped the law in a series of demands that left religion hanging by a thread; more thread and less religion. Religion had become a set of rules governed by human traditions. What was inconvenient was altered and what could be ceremonialized was amplified. it was the mind of Jesus to rectify the inadequate interpretation of the law as interpreted by the Scribes and Pharisees.

Jesus did not come to abolish the law but to deepen it and so, for example, while He does not diminish the law on homicide, He went beyond it. Jesus wants His disciples to go beyond the law of the Old Testament by deepening and radicalizing it to the original will of God. However, He never moves them in a lax direction; rather Jesus moves us to more, and hence they are called hyper-theses. This is why, six times he says, “You have heard it said to you but I say to you.”

Today, Jesus wants us to challenge ourselves not just to live the traditions of popular faith but to live in faith. He wants us to realise that it is not the gift we give him at Mass but the condition of our heart that is more important to him. He wants those we hate to be placed not our hit list but on our prayer list. He wants us to be holy in what we choose to see, to guard our eyes, our lips and our hearts.

Perhaps we may have settled in and settled down thinking that we are good in God’s eyes. I have news for you. Good is not good enough for the GREAT and MIGHTY God we serve.

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Monkeying around – Tuesday, 7th Week in ordinary time – Mark 9:30-37

Read also https://www.pottypadre.com/making-a-point-or-making-a-difference/ based on the Gospel of today.

Today is shrove Tuesday – https://www.pottypadre.com/why-is-the-day-before-ash-wednesday-called-shrove-tuesday-pancake-tuesday-or-fat-tuesday/

Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday – https://www.pottypadre.com/why-are-ashes-used-on-ash-wednesday/

Often in life our pre occupations, be they personal goals or personal agendas can deter us from seeing the bigger picture. Jesus, the son of God was in the midst of the twelve. He has been sharing with them the bigger picture of the kingdom of God and how achieving that goal will fly in the face of the way the world operates.

In chapter eight, Jesus spelt out clearly that the Messiah was not their home-grown version of a mighty warrior or a magician but a suffering king who be rejected and put to death. He took great pains to back this with a teaching on discipleship. This discipleship involved self-denial, embracing death on a cross and a constant and daily following of the long and narrow road.

One chapter later, Jesus reiterates this suffering in the hope that his message has hit hard and hit home; ironically it had not. Chapter 9:32 tells us that they had “failed to understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him.” Jesus was no tyrant with a whip, so their fear could only mean one thing, they were self-absorbed with their own agenda and could not empathies with him and his kingdom of suffering. Peter was still clinging on the keys of the kingdom and now we are told (9:34) that they had been arguing with one another as to who among them was the greatest.

There is an interesting anecdote that is told as to how hunters of old used to trap monkeys. Rather than chasing them up a tree or shooting arrows from below, they’d put a heavy glass jar with a narrow neck on the floor, with a large ripe orange. They’d then step back and hide, waiting for the unsuspecting animal to approach.

When it did, the monkey would reach inside, clench a fist around the orange, and try to pull it out. However, the narrow neck of the jar would stop the poor monkey from getting its hand out! It would pull and pull, but to no avail. There was simply no way to get its hand out of the jar without releasing the food. They would refuse to let go of what seemed to be a meal only to become a meal for the hunter.

The disciples could not let go of honours that men bestowed on each other; who is the richest, who is the prettiest, who is the wisest, who is the greatest. So, Jesus did what he did best; he taught them once again, “whoever wants to be fist must be last and servant of all.” This time he backed his teaching with a session of ‘show and tell.’ Taking a little child, he put that child in their midst. This is what they were to become if they were to be his disciples; not childish but childlike.

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God’s grace is free but not cheap – Friday, 6th Week in ordinary time – Mark 8:34-9:1

Dietrich Bonhoeffer makes it clear; While God’s grace is always bestowed freely, it is never bestowed cheaply. Discipleship has its demands and Christ peels the layers of the onion on each of these demands, perhaps even drawing us to tears!

Jesus has shut up and shut down Peter’s ambition. Jesus was teaching his disciples on the reality of what Messiahship would entail. He described his passion, death and resurrection much to Peter’s horror who took it upon himself to remonstrate with the Master. Now Jesus had to take this teaching one step further, setting their minds not on ‘human things but on things divine’; namely the plan of God for the salvation of the world.

