Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Posted on August 7, 2012 by Dick

Jn. 6: 41 – 51 The Bread of Life Discourse [Continuing]

Background

Fr. Ray Brown’s masterful Anchor Bible study of The Gospel According to John points out that there are two themes in the Bread of Life Discourse; one – the revelation of God in Jesus and the other is the Eucharist as the Bread of Life. Obviously the focus of this passage is on the Eucharist as the Bread of Life.

But we have a problem in hearing Jesus’ message; a problem that is due to a simple fact. We already have a set of ideas that communicates to each of us, differently, what the Eucharist means. And the meaning of the Eucharist for Catholics is a layered history that, unfortunately, is often times a history of the last few hundred years at best rather than the two thousand years of its actual history.  But to every problem there is a solution.

The best way I know of entering into the meaning of John’s Jesus is to engage in a group discussion. In that context, the different meanings the we have from the reading come to light. Then questions can be asked, search for the actual words of the text requested [well required], and, it is during that process the meaning comes out. Otherwise, it is very likely that the passage will mean what it has always meant, reinforcing where we are rather than challenging us to move beyond ourself to a fuller self that God is calling us to become.

As you read, remember that for John “the Jews” is a technical term and doesn’t mean all the Jew then nor through out history. It is a term that John uses to identify those who both reject Jesus as the Messiah and are a seen as a threat to the young community’s identity and existence.  For John who is writing to his community near the end of the first century, the rift between church and synagogue was real, personal, felt. Rising to the Level of our Times means to know that, make distinctions.

The disbelief expressed in this passage mirrors the disbelief that in the Synoptic accounts tells us occurred in Nazareth among Jesus’ own village community. They “knew” him which made it very difficult to “hear” him. We, actually, are much more likely to be like the disbelievers in this passage, not in that we disbelieve but that our belief makes it very hard to “hear” anything other than what confirms our belief.  For the people of Nazareth it was very hard to “hear” a Jesus different from the one they thought they already “knew.”  Something like this is going on with us today with regard to the Eucharist, let me explain.

Over the past 50 years or so, the meaning of the Eucharist has changed.  Those changes emerged out of studies that predated the Vatican II by more than 50 years.  The church recognized that we had grown out of touch with our much longer tradition of 2000 years.  In response our church made a number of significant changes in our celebrations of the Eucharist.  Just to mention a few changes our church made [by the way they didn’t ask us, they just made the changes.] So the church

  • Turned the altar around
  • Moved the tabernacle off the main altar
  • Removed the communion rail, invited us to receive in our hands
  • Celebrates the liturgy in our own language.
  • Invited the creation of a whole new genre of music
  • Required homilies to replace sermons [Very rarely has this actually happened.]

These were not, are not, incidental changes, minor things. They occurred, as I mentioned, because the meaning of the Eucharist for the global church had lost touch with its origins; origins measured by our two thousand year tradition not our two hundred year one. Now there is an effort to restore some of that prior meaning [pre-Vatican II]. So does the Eucharist mean what we grew up thinking it meant, does it mean what the changes in Vat. II were pointing to, does it mean what the latest set of changes infer. One simple example, did Jesus drink from a cup or a chalice? What difference does it make? Well, if makes no difference, why change to chalice? Something is going on, even if we don’t think so.

This brief slice of Catholic life as it is today is much closer to the kinds of things that John’s community was dealing with. He was struggling to lift his community out of the tradition that had formed his forefathers into a tradition that was being formed by the followers of Jesus. We are one of the first generation of Catholics to even know this, let alone do anything about it. And few indeed are those who know … Rise to the Level of our Time !!!

Our Characters

There is a subtle shift in characters from the previous passage to this one. Once again I will list the characters in our passage and ask the question, what role are they playing in the episode?  As I say regularly, to understand the role of the characters is to begin with paying attention to what they say and do and what they don’t say and do but we would expect them to say and do under these circumstances.  For example, we can’t really appreciate the murmuring that is reported if we can’t identify in our own life concretely when we murmured.  If you have not murmured, you don’t have a clue to what is going on.  To the characters:

  1. The crowd is now identified with “the Jews” – see above, please.
  2. Jesus [in John’s Gospel]
    1. is now thought of as the son of Joseph. They know his father and his mother.
    2. But Jesus says that it is the Father who has sent him; it’s only if you listen and learn from the Father, can you come to him. He is the only one who has seen the Father.
    3. He is the bread of life; the living bread come down from heaven. To eat this bread is not to die but to live forever.
    4. He is the one who will give his flesh for the life of the world.
  3. Disciples are not even mentioned in this passage
  4. A prophet is quoted.
  5. Jesus reminds them that their ancestors who ate the manna in the desert, nonetheless, have died.

