{"id":493,"date":"2012-06-12T13:38:03","date_gmt":"2012-06-12T17:38:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/?p=493"},"modified":"2012-06-12T13:42:59","modified_gmt":"2012-06-12T17:42:59","slug":"var-_gaq-_gaq-_gaq-push_setaccount-ua-25646250-2-_gaq-push_trackpageview-function-var-ga-document-createelementscript-ga-type-textjava-44","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/?p=493","title":{"rendered":"<script type=\"text\/javascript\">    var _gaq = _gaq || [];   _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-25646250-2']);   _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);    (function() {     var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text\/javascript'; ga.async = true;     ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https:\/\/ssl' : 'http:\/\/www') + '.google-analytics.com\/ga.js';     var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);   })();  <\/script>  <\/heat> Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>In Mk: 4:26-34 we hear \/ read<\/h3>\n<p><em>Seed Grows of Itself. <\/em><\/p>\n<p>He said, \u201cThis is how it is with the kingdom of God;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/mark\/4#49004026-1\"><strong><sup>*<\/sup><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0it is as if a man were to scatter seed\u00a0<strong><\/strong>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.\u201d<em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>The Mustard Seed.<\/em><em><\/em><\/p>\n<p>He said, \u201cTo 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.\u201d With many such parables<strong><\/strong>he spoke the word to them as they were able to understand it.\u00a0 Without parables he did not speak to them, but to his own disciples he explained everything in private.<\/p>\n<p>There is always so much for the adult to hear and to hear often out of\u00a0 a world shaped by mishearing making the hearing all the more difficult.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Minor Background<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Of less importance but still in need of correct understanding is the very name of this Sunday\u2019s celebration, <strong>The Eleventh Sunday of Ordinary Time<\/strong>.\u00a0 In English \u201cordinary\u201d means, well ordinary, not spectacular, run of the mill, not extraordinary.\u00a0 However, \u201cOrdinary\u201d in the Liturgy means anything but that.\u00a0 It comes from the Latin \u201cordo\u201d which means an ordered series; 1, 2, 3, etc.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 These are the Seasons of Preparation and Celebration.\u00a0 Most of life though is focused on the day to day, living.\u00a0 And that is what \u201cSundays of Ordinary Time\u201d address.\u00a0\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Major Background<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Now to the really important; the key phrase in the two parables is, of course, Kingdom of God, [in Matthew, Heaven \u00a0&#8211; Why does Matthew use &#8220;heaven?&#8221; ].\u00a0 Probably all three of those words dwell in a world shaped by our misunderstandings.\u00a0 If Easter is the central event in our life as Christians, the Kingdom of God was the central theme of Jesus\u2019 preaching and his life.\u00a0 The Kingdom is what Jesus proclaimed in word and deed, in life and death.<\/p>\n<p>When I was growing up, it wasn\u2019t the Kingdom though that was central, it was heaven; going to heaven that\u2019s all that mattered in the long run.\u00a0 I suspect that almost all of us have as our goal in life to \u201cGo to Heaven.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0Even 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.\u00a0 We do know that to get there we had to do two things: do good and avoid evil, sin.\u00a0 They were key.<\/p>\n<p>For Jesus, his Father\u2019s Kingdom wasn\u2019t a place anyone went to.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t a place.\u00a0 More than anything it was a presence, quiet, rarely recognized but very powerful.\u00a0 It comes to us, we don\u2019t go to it.\u00a0 The Kingdom is the Father at work, not in the next life but in this life.\u00a0 So Jesus taught us to pray, \u201cThy Kingdom come.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Some questions to help focus<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><\/strong>I have so many questions to ask you.\u00a0 Answer any one or two of the questions that capture you.\u00a0 First, though, read the passage afresh. \u00a0Ask yourself what concretely in the parables is the Kingdom like?\u00a0 I know this is obvious, but what is the word[s] that Jesus uses?\u00a0 Now what does that word[s] do?\u00a0 How does it act?\u00a0 What happens because of that activity?\u00a0 Also pay attention to who else is involved and how are they involved in the parable?\u00a0 What do they do?\u00a0 What is the result of their actions?<\/p>\n<p>Where are you in the parable?\u00a0 What do you think is the most significant part of the parable? \u00a0Do you have any questions, comments, observations?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Mk: 4:26-34 we hear \/ read Seed Grows of Itself. He said, \u201cThis is how it is with the kingdom of God;*\u00a0it is as if a man were to scatter seed\u00a0on the land and would sleep and rise night &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/?p=493\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,5],"tags":[16,7,18],"class_list":["post-493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-scripture","tag-catholic-liturgical-changes","tag-modern-scripture-scholarship","tag-religion-and-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=493"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":498,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493\/revisions\/498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}