Fear No One

                   12th Sunday in Ordinary Time

                  A cycle

 

      

It was not unusual in olden days for Kings and Princes to kill bearers of bad news. It was as if the messenger was himself responsible for the bad news. The prophet Jeremiah was such a messenger. His preaching or prophecy was that the Kingdom of Judah would be destroyed and its people would be led away as captives by their powerful enemies. And it was all because they had turned their backs on God.

 

Even today no one likes to hear bad news. Of all the prophets of the Old Testament Jeremiah has become most identified with bad news. The word, “jeremiad” comes from his name and means an extended prediction of impending doom. We don’t call them prophets anymore but our world is full of Jeremiahs. Cartoons used to depict shabbily dressed men carrying placards on street corners urging people to change their ways because the end of the world was coming. Today, we have global warming gurus also preaching disaster unless we mend our ways. Asteroids falling toward the earth, gigantic earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions are some of the themes of our most popular movies. 

 

Jeremiah turned to the Lord when he was surrounded by danger and that is also the point of today’s gospel reading from St. Matthew. Jesus tells his Apostles to “fear no one.” These words, which the late Pope John Paul II used constantly, are not mere “pie in the sky.” The late Pope used them to help bring down the mighty Soviet empire in Russia and liberate 100 million people in Eastern Europe. 

 

Today’s gospel account picks up right after the calling of the twelve Apostles. In effect, Jesus was calling them to be bearers of “good news,” not “bad news.” In another place He told them “as the Father sent Me, so I also send you.” They are to continue His work. The words spoken, the healings, the miracles, all these they can do also if they have faith and are not afraid. He tells them not to keep secret what they will learn and not to be timid. 

 

What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light;

 what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.

 

We must understand that even though the Apostles have a special place in the Church, whenever Jesus speaks to them, He is also speaking to us. He gave the Apostles a mission but we are all called upon to continue it and play our part. But we all have different parts to play. We can’t all be the Pope or Mother Teresa. Thank God, He’s spared us from such an aweful responsibility. Most of us won’t be able to perform great deeds of healing except the little acts of healing we perform every day in our own families and communities. 

 

These good works that we do are essential not only for our loved ones, but also for ourselves. But speaking of good works, what are we to make of today’s second reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans? In this letter St. Paul’s discussion of “justification by faith” has been the source of much controversy in theological circles. It certainly was at the center of the Protestant Reformation and remains today a divisive element between Catholics and Protestants.

 

Part of the problem today is the words or language used by Paul. Words like sin, justification, and transgression all seem foreign to our modern ears. What is Paul talking about, when he talks about sin and death entering the world? It doesn’t take an especially perceptive person to see that there is something wrong in our world. If we don’t want to call it sin or evil, we can call it pain, suffering, unhappiness, whatever. Where does it come from?

 

For Paul the problems of the world were so pervasive that he viewed them like powers or kingdoms that threaten us in the same way that powerful forces threatened Israel in the time of Jeremiah. These forces threatened to overwhelm the people of God and enslave it just as people today can become enslaved to anger, violence, jealously, greed, lying, or any of the many addictions that our society holds out to us as substitutes for God.

 

Paul saw that this evil was part of our human nature and that it had existed from the very beginning. At one point, the Lord had provided the Israelites with the Law in order to show them the way to happiness but the Hebrew Scriptures are nothing if not a chronicle of the many ways in which God’s people continually turned their backs on the Lord.  We were meant for happiness but something has gone wrong. We were meant to live forever, but now we must all face death. This is why Paul places so much emphasis on the Resurrection of Jesus.

 

God has sent His only Son to overcome death for us. It’s as if the impregnable fortress of an invincible enemy had been overcome by a mighty warrior. Now, if we believe in Him and are not afraid, all we have to do is complete the work. Today, our gospel ends with these famous words,

 

      Everyone who acknowledges me before others

      I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father.

      But whoever denies me before others,

      I will deny before my heavenly Father.

###

Reading 1. Jeremiah 20: 10-13

Reading II. Romans 5: 12-15

Gospel. Matthew 10:26-33 (Fear no one).

Storm at Sea

                   12th Sunday in Ordinary Time

                  B cycle

 

      

Starting last week and continuing on for this week and the weeks to come, we will be going through the gospel of Mark almost word for word. Last week we saw Jesus as a teacher who used parables as a way to convey his core message even though many of his hearers might have been mystified. Next week, we will see Jesus, not so much as a teacher, but as a healer who can perform marvelous works. This week’s gospel, however, gives us a hint of something more.