Before we read though, let’s quiet ourselves, remember whatever we can from our previous readings, and, most importantly, pay attention to what happens inside of us as we read.

The Reading

The Jews murmured about Jesus because he said,
“I am the bread that came down from heaven,”
and they said,
“Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph?
Do we not know his father and mother?
Then how can he say,
‘I have come down from heaven?'”
Jesus answered and said to them,
“Stop murmuring among yourselves.
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him,
and I will raise him on the last day.
It is written in the prophets:
They shall all be taught by God.
Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me.
Not that anyone has seen the Father
except the one who is from God;
he has seen the Father.
Amen, amen, I say to you,
whoever believes has eternal life.
I am the bread of life.
Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died;
this is the bread that comes down from heaven
so that one may eat it and not die.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven;
whoever eats this bread will live forever;
and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”

Your responses, questions, and / or comments are welcomed. You can add them by clicking on the comment link at the end of this post.

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Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Posted on July 31, 2012 by Dick

Jn. 6: 24 – 35 The Bread of Life Discourse

Background

As I mentioned last week, the church shifted our focus from Mark’s Gospel to John’s Gospel and it continues that Johannine focus through the end of August on the 21st Sunday of Ordinary Time. This whole period is devoted more or less to John’s Bread of Life Discourse. If we skim chapter six we see that it is divided as follows:

  1. 6:1 – 15 Multiplications of the Loaves
  2. 6:16 – 21 Walking on the Water
  3. 6:22 – 59 The Bread of Life Discourse
  4. 6:60 – 71 The Words of Eternal Life

The Sunday readings, however, skips the story of the Walking on the Water to stay focused on the Bread of Life even though in John’s thought Walking on the Water is located here for a very precise reason and is related to the Bread of Life Discourse.  We can’t get into that right now.

If we read the whole of The Bread of Life Discourse, 6:22 – 59, though we will be able to set our reading, 6:24 – 35, in a little broader context. http://www.usccb.org/bible/john/6.

Once again I will list the characters in our passage and ask the question, what role are they playing in the episode? There is a tendency in listening / reading the Scriptures to identify the Good Guys and the Bad Guys and then to identify with the Good Guys and identify the Bad Guys with some social group we don’t approve of. In this episode, after we know who the Bad Guys are, it might really be an experience to ask ourselves what are they doing and how are we like them, do what they are doing [not about matters religious but rather matters in ordinary life, at home, work, in the community]?

Our Characters

  1. The crowd
  2. Jesus, addressed as Rabbi and at the end as Sir, seems to identify himself as Son of Man
  3. His disciples, no one of them is named in this episode
  4. Father, God and later as my Father
  5. Ancestors of the crowd, Jesus identifies one of the ancestors as Moses

Before we read though, let’s quiet ourselves, remember whatever we can from our previous readings, and, most importantly, pay attention to what happens inside of us as we read.

The Reading

When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into boats and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus. And when they found him across the sea they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” Jesus answered them and said, “Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled. Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life,*which the Son of Man will give you. For on him the Father, God, has set his seal.” So they said to him, “What can we do to accomplish the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.” So they said to him, “What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you? What can you do? Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written:

‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” 

So Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven; my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” So they said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”  Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst. There is obviously a play on the word “bread” but in both ways the word is a symbol. As a symbol it has many meanings, not just one; that is what makes it a symbol, many meanings. How many might we be able to list and list in the two categories that Jesus makes. Good luck.

Your responses, questions, and / or comments are welcomed. You can add them by clicking on the comment link at the end of this post.

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Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Posted on July 24, 2012 by Dick

Jn. 6: 1 – 15 Multiplication of the Loaves

Background

Whenever I review the literature on the Sunday passage, I am torn, on the one hand, to provide the overwhelming evidence of how the tradition developed over time, and what the best opinion is of the historical event that occurred at the time of Jesus. While, on the other hand, to provide the background that reveals the meaning that the passage had first for the early Christian communities and then to encourage us to ask that question for our time.

What I hope I can do for this Sunday’s reading is to focus on the latter but not exclusively. To do that let start with the obvious. Since this passage is from John’s Gospel, the church has interrupted its focus on Mark. But why especially since Mark also tells the same story, in fact tells it twice and, in addition, it is the only miracle story that appears in each of the Gospels. Well I really don’t know.

Before you read the passage, I want to point out a couple of unique Johannine elements; that is, remarks that only appear in John and in none of the other accounts of the Feeding stories.:

  1. V. 4: The Jewish feast of Passover was near. [This, of course, would place the story in the spring time; so a great deal of grass.]

