Sunday Reflections

A little , lonely, homeless girl attached this message to a tree in the main plaza- “whoever finds this note, I love you”. Jesus responded to this message by replying- “love one another as I love you” and gave us the joy, the hope, of responding to her. In one of Andrew Lloyd Weber's musicals, he writes; “LOVE CHANGES EVERYTHING”.

Mark begins his gospel with these simple words: "This is the good news of Jesus Christ the Son of God." Today's readings illustrate how Jesus is the good news. In the gospel, Bartimaeus, comes to Christ so that he may be healed of spiritual and moral blindness and have eyes to recognize the Spirit of God and to discern the way of God in all things.

Over the last few weeks, we, as followers of Jesus, have been invited to learn more about discipleship from Mark’s gospel. Three times in the gospel, Jesus announces to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem to suffer and die before he will be raised on the third day. Each time the disciples greet this news with behavior that suggests that they have no understanding. And, each time, in turn, Jesus uses the occasion to teach about discipleship in the form of paradoxes (seeming contradictions).

During an especially violent time in Bolivia a new dictator took over. His first Sunday he came to Mass at our Parish. The gospel spoke of the necessity to make reconciliation foremost in our lives. Without forgiveness, love can’t grow. As I finished the gospel the “General”, surrounded by armed guards, demanded to know why we used that gospel. When we responded that this reading was everywhere in the Church today, he retorted:” don’t use it again, I don’t like it”, and off he went.

This week's readings remind us that following Jesus involves both commitment to the word of God and openness to God's Spirit. God is free to bestow gifts on anyone and that we need to expand our horizon and realize that the Spirit of God blows where it will. Are we open to this truth?

As the first reading and Gospel remind us that no one person or group might enjoy a monopoly on the Spirit. As Moses reminds Joshua: ‘Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit on them!’

"The question of Jesus to his disciples seems so simple, yet so profound, "Who do you say that I am?" Peter, impetuous Peter, was the first to speak, declaring his faith that Jesus was the Christ. He was the one they had been waiting for! It is easy to profess this truth with our lips. Living that faith is a great challenge for us. In our human condition we too easily disconnect our words from our actions. We SAY that Jesus is the Lord of our life, but our actions reflect a different reality.

I came out of Church one Sunday morning and thee is front of the Plaza, sitting on a bench, was a young woman, sobbing her heart out. I sat down beside her and asked what was wrong, what could I do for her. She explained, through her tears, that their fourth child, a little girl, had been born deaf and mute. They had to send her away to a school to help her with this disability. In one month she would be 7 years old and was coming home. The mother cried because she and her family couldn't talk to her nor she with them. How could they wish her happy birthday?

The tension between Jesus and the Pharisees in this Sunday's Gospel seems to stem from the Pharisees' inability to worship God from their hearts. With time-honored traditions that have little to do with being compassionate towards one another, it is difficult for them to clean out their "spiritual closets" to make way for a new revelation. Jesus points to the heart as the place we must worship knowing that it is quite difficult to change our focus or actions when our hearts are set on something.

Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.’

Our lives, whether we like it or not, are defined by the need to make choices. Many of our options are inconsequential. However, there are choices that carry more weight, such as buying a house, to marry this or that person, to choose a career, to allow an unborn child the freedom to live etc. These latter decisions are more consequential because they have a long-term impact on our life.

Who has not rushed home and eaten something that was not only without taste, but without benefit? We certainly can make foolish choices in our food selection, but we can also make foolish choices in other areas of our lives, selecting what seems to be of short term benefit over something that is more satisfying and enduring.