 

Today’s first reading from the book of Job provides an introduction. Job’s problems have caused him to have a crisis of faith. A series of disasters have caused him to question the ability of the Lord to help him. Perhaps Job’s easy familiarity with the Lord has caused him to underestimate just what God can do. In today’s passage the biblical author puts these words into the mouth of the Lord concerning the awesome power of the sea and wind.

 

         When I set limits for it

And fastened the bar of its door,

And said: Thus far shall you come but no farther,

And here shall your proud waves be stilled.

 

Is it any wonder that the Church used this passage from Job to introduce today’s gospel account of the storm on the Sea of Galilee? After spending a day teaching the crowds about the Kingdom of God, Jesus tells the disciples that he wants to sail to the other side of the large inland sea. It was evening and as they were crossing a violent squall came up. Squall is a mild word since the word Mark uses actually suggests a hurricane. It seems like an eyewitness account. Mark even mentions the cushion that Jesus used to rest his head while sleeping in the stern of the boat.

 

Commentators tell us that these sudden violent storms are not unusual on the Sea of Galilee. Often, they go as soon as they come. So, I suppose it might be easy for some to consider the calming of the storm as a natural rather than a miraculous event. Nevertheless, the disciples were fishermen with years of experience and there is no doubting that they were terrified by the severity of the storm.

 

It is hard for many people to accept the miracles recorded in Scripture. Some would rather explain them away as purely natural events. Many prefer to regard Jesus as a wonderful teacher and healer and see no need for miracles. For others, the miracles strain belief and often cause them to lose their faith. They prefer to place their faith in science and reason. 

 

It might help to put miracles like the storm at sea in context. Most of chapter 4 of Mark’s gospel is concerned with parables like the Sower and the Seed, or the one about the mustard seed that we heard last week. People, even the apostles, did not understand the parables. Nevertheless, Jesus said He would only speak in parables. Apparently, words would not be enough. It would take His whole life, death and resurrection before people could really understand Him and His mission.

 

It is obvious that even the Apostles in the boat did not understand what had happened. After the storm has been quelled, they ask themselves, “Who, then, is this that even the wind and sea obey him?” 

 

Throughout the gospels we will see that even those closest to Jesus found it hard to understand that He was anything more than a teacher or healer. Even after the Resurrection, they did not fully understand.

 

Today’s second reading from St. Paul indicates that even the early Christian converts at Corinth did not fully understand. He tells them and us that we are no longer in the flesh. By flesh he means our old way of living only for ourselves. Our old life has died with Christ but now we have a new life with Him, now and forever. What a miracle!

 

If only we could understand.

 

###

Reading 1.  Job 38:1, 8-11

Reading II. 2 Corinthians 5: 14-17

Gospel. Mark 4: 35-41 (Why are you terrified?)

Do Not Be Afraid

                   12th Sunday in Ordinary Time

                  A cycle

 

      

It was not unusual in olden days for Kings and Princes to kill bearers of bad news. It was as if the messenger was himself responsible for the bad news. The prophet Jeremiah was such a messenger. His preaching or prophecy was that the Kingdom of Judah would be destroyed and its people would be led away as captives by their powerful enemies. And it was all because they had turned their backs on God.

 

Even today no one likes to hear bad news. Of all the prophets of the Old Testament Jeremiah has become most identified with bad news. The word, “jeremiad” comes from his name and means an extended prediction of impending doom. We don’t call them prophets anymore but our world is full of Jeremiahs. Cartoons used to depict shabbily dressed men carrying placards on street corners urging people to change their ways because the end of the world was coming. Today, we have global warming gurus also preaching disaster unless we mend our ways. Asteroids falling toward the earth, gigantic earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions are some of the themes of our most popular movies. 

 

Jeremiah turned to the Lord when he was surrounded by danger and that is also the point of today’s gospel reading from St. Matthew. Jesus tells his Apostles to “fear no one.” These words, which the late Pope John Paul II used constantly, are not mere “pie in the sky.” The late Pope used them to help bring down the mighty Soviet empire in Russia and liberate 100 million people in Eastern Europe. 

 

Today’s gospel account picks up right after the calling of the twelve Apostles. In effect, Jesus was calling them to be bearers of “good news,” not “bad news.” In another place He told them “as the Father sent Me, so I also send you.” They are to continue His work. The words spoken, the healings, the miracles, all these they can do also if they have faith and are not afraid. He tells them not to keep secret what they will learn and not to be timid. 

 

What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light;

 what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.

 

We must understand that even though the Apostles have a special place in the Church, whenever Jesus speaks to them, He is also speaking to us. He gave the Apostles a mission but we are all called upon to continue it and play our part. But we all have different parts to play. We can’t all be the Pope or Mother Teresa. Thank God, He’s spared us from such an aweful responsibility. Most of us won’t be able to perform great deeds of healing except the little acts of healing we perform every day in our own families and communities. 