  2. V. 6: He [Jesus] said this to test him, because he himself knew what he was going to do. [The Johannine Jesus is never presented as not knowing something, which is not true in the other Gospels. Thus this is John’s proclamation of the Christ.]

  3. V. 9: “… barley loaves …” Identifying the loaves as barley further connects the story with Passover time.

But on to helping us identify the meaning of this passage for the early Christians and hopefully for us today. By now we should know our three questions; for the sake of brevity: Who are the characters and what roles do they play? “When” does the story occur in John’s account? What is the “When” of our life that the story is addressing? What is the plot, purpose, theme of the story.

The characters – maybe others can attempt to identify the role that they play. Their role is discerned in what they say and do; or don’t say and don’t do what we might expect them to say and do.

  1. Jesus, also identified in the minds of the people as “the Prophet,” whom they wanted to make king.
  2. A large crowd, later identified as the people, and then about 5,000 men.
  3. His disciples, some of whom are mentioned by name
    1. Philip
    2. Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter [naming Peter as Simon Peter is a Johannine tendency by the way.]
  4. A boy with five barley loaves and two fish.

Further, before you read the passage, think of the words of the Eucharist pronounced at every liturgy and then recite slowly the words of the Our Father to hear more of our past in this story. Maybe we can discuss these connections too. For ultimately this passage is not about bread that fills our stomach only for us to be come hungry again. I have provided a second passage, this time from Jn. 6: 51 – 58; a passage in which John interprets the profound meaning of the bread for his community, and ours, and for all who have ears to hear and hearts to understand.

With as much of the previous paragraphs that you can keep in mind, let us quiet ourselves, and, most importantly, pay attention to what happens to us as we read our passage.

The Reading

Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee.
A large crowd followed him,
because they saw the signs he was performing on the sick.
Jesus went up on the mountain,
and there he sat down with his disciples.
The Jewish feast of Passover was near.
When Jesus raised his eyes
and saw that a large crowd was coming to him,
he said to Philip,
“Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?”
He said this to test him,
because he himself knew what he was going to do.
Philip answered him,
“Two hundred days?’ wages worth of food would not be enough
for each of them to have a little.'”
One of his disciples,
Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to him,
“There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish;
but what good are these for so many?”
Jesus said, “Have the people recline.”
Now there was a great deal of grass in that place.
So the men reclined, about five thousand in number.
Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks,
and distributed them to those who were reclining,
and also as much of the fish as they wanted.
When they had had their fill, he said to his disciples,
“Gather the fragments left over,
so that nothing will be wasted.”
So they collected them,
and filled twelve wicker baskets with fragments
from the five barley loaves
that had been more than they could eat.
When the people saw the sign he had done, they said,
“This is truly the Prophet, the one who is to come into the world.”
Since Jesus knew that they were going to come and carry him off
to make him king,
he withdrew again to the mountain alone.

Jn: 6: 48 – 58, John’s meaning – and ours?

I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”

The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us [his] flesh to eat?”

Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats* my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.

Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.”

Your responses, questions, and / or comments are welcomed. You can add them by clicking on the comment link at the end of this post.

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Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Posted on July 16, 2012 by Dick

Mk: 6:30 – 34. The Return of the Twelve & Introduction to the Feeding of the Five Thousand

Our Questions

I’ve tweaked the first question to ask not only who are the characters in this passage but what is the role that each plays in the passage. This will prepare better our response to our third question, what is the plot, theme, or purpose of this passage. But we shouldn’t forget our middle question, what is the time of the passage? Reading the Background [See immediately below] will allow us to situate the passage in the flow of Mark’s Gospel; it will help also to glance ahead to the next passage to provide an even fuller sense of the when of the story. Keep in mind that Mark is the earliest of the Gospels. If we read the Introduction to the Gospel, http://www.usccb.org/bible/scripture.cfm?bk=Mark&ch= in a single page we can begin to appreciate the larger picture of Mark.

Yet the real “when” of this question is our own “when.” I have yet to get anyone to address this “when.” It is the “when” of our life in its utter concreteness. But this concreteness is not limited to right here and right now, rather our “when” is the period of time we are in right here and right now. That period can extend backward for days, month, and even years with  anticipation of an unknown future. It is the concreteness of our life that is felt, lived, struggled with, rejoiced over, saddened by, forgiven or not. It is the chapter of our biography that we are in right here, right now. How we understand this period today probably will not be how we understand in some future that will place this period in a different context but right now it is what it is.