This teaching that Jesus gave was not to a select group of twelve. We are told that Jesus now calls the crowds with his disciples. He clearly intends this teaching for all, not just his followers. This was to be a way of life for anyone who would ever seek to follow him down the ages.

The world we live in has perfected the art of marketing. Its goal is to sell at any cost even by deception. We choose the most appealing image even though it may be unrelated to the product being sold. We pick words carefully, words that would draw in many more takers. We sensationalize, airbrush, exaggerate and promise the earth. Christ did just the opposite when he made his pitch for followers. He laid every card out on the table, spelt every consequence, highlighted the small print and then and only then, in freedom, called us to follow him. There is no bait dangled just an a free invitation but with a clear list of demands that were not tied up with paper and ribbon.

While the text of today has many beautiful reflections I would like to focus on two. The call to discipleship involves “denying yourself.” “Denying self is not the same as self-denial. We practice self-denial in the season of Lent when, for a good purpose, we give up things or activities for a period of time. But we deny self when we surrender ourselves to Christ and decided to obey His will.” Obeying his will is far more challenging than passing over an ice cream, it is passing our own ego so that Christ’s will be done. Discipleship implies a loss of identity and taking on a new corporate identity as members of Christ’s body. St Paul says, “ I now no longer live, Christ lives in me.”

Discipleship implies taking up ones cross. Sadly this very line, “taking up ones cross” has been trivialized, it has become a casual metaphor for suffering. We seem to suggest to each other that whenever a suffering comes our way we should embrace it as if it was ‘our cross.’ The crowds who heard Jesus must have gasped in horror. The cross was an instrument of shame and suffering. The Romans used it as the worst form of death and so gruesome was it that Roman citizens condemned to death would be decapitated than be crucified.

Therefore, “Take up your cross and follow Me” means being willing to die in order to follow Jesus. This is called “dying to self.” It’s a call to absolute surrender. After each time Jesus commanded cross bearing, He said, “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?” Although the call is tough, the reward is matchless.

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When the heart does not process what the lips proclaim – Thursday, 6th Week in ordinary time – Mark 8:27-33

To read an exegetical teaching on this same Gospel text please click on this link https://www.pottypadre.com/thursday-6th-week-in-ordinary-time-year-2-title-right-meaning-wrong-mark-8-27-33/

Some of us have a twisted dependence on the opinions of others. Jesus was certainly not dependent on the views of others. They had already aired their views previously. In Mark chapter 3 they thought him to be working for Beelzebub, the prince of demons. In Chapter four they ask, “who is this?” In chapter six his disciples think him to be a ghost. The Syrophoenician woman called him Lord, some called him master, Herod thought he was John the Baptist raised again; the list of opinions is endless. Now when Jesus asks his disciples who do people say that I am, he is not seeking an opinion poll. His intention was to clarify the misconceptions that they had of him.

In the previous text we know that Jesus was in Bethsaida (8:22-26), a town on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee. Our Gospel of today finds him in Caesarea Philippi, about forty kilometers further north, at the foot of Mount Hermon. It is here that he popped the question because what he really wanted to do was to deepen his relationship with them. Jesus had to ask them, as individuals, what they believed; who they thought he was.

While the disciples echo popular opinion about who people think Jesus is, and that opinion ranges from one spectrum to the other, it is Peter who declares Jesus to be the Messiah, the Christos, the anointed one.

Ironically in Mark’s Gospel, Jesus does not applaud this bold and brave answer of Peter rather they are all ‘sternly ordered not to tell anyone about it.” Mark remembers this detail as do we when someone asks us to keep something a secret (that we do not do is another matter). But Mark remembers this stern order because for the Gospel of Mark it is the centurion, a Gentile, who in Mark 15:39 will declare the crucified Christ to be, “truly, the son of God.”

But for now, Jesus has to clarify even what Peter has professed and proclaimed. Ironically, his lips have proclaimed what his heart has not processed. We know this because in a few verses from now Jesus will rebuke Peter. But for now, Jesus has to clarify what Messiah means.

At the time of Jesus, the word Messiah was used loosely for any one seen as some sort of saviour, as we do in our lingo today. Jesus was no Harry Houdini or a King David, he was a suffering Christ who had come to be rejected and be killed but one who would conquer death and rise again. This was the whole package and Jesus proclaimed this mystery of the ‘Passion Death and Resurrection’ twice more in this very Gospel; each time with a growing lack of understanding on the part of the twelve.