 

These good works that we do are essential not only for our loved ones, but also for ourselves. But speaking of good works, what are we to make of today’s second reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans? In this letter St. Paul’s discussion of “justification by faith” has been the source of much controversy in theological circles. It certainly was at the center of the Protestant Reformation and remains today a divisive element between Catholics and Protestants.

 

Part of the problem today is the words or language used by Paul. Words like sin, justification, and transgression all seem foreign to our modern ears. What is Paul talking about, when he talks about sin and death entering the world? It doesn’t take an especially perceptive person to see that there is something wrong in our world. If we don’t want to call it sin or evil, we can call it pain, suffering, unhappiness, whatever. Where does it come from?

 

For Paul the problems of the world were so pervasive that he viewed them like powers or kingdoms that threaten us in the same way that powerful forces threatened Israel in the time of Jeremiah. These forces threatened to overwhelm the people of God and enslave it just as people today can become enslaved to anger, violence, jealously, greed, lying, or any of the many addictions that our society holds out to us as substitutes for God.

 

Paul saw that this evil was part of our human nature and that it had existed from the very beginning. At one point, the Lord had provided the Israelites with the Law in order to show them the way to happiness but the Hebrew Scriptures are nothing if not a chronicle of the many ways in which God’s people continually turned their backs on the Lord.  We were meant for happiness but something has gone wrong. We were meant to live forever, but now we must all face death. This is why Paul places so much emphasis on the Resurrection of Jesus.

 

God has sent His only Son to overcome death for us. It’s as if the impregnable fortress of an invincible enemy had been overcome by a mighty warrior. Now, if we believe in Him and are not afraid, all we have to do is complete the work. Today, our gospel ends with these famous words,

 

      Everyone who acknowledges me before others

      I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father.

      But whoever denies me before others,

      I will deny before my heavenly Father.

###

Reading 1. Jeremiah 20: 10-13

Reading II. Romans 5: 12-15

Gospel. Matthew 10:26-33 (Fear no one).

Storm at Sea

                  12th Sunday in Ordinary Time

                

 

      

Starting last week and continuing on for this week and the weeks to come, we will be going through the gospel of Mark almost word for word. Last week we saw Jesus as a teacher who used parables as a way to convey his core message even though many of his hearers might have been mystified. Next week, we will see Jesus, not so much as a teacher, but as a healer who can perform marvelous works. This week’s gospel, however, gives us a hint of something more.

 

Today’s first reading from the book of Job provides an introduction. Job’s problems have caused him to have a crisis of faith. A series of disasters have caused him to question the ability of the Lord to help him. Perhaps Job’s easy familiarity with the Lord has caused him to underestimate just what God can do. In today’s passage the biblical author puts these words into the mouth of the Lord concerning the awesome power of the sea and wind.

 

      When I set limits for it

And fastened the bar of its door,

And said: Thus far shall you come but no farther,

And here shall your proud waves be stilled.

 

Is it any wonder that the Church used this passage from Job to introduce today’s gospel account of the storm on the Sea of Galilee? After spending a day teaching the crowds about the Kingdom of God, Jesus tells the disciples that he wants to sail to the other side of the large inland sea. It was evening as they were crossing and a violent squall came up. Squall is a mild word since the word Mark uses actually suggests a hurricane. It seems like an eyewitness account. Mark even mentions the cushion that Jesus used to rest his head while sleeping in the stern of the boat.

 

Commentators tell us that these sudden violent storms are not unusual on the Sea of Galilee. Often, they go as soon as they come. So, I suppose it might be easy for some to consider the calming of the storm as a natural rather than a miraculous event. Nevertheless, the disciples were fishermen with years of experience and there is no doubting that they were terrified by the severity of the storm.

 

It is hard for many people to accept the miracles recorded in Scripture. Some would rather explain them away as purely natural events. Many prefer to regard Jesus as a wonderful teacher and healer and see no need for miracles. For others, the miracles strain belief and often cause them to lose their faith. They prefer to place their faith in science and reason. 

 

It might help to put miracles like the storm at sea in context. Most of chapter 4 of Mark’s gospel is concerned with parables like the Sower and the Seed, or the one about the mustard seed that we heard last week. People, even the apostles, did not understand the parables. Nevertheless, Jesus said He would only speak in parables. Apparently, words would not be enough. It would take His whole life, death and resurrection before people could really understand Him and His mission.

 

It is obvious that even the Apostles in the boat did not understand what had happened. After the storm has been quelled, they ask themselves, “Who, then, is this that even the wind and sea obey him?” 