Background:

Let us begin with placing our passage into the larger context of Mark’s Gospel. We ought to be aware first that between the readings for last Sunday and next Sunday, the church doesn’t follow Mark’s account verse by verse. If we skim over the headings of Mk: 6:7 – 34, we can detect first that the church skips a couple of passages; Mk. 6:14 – 29 that contains two passages; 6:14 -16, Herod’s Opinion of Jesus, and 6:17 – 29, The Death of John the Baptist. In addition, the church adds the first verse of the next passage, that is the Feeding of the Five Thousand. See http://www.usccb.org/bible/mark/6 .

Notice as well a subtle change in language. In Mk. 6: 7 – 13 those sent out are named “The Twelve” and whole books have been written about “The Twelve.” Whereas in this Sunday’s account, Mk. 6: 30 – 34, “The Twelve” have become “the apostles”. Two generic terms that don’t exactly mean the same and no individual names, like Peter, James, John, etc. are mentioned in these two passages. This is a good example of how we conflate the scriptures which hides the interesting details.  So we tend to think that “the Twelve” and “the apostles” are all the same, but they aren’t.  FYI.

Our Reading

With that in mind, let us quiet ourselves, remember our questions, pay attention to what happens to us as we read our passage

The apostles gathered together with Jesus
and reported all they had done and taught.
He said to them,
“Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.”
People were coming and going in great numbers,
and they had no opportunity even to eat.
So they went off in the boat by themselves to a deserted place.
People saw them leaving and many came to know about it.
They hastened there on foot from all the towns
and arrived at the place before them.When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd,
his heart was moved with pity for them,
for they were like sheep without a shepherd;
and he began to teach them many things.

Your responses, questions, and / or comments are welcomed. You can add them by clicking on the comment link at the end of this post.

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Religion and Culture – The Bishops’ call to defend “our most cherished freedom.”

Posted on July 8, 2012 by Dick

To get a handle on the relationship between religion and culture, I would like to point out who we are as Christians, state what I take religion and culture to be, express the relationship between these two terms, take a step toward reaching into the concrete, and conclude with one partial example of what To Rise to the Level of our Times might mean in the concrete of my religion and my culture.

Let’s begin with a challenging assumption. If we are genuine Christians, then we are not our own but first Christ’s as Paul reminds us,

 “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?” 1 Cor. 6:19.

We are the adopted children of God the Father. We are members of the Body of Christ. We are the Temple of the Holy Spirit. These we are as a gift. They are not who we are by nature but what has been given to us flowing from the Counsel of God who in his wisdom created and sustains the world as it actually is. Thus this is who we actually are, even if we don’t know it.

Religion is that life in the concrete. Religion is personal, communal, historical, and eschatalogical [is about the fullness, completion in time of time]. To say more about religion, requires us to know a bit about culture.  Culture is what gives meaning and value to our life. There is the culture of our family and its heritage; the culture of our community and its heritage; the culture of our country and its heritage; and the culture of our global world and its heritage. Although the previous sentences may seem to be very abstract, in fact  they reference what is utterly concrete. But the concreteness has to be spelled out and that we’ll do a bit of in just a moment.

What then is relationship between these two terms, religion and culture? Religion is a part of culture but it has a unique relationship to what gives meaning and value to the various shapes of culture that form our life. Simply put, the role of religion in a culture, any culture, all cultures is first to understand the culture, second to evaluate it, and third to give it direction; that is, not to be directed by it. If we are to be genuinely religious then requires us to relate in a critical way with the range of meanings and values that imbue our every day life.

Now a step toward the concrete reached by answering a few questions.

  • Do we identify with the Tea Party, the Coffee Party, the Republican Party, the Democratic Part, no Party?
  • Do we find ourselves labeled as conservative or liberal or progressive or non of the above?
  • Do we lean toward Barack Obama or Mitt Romney or neither?
  • Are we for or against any of a host of hot button issues – abortion, equal marriage rights for all, etc.?
  • Do we think the Bishops are correct in their call to defend “our most cherished freedom,” think the Bishops are overstepping their political boundaries, or couldn’t care less?

Our answer to these questions and a host of others not included in the list define us in part. Without reflecting our answers identify concrete realities of our life that give direction to that life, shape our conversations, lead to our action or inaction. They are concrete or they don’t exist.

To “Rise to the Level of our Times” is an invitation not to be lead but to lead. To understand and give direction to our culture. Since I am a Roman Catholic, I thought I would take the latest Bishop’s issue and begin a dialogue about that.

