Today’s Gospel is a classic example of Mark’s use of miracle stories.He uses them to make a catechetical point, not to overwhelm the reader with Jesus’s power.
Mark does not deny the power, but emphasizes rather our desire to understand, to grasp, to find meaning.
Last Sunday, we heard about discipleship. Today its about being a missionary.
1. In a world of stars and stripes, titles and accolades, we have been told what matters is not where you sit, but how you serve. Not what you know but how much you impart; not what you teach, but how much you tithe.
2. The breakfast you make early in the morning so the children and your spouse can go to work or school is a more sacred and admirable mission than that of the missionaries who go out into other lands.
3. Your example, your practice of faith and your presence is as much a witness and missionary activity as the preaching of the gospel to the gentiles.
4. The daily cup of sacrifice and hardship, thankless chores, patient endurance, silent tears and unspoken grief are all part of the price of being a disciple.
5. Today, we must make a choice from "working long and hard hours at jobs we hate in order to make money to buy things we don't need to please people we don't like" to balance work and life, faith and wellness and achievement and enjoyment. T.K.
28th Sunday B from Padir Neylu ***** Radicality of the call: a. Sell=detachment; Vows and other ways b. Give=Availability; ministries and other services c. Come=Discipleship; Following in the footsteps of Jesus
The habits/cassocks, the medals and congregational symbols are more ecclesial and social symbols than discipleship. We can easily be caught up in them and be fooled into believing that we are following the Lord as disciples.
Discipleship, I believe, lies simply in living those three words.
-TK Prayer of Thomas Merton: “My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.”
Malachi 3:3 says: 'He will sit as a refiner and
purifier of silver.'
This verse puzzled some women in a Bible study and they
wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God. One
of the women offered to find out the process of refining silver and get back to
the group at their next Bible Study.
Thegrimpicturepresented bydivorcestatistics. Wearetoldthatduring thelastthreeyearsthedivorceratein theU.Shasgoneabove43%,although itisstilllessthanthatin Russia(65%),Sweden(63%),U.K(49%)andAustralia(49%).In 1998therewere19.4milliondivorcedadultsintheU.S.A. Each year2.5millionmorecouplesgetdivorced. Agreaternumber ofdivorcesoccurwithintheChristianchurchesthanin marriagesmadeoutsidethechurch. AnABCbroadcastreports thatthedivorcerateinthe"BibleBelt"is50%higherthanin other areasofthecountry. Thisaffects the livesofonemillionnew childreneveryyear,84%ofwhomliveinsingleparenthomes. Statisticsforthe U.S.predictthepossibilityof40%to50%of marriagesendingindivorceifcurrenttrendscontinue. People between theagesof25and39account for60%ofalldivorces. More peopleareintheir2ndmarriage than1st(www. dicorcenter.com).With divorce being so common today, nearlyhalfofallmarriagesendindivorce.
Numbers 11:25-29; James 5:1-6; Mark 9:38-43, 45, 47-48
The world today is in trouble – big trouble - politically, economically, socially, and morally. What has gone wrong? There are no easy answers because the problems are complex but I do know that the analyses offered by the ‘experts’ are little more than descriptions of the disease – lust for power, greed for money, reliance on force, apathy fostered by materialism, disrespect for human life – a disease over which they are powerless.