 

Throughout the gospels we will see that even those closest to Jesus found it hard to understand that He was anything more than a teacher or healer. Even after the Resurrection, they did not fully understand.

 

Today’s second reading from St. Paul indicates that even the early Christian converts at Corinth did not fully understand. He tells them and us that we are no longer in the flesh. By flesh he means our old way of living only for ourselves. Our old life has died with Christ but now we have a new life with Him, now and forever. What a miracle!

 

If only we could understand.

 

###

Reading 1.  Job 38:1, 8-11

Reading II. 2 Corinthians 5: 14-17

Gospel. Mark 4: 35-41 (Why are you terrified?) 

Apostles and Disciples

                                    12th Sunday in Ordinary Time

                                    

Called to Apostleship

           

It was not unusual in olden days for Kings and Princes to kill bearers of bad news. It was as if the messenger was himself responsible for the bad news. The prophet Jeremiah was such a messenger. His preaching or prophecy was that the Kingdom of Judah would be destroyed and its people would be led away as captives by their powerful enemies. And it was all because they had turned their backs on God.

Even today no one likes to hear bad news. Of all the prophets of the Old Testament Jeremiah has become most identified with bad news. The word, “jeremiad” comes from his name and means an extended prediction of impending doom. We don’t call them prophets anymore but our world is full of Jeremiahs. Cartoons used to depict shabbily dressed men carrying placards on street corners urging people to change their ways because the end of the world was coming. Today, we have global warming gurus also preaching disaster unless we mend our ways. Asteroids falling toward the earth, gigantic earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions are some of the themes of our most popular movies.

Jeremiah turned to the Lord when he was surrounded by danger and that is also the point of today’s gospel reading from St. Matthew. Jesus tells his Apostles to “fear no one.” These words, which the late Pope John Paul II used constantly, are not mere “pie in the sky.” The late Pope used them to help bring down the mighty Soviet empire in Russia and liberate 100 million people in Eastern Europe.

Today’s gospel account picks up right after the calling of the twelve Apostles. In effect, Jesus was calling them to be bearers of “good news,” not “bad news.” In another place He told them “as the Father sent Me, so I also send you.” They are to continue His work. The words spoken, the healings, the miracles, all these they can do also if they have faith and are not afraid. He tells them not to keep secret what they will learn and not to be timid.

What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light;

 what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.

We must understand that even though the Apostles have a special place in the Church, whenever Jesus speaks to them, He is also speaking to us. He gave the Apostles a mission but we are all called upon to continue it and play our part. But we all have different parts to play. We can’t all be the Pope or Mother Teresa. Thank God, He’s spared us from such an aweful responsibility. Most of us won’t be able to perform great deeds of healing except the little acts of healing we perform every day in our own families and communities.

These good works that we do are essential not only for our loved ones, but also for ourselves. But speaking of good works, what are we to make of today’s second reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans? In this letter St. Paul’s discussion of “justification by faith” has been the source of much controversy in theological circles. It certainly was at the center of the Protestant Reformation and remains today a divisive element between Catholics and Protestants.

Part of the problem today is the words or language used by Paul. Words like sin, justification, and transgression all seem foreign to our modern ears. What is Paul talking about, when he talks about sin and death entering the world? It doesn’t take an especially perceptive person to see that there is something wrong in our world. If we don’t want to call it sin or evil, we can call it pain, suffering, unhappiness, whatever. Where does it come from?

For Paul the problems of the world were so pervasive that he viewed them like powers or kingdoms that threaten us in the same way that powerful forces threatened Israel in the time of Jeremiah. These forces threatened to overwhelm the people of God and enslave it just as people today can become enslaved to anger, violence, jealously, greed, lying, or any of the many addictions that our society holds out to us as substitutes for God.

Paul saw that this evil was part of our human nature and that it had existed from the very beginning. At one point, the Lord had provided the Israelites with the Law in order to show them the way to happiness but the Hebrew Scriptures are nothing if not a chronicle of the many ways in which God’s people continually turned their backs on the Lord.  We were meant for happiness but something has gone wrong. We were meant to live forever, but now we must all face death. This is why Paul places so much emphasis on the Resurrection of Jesus.

God has sent His only Son to overcome death for us. It’s as if the impregnable fortress of an invincible enemy had been overcome by a mighty warrior. Now, if we believe in Him and are not afraid, all we have to do is complete the work. Today, our gospel ends with these famous words,

            Everyone who acknowledges me before others

            I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father.

            But whoever denies me before others,

            I will deny before my heavenly Father.

###

Reading 1. Jeremiah 20: 10-13

Reading II. Romans 5: 12-15

Gospel. Matthew 10:26-33 (Fear no one).