I was struck when this issue first came to light, where did the Bishops get the words, “our most cherished freedom.” The reason for that question is part of my past. Until Vat. II’s Declaration on Religious Freedom, the Catholic Church’s position for perhaps 1500 years was that, simply put, “error has not rights.” Political freedom was not something that the Catholic Church embraced. For me, not to acknowledge that past, lessens the legitimacy of the Bishops’ argument. This was further compounded by the fact that the history presented in the Bishops’ document, correct in its details, may insinuate to the reader the opposite position; namely that the Catholic Church has been part of the crafting or at least supporting religious freedom from its very beginning in our country.  

The strongest evidence to the contrary is the history leading up to Vat. II’s Declaration on Religious Freedom. Perhaps the most influential theologian writing and speaking on behalf of religious freedom at the time was the American, John Courtney Murray, S.J. At the first session of Vat. II, he was not permitted to attend because of his very stance on religious freedom. He was under a cloud of suspicion by the Roman Curia of the day. When the climate changed dramatically at that conclave, Fr. Murray was invited and indeed did attend. He proved to be influential in crafting the document now known as the Declaration on Religious Freedom. It was in the 1960s, therefore, that the Catholic Church’s position on religious freedom found its present and welcomed stance.

There are other dialogical factors that are involved in the Bishops’ statement, many much more serious than the one I have chosen, but enough for today is the food for today.

My point is To Rise to the Level of our Times requires work. We have to understand our culture and give it direction. In this example, the Bishops’ statements are not the whole story.  The previous couple of paragraphs are mere hints at the work that is to be done, if we are not to be lead but to lead. They invite dialogue because matters are complex and don’t lend themselves to bumper sticker summaries. It is in the very dialogue that the light of our faith comes to light in its appeal to and resonance with the inner reality that we are. We are not our own. For we are adopted children of God our Father. We are members of the Body of Christ. We are Temples of the Holy Spirit. We are this in gift to be given for the sake of the world.

I would be happy for us to select any of our culture issues and guide a conversation that would help us to be Christian first, and in that primacy to be guided by the light that has been given to each of us.

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Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Posted on July 2, 2012 by Dick

Background – The Rejection at Nazareth

Once again the notes provided for Mk. 6:1 – 6 are helpful, http://www.usccb.org/bible/mark/6

As should be clear, the church during this year is asking us to focus on the Gospel according to Mark, the first written gospel and probably the source of the very word gospel.

If we look at the headings from Chaps. 4 and 5, we can put this passage into its Marcan context. Ch. 4 relates 3 parables in which the Marcan Jesus invites us to understand the meaning of the Kingdom of God in the parables of the Sower, of the Lamp, and of the Mustard Seed.  Mark concludes this chapter in dramatic fashion telling of the mighty act of Jesus’ Calming of a Storm at Sea.  In Ch. 5 he continues to reveal the mighty acts of Jesus in the Healing of the Gerasene, the Raising of the daughter of Jairus from death to life and the Curing of the Woman with a Hemorrhage.  All of this ends in Nazareth!  The very context conveys a meaning that could easy be missed if we are attentive only to the selected reading.

In this passage we also get a glimpse of the early church’s memory in part of Jesus’ life in Nazareth which tradition has added to in ways that capture our imagination.  There is a truth here that transcends history and to root these developing traditions in history is both to do an injustice to the purpose of the Gospel and perhaps to miss both the Gospel and the tradition’s deeper meaning.

Our Questions

Our three basic questions can are meant to focus our reading / hearing. First who are the characters in this passage? By now we know that the “when” is complex and matters; there is the “when” of the story, the “when” of the author and his intended community, and our “when” of the 21st century, in our global world, in our nation, in our community, in our personal life. Ultimately, unless we attend to our “when” the good news [Gospel] remains an abstraction, and the light we think it shines more often than not is a continuance of our darkness. Finally, we are confronted by the question, what is the plot, the theme, the purpose of this passage.

The Reading – The Rejection at Nazareth [Mk. 6:1 – 6] 

1He departed from there and came to his native place, accompanied by his disciples.

2When the sabbath came he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished. They said, “Where did this man get all this? What kind of wisdom has been given him? What mighty deeds are wrought by his hands!

3Is he not the carpenter,* the son of Mary, and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.

4Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and among his own kin and in his own house.”

5 So he was not able to perform any mighty deed there,* apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them.

6 He was amazed at their lack of faith.

Your responses, questions, and / or comments are welcomed. You can add them by clicking on the comment link at the end of this post  With your input we can continue to  delve into this passages meaning for us.  

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Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Posted on June 28, 2012 by Dick

Background

The notes provided for Mk. 5:21 – 43 are particularly helpful, http://www.usccb.org/bible/scripture.cfm?bk=Mark&ch=5&v=49005021

As the notes state this passage tells us of two stories; the first is a story of the raising to life of the daughter of Jairus which appears in vs. 5:21 – 24 and vs. 5: 35 – 43, interspersed between this story is the story of the cure of the woman with a hemorrhage told in verses 5:25 – 34.  Matthew abbreviates his account of this passage in Mt. 9:18 – 26 while Luke rewrote it in Lk. 8:40 – 56.