So, Jesus “taught them! (8:31). He teaches them not to fall for popular opinion or be swayed by it but to discern and learn at his feet. Let this be a learning for us too. We are so often swayed by the popular opinion of others, or worse, we are driven by the opinion of others. To thine own self be true!

It is interesting to see the dynamics that play out when people who hail you one moment disagree with you when you take a stand on an issue. Peter was Jesus’ de facto prime Minister; a man who was given the keys of the kingdom with power to bind and loose. Yet this ‘prime minister’ saw his seat of power shaken the minute Jesus taught the true meaning of the word Messiah. Peter’s heart sank as he saw his chair of authority take the shape of a cross of suffering. He instinctively rebukes Jesus and rebukes his own would be suffering!

That’s a strong word to use, “he rebuked Jesus.” Let me break down that word for you in Greek; it translates as “epitimao” or in slang, “shut up.” Yes, that’s what we can end up saying to God when he unfolds his plans for us! While Peter showed some sensitivity in taking Jesus aside before rebuking him, Jesus did more than rap Peter on his knuckles in private. He publicly, reprimands him with a similar “you shut up.”

This text when broken down sounds like a very difficult conversation to read or to hear. This is not the gentle Jesus meek and mild; sometimes he is not mild but riled! Here is what Peter is told, “you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

The ability to be swing from a congratulations from the Lord to becoming an instrument of satan can take place in a flash. Peter goes from being the holder of the keys of the kingdom to being called Satan. Keep your eyes on Jesus and not on the opinion of others. That’s the challenge of the spiritual life.

Do leave your comments

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Leading us out of sin city – Wednesday, 6th Week in ordinary time – Mark 8:22-26

Read also https://www.pottypadre.com/the-man-behind-the-miracle/

This is another miracle story, in fact one of the many in the Gospel of Mark. The Gospel highlights the ‘some people’ who bring a blind man, begging him to touch him. Like the many Markan miracles, this one has nameless faces with desperation written all over the narrative and a plea for help. At its centre is a person who may or may not have had faith in Jesus. Yet this is a narrative where the twist is not in the miracle but in the details of the setting of the narrative.

We are told that Jesus has arrived in Bethsaida. Bethsaida translates as the house of the hunter or the fisherman. It is mentioned frequently in the Gospels and was situated by the Jordan River on the Sea of Galilee. According to Luke, it was the place of the feeding of the five thousand. The synoptic writers attest that Jesus performed “mighty works” here. Bethsaida was also the home of Peter, Andrew, and Philip, according to the Gospel of John. It probably also was home to James and John who were partners in the fishing business with Peter and Andrew.

But Matthew’s Gospel gives us a little interesting information. It is in Matthew 11:21 that Jesus says, “Woe to you, Chorazin! woe to you, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.

Jesus emphatically declares two things; that he had worked mighty miracles here and yet they, having seen the power of God, had not repented. It is in this same village of Bethsaida that some people beg Jesus to do another ‘mighty work ‘for them. It is evident that Jesus worked the miracle at their request because he saw the faith of the man and the faith of his friends. They had come to Jesus that he might touch the man (and heal him).

The next few actions of Jesus tell us that Bethsaida is doomed and Matthew’s Gospel gives us the details. Matthew tells us why Jesus pronounced a woe against this city; they refuse to repent even though they saw the miracles. It is clear that Bethsaida had made up its mind. No matter what the lord did there they were not ready to repent. These were hardened hearts and so Jesus leads the man by the hand out of the village of hardened souls.

The miracle having been performed, Christ commands the man to go to his home. Clearly the man was not a resident of that faithless village for he is specifically commanded not to go into the village but to go home. This village was not a place where one who was saved should find refuge.

Archeologist have not been able to pin point for certain where Bethsaida is today. The woe of Jesus, harsh as it may be, wiped this city off the face of the earth. Bethsaida was that errant child who refused to mend its ways no matter how much he or she was loved. Stubbornness had taken root and the cancer of sin had spread.

Christ is leading many of us by the hand out of our sin situation, out of our village of sin; what or whoever that may be. In order to be healed we first need to make a clean break from the attachment to that which is sinful; be it a person an object or a place. Christ came to love the sinner not accept the sinner while they cling on to their sin. Allow Christ to first hold your hand, allow him to lead you away from your village of sin, allow him to guide you and then experience the gift of true sight that he wants to give you.

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