The fact that the story appears in three different accounts is one of the many reasons that a problem was identified out of historical studies that scholars name the Synoptic Problem.  We can’t get into that right now because most scholars believe that Mark’s version is the more primitive, earlier account.  Although in all likelihood this story reflects some event in the life of the historical Jesus, and was remembered and retold, and then written down in a collection of related stories.  It is this that was passed on [the early Christian “tradition” which means handing on] to Mark.

It is also highly probably that these two stories were originally separate stories that Mark weaves together in the manner that he did.  To stay focused, I have edited the reading so that we can dialogue on just the passage dealing with the raising of the daughter of Jairus.

Our Questions

Our three basic questions can help us focus.  First who are the characters in the edited passage?  Second, what is the “when” of the passage?  It will help if you set this passage in the larger context of Mark’s Gospel by looking back to the previous two stories; the three are related in Mark’s development of his Gospel.  There is always the “when” of us today.  It helps a great deal to reflect on the period you are in in your life for the Gospel reading has meaning in that concrete, specific period of our life in the 21st century.  Finally, what is the plot, what is Mark driving at, his point?  Think of the characters in the story, their individual roles and how they link together.  Also there are a number of incongruities; can you detect any of them?

The “edited” Reading— Jairus’s Daughter

22 One of the synagogue officials, named Jairus, came forward. Seeing him [Jesus] he fell at his feet

23 and pleaded earnestly with him, saying, “My daughter is at the point of death. Please, come lay your hands on her that she may get well and live.”

35 While he was still speaking, people from the synagogue official’s house arrived and said, “Your daughter has died; why trouble the teacher any longer?”

36 Disregarding the message that was reported, Jesus said to the synagogue official, “Do not be afraid; just have faith.”

37 He did not allow anyone to accompany him inside …

38 When they arrived at the house of the synagogue official, he caught sight of a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly.

39 So he went in and said to them, “Why this commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but asleep.”

40 And they ridiculed him. Then he put them all out. He took along the child’s father and mother and those who were with him and entered the room where the child was.

41 He took the child by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise!”

42 The girl, a child of twelve, arose immediately and walked around. [At that] they were utterly astounded.

43 He gave strict orders that no one should know this and said that she should be given something to eat.

Your responses, questions, and / or comments are welcomed.  You can add them by clicking on the comment link at the end of this post.

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An Improbable Message on The Solemnity of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist

Posted on June 21, 2012 by Dick

The Reading – Lk. 1:57 – 66, 80

When the time arrived for Elizabeth to have her child she gave birth to a son. Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown his great mercy toward her, and they rejoiced with her. When they came on the eighth day to circumcise the child, they were going to call him Zechariah after his father, but his mother said in reply, “No. He will be called John.”  But they answered her, “There is no one among your relatives who has this name.”  So they made signs, asking his father what he wished him to be called.  He asked for a tablet and wrote, “John is his name,” and all were amazed.  Immediately his mouth was opened, his tongue freed, and he spoke blessing God.  Then fear came upon all their neighbors, and all these matters were discussed throughout the hill country of Judea.  All who heard these things took them to heart, saying, “What, then, will this child be?”  For surely the hand of the Lord was with him.  The child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the desert until the day of his manifestation to Israel.

Maybe Luke’s Message!!!  – Those who have ears to hear let them hear.

When all is said and done what is Luke saying first to his own audience and then skipping over the 2000 year history to our day, what is he saying to us?

Luke was interested in confirming the faith in Jesus of his community, a Gentile community that did not grow up with the stories of the Jewish Scripture.  They heard of Jesus in the context of their own gentile life situations, ruled by Rome and peopled by all kinds of gods.  John the Baptist is the last of the Jewish prophets meant to tell us who Jesus is often times by separating the two in contrasting John and Jesus.

For Luke, then, John represents the end of one era and the beginning of a new one.  This notion of an end and a new beginning is something that reappears all through human history; not only in religious terms but in social, cultural, and political terms.  As we enter into our own presidential elections, I am almost certain that such a narrative will be used by either or both candidates.  Certainly, the struggle in Europe over the debt and the euro raises questions about the end or a new beginning for Europe. The “Arab Spring” raised this narrative for the whole of the Arab world. The struggles that our church is having with regard to the pedophile scandals with its mismanagement, the bishops’ embattled position with certain provisions of the health care legislation, the nuns conflict with the Vatican, and many other events, also causes this narrative to arise within the Catholic Church today.  As I said this theme of end and beginning is relentless in human history.

It is critical, though, to see this narrative finally in very personal terms, our lives after all are not normally a straight trajectory upwards.  More likely than not, we live a series of ups and downs and occasionally one of the series is an end of one era and the beginning of a new one.

To enter into the narrative with God as our guide, though, invites us to look deeper into Luke’s narrative itself.  To do that let’s listen to the human actions and reactions to God’s plan at work.

  1. Birth is the work of the Lord and there is rejoicing.  Keep in mind though that even for those for whom there is no god, the birth of a new life brings rejoicing.
  2. There is the religious ritual of time with its human expectations.  The child will be called “Zechariah after his father,” of course.
  3. Human expectations are challenged – “No. He will be called John.”  But continued objection – they answered her, “There is no one among your relatives who has this name.”  Lots of human evidence that life should be the way we expect it to be and we provide all the arguments we can muster to keep things the same; even if there is something else [God] at work.
  4. And when the truth is spoken, the father’s tongue is loosened.  The truth will make you free.  But where did the truth come from?  It’s easy to say God, of course.  Such thought though is simplistic; for the struggle to achieve the truth often emerges out of a previous period of darkness, uncertainty, even fear.  During which we are won’t to say that God is absent, has forgotten me, us. [Jesus in the garden, My God!  My God!  Why have you forsaken me?]  Truth often reveals error and, even worse, unwillingness.  The freedom received in truth is the opening of a door we may have kept shut for some time.  How hard would it be for the Bishops, the Nuns, the Pope, to hear the truth that would reveal their own errors, their own unwillingness?  Are they not absolutely certain they already possess the truth.  Yes, “There is no one among your relatives who has this name.”
  5. The Bishops, the Nuns, the Pope; these are the other, but what about me, ah the searing question to be avoided.  What truth have I kept locked out, shut the door on?  Certain that I already possess the truth.  On Sacred Truth!!! Only in the secret recesses of your heart does the answer lie.  [Pause don’t keep reading to avoid the message …]
  6. And when his tongue is loosened “he spoke blessing God.”  He blessed God, a strange activity in our world but the spontaneous thing to do in his world.  What has changed?  Who is God in whom the first response is to bless for the good that happens?  Contrasted with the God whom we ask to bless us.
  7. At the end, there is another reaction.  “… fear came upon all their neighbors, and all these matters were discussed throughout the hill country of Judea.”  This fear is different, it is awe.  Life is awesome because its author is awesome.

So when confronted with the narrative of the end of an era and the beginning of a new, listen with a great deal of skepticism.  Nonetheless Jesus has been the source of a continuing renewal.  The critical thing for Jesus was his being faithful to his Father; ultimately nothing else mattered.  Hearing the Father is a lifetime of coming to hear, shedding the humanly expected, accepting the unexpected, discerning, discerning, discerning … If only it was easy, simple and for some it might be but not for me.

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Solemnity of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist

Posted on June 19, 2012 by Dick

Background 

Please keep in mind that history for the Hebrews is not concerned with who does what to whom; in other words, this passage is not about history in any modern sense of that word.  Rather the Hebrews understood history in terms of the mighty acts of their God who is Lord of history.  Christians understood Jesus as the very Word of God acting in human history. So this passage is about the mighty acts of God in Christ Jesus; that is what is happening.

So when you turned your gaze to the words below, look first to find God at work in Christ Jesus.  As is our custom, let us ask ourselves some questions to focus our attention.  Who are the characters in this passage?  Will you list them?  When [the “when” of the passage] does this passage occur?  [Would anyone venture to identify the when of the author and the community to whom he is writing? ]

Hint, Luke is a Gentile writing to Gentiles. Now the order of spreading the Good News of Jesus was from Palestine where the Good News was preached to the Jews in Aramaic and Hebrew; to the Jews of the Diaspora – Jews everywhere else who lived primarily in a Greek culture, spoke Greek, read Greek; and finally to the Gentiles – everybody who wasn’t Jewish and had no meaningful background in the Jewish Scripture.  It was among this group that Jesus’ title of The Messiah, The Anointed One, became his last name, Christ, [Christos] The Anointed One and from whom we are named, Christians.  Such preaching took place over time and it took time for people to say yes and no and then for the preachers to respond to the yes’ and the no’s.

There is always too your “when;” the period of time in which your life is being held.  What is happening to you?

The last formal question, what is the plot of this story?  Why is it being told to Gentile Christians?  As you read, attend to yourself … what questions, comments, observations emerge inside of you?  They are very important.  Notice too that verses 67 to 79 are omitted by the church for this Sunday’s celebration.

Of course you can read the introductory notes to Luke’s Gospel, http://www.usccb.org/bible/scripture.cfm?bk=Luke&ch= and / or the notes to this passage, http://www.usccb.org/bible/luke/1

The Reading – Lk. 1:57 – 66, 80

When the time arrived forElizabethto have her child she gave birth to a son. Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown his great mercy toward her, and they rejoiced with her. When they came on the eighth day to circumcise the child, they were going to call him Zechariah after his father, but his mother said in reply, “No. He will be called John.”  But they answered her, “There is no one among your relatives who has this name.”  So they made signs, asking his father what he wished him to be called.  He asked for a tablet and wrote, “John is his name,” and all were amazed.  Immediately his mouth was opened, his tongue freed, and he spoke blessing God.  Then fear came upon all their neighbors, and all these matters were discussed throughout the hill country of Judea.  All who heard these things took them to heart, saying, “What, then, will this child be?”  For surely the hand of the Lord was with him.  The child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the desert until the day of his manifestation to Israel.

In your comments, answer any one or more of the questions. Note that you can add your comments by clicking on the “Comment” word at the very bottom of this post.  Once you make a comment, it will appear on the list on the right side of the page.  There you can click any one of the comments, read the dialogue, and join in if you are so inclined.

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Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

Posted on June 12, 2012 by Dick

In Mk: 4:26-34 we hear / read

Seed Grows of Itself.

He said, “This is how it is with the kingdom of God;* it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land and would sleep and rise night and day and the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how. Of its own accord the land yields fruit, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once, for the harvest has come.” 

The Mustard Seed.

He said, “To what shall we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable can we use for it? It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth. But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade.” With many such parableshe spoke the word to them as they were able to understand it.  Without parables he did not speak to them, but to his own disciples he explained everything in private.

There is always so much for the adult to hear and to hear often out of  a world shaped by mishearing making the hearing all the more difficult.

Minor Background

Of less importance but still in need of correct understanding is the very name of this Sunday’s celebration, The Eleventh Sunday of Ordinary Time.  In English “ordinary” means, well ordinary, not spectacular, run of the mill, not extraordinary.  However, “Ordinary” in the Liturgy means anything but that.  It comes from the Latin “ordo” which means an ordered series; 1, 2, 3, etc.  The liturgy of the church emerged over time but the central event of that liturgy is, and must always be, the resurrection, Easter, no Easter no Christianity.  With Easter as its center, the church developed a time of preparation for Easter which we now know of as Lent, and a time of celebrating the Feast, not a one day affair but 50 days, Pentecost.  Then there is Christmas modeled on Easter so a period of preparation, Advent, and a time of the Feast, again not a one day affair.  These are the Seasons of Preparation and Celebration.  Most of life though is focused on the day to day, living.  And that is what “Sundays of Ordinary Time” address.   Rising to the level of our times means to know and appreciate the liturgical year, a gift of wisdom from our ancestors in the faith to us.

Major Background

Now to the really important; the key phrase in the two parables is, of course, Kingdom of God, [in Matthew, Heaven  – Why does Matthew use “heaven?” ].  Probably all three of those words dwell in a world shaped by our misunderstandings.  If Easter is the central event in our life as Christians, the Kingdom of God was the central theme of Jesus’ preaching and his life.  The Kingdom is what Jesus proclaimed in word and deed, in life and death.

When I was growing up, it wasn’t the Kingdom though that was central, it was heaven; going to heaven that’s all that mattered in the long run.  I suspect that almost all of us have as our goal in life to “Go to Heaven.”   Even if we are not all that clear on exactly where heaven is, or what it is, or what we would do once we got there.  We do know that to get there we had to do two things: do good and avoid evil, sin.  They were key.

For Jesus, his Father’s Kingdom wasn’t a place anyone went to.  It wasn’t a place.  More than anything it was a presence, quiet, rarely recognized but very powerful.  It comes to us, we don’t go to it.  The Kingdom is the Father at work, not in the next life but in this life.  So Jesus taught us to pray, “Thy Kingdom come.”

Some questions to help focus

I have so many questions to ask you.  Answer any one or two of the questions that capture you.  First, though, read the passage afresh.  Ask yourself what concretely in the parables is the Kingdom like?  I know this is obvious, but what is the word[s] that Jesus uses?  Now what does that word[s] do?  How does it act?  What happens because of that activity?  Also pay attention to who else is involved and how are they involved in the parable?  What do they do?  What is the result of their actions?

Where are you in the parable?  What do you think is the most significant part of the parable?  Do you have any questions, comments, observations?

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