God Himself (Luke 11:29-32)

In today's Gospel, Jesus expresses exasperation at his generation for always demanding signs from him. The exasperation probably comes from the fact that there could be no greater sign than that which is signified itself i.e. God himself was among them.

The exasperation also came from the fact that agents from the past were heeded: Solomon taught the Queen of Sheeba who converted and Jonah preached to the Ninevites and they repented (much to Jonah's consternation).

If mere mortals could lead others to conversion, why is it that when God himself comes, he isn't as effective? Maybe it's because the idea that God himself would come was so unthinkable that anybody who claimed to be God and who acted as if he was God was delusional or from the devil (or was the devil himself).

Jesus says "there is something greater than Solomon here" and "there is something greater than Jonah here." Indeed, there was something greater than Solomon and Jonah but it was so great it was incomprehensible. Only people of faith could appreciate what was going on.

Our Daily Hunger (Matthew 6: 7-15)

(originally re-written September 26, 2008) I watched the movie, The Devil’s Advocate, again last night and I realized one thing. The Devil can appear to fulfill some (if not most, but definitely not all) of our needs. This was clear (in an “evil” way) for the character played by Keanu Reeves who was self-absorbed and whose definition of good lawyering and adequate self-worth was the fact that he was “a stud” who won every case he handled. We tend to associate “evil” with these kinds of base passions, vanity and lust.

But the movie also shows that evil “woos” us when we desire to fulfill our “legitimate” needs, our need for someone to be interested in us, someone who will listen to us, someone who will take care of us when we have been “wronged”, our need to be loved. This was what was scary about the way the devil wooed the wife and mother of the character played by Keanu Reeves.

I think it is in this sense that I begin to understand the Lord’s Prayer. I never was satisfied with explanations that the “Daily Bread” that we ask from God is “God’s Word” or “Jesus in communion” or even the more simple explanation that this is a recognition that we rely on God completely for mundane and not too mundane things in order to live. For me, these explanations were too “up there”.

Then I began to look at it from a different angle. I began to ask myself, what is my daily hunger? Through the choices I make every day, through the feelings that I feel most of the time, what needs of mine do I reveal? What do I hunger for on a day to day basis? Do I hunger for affirmation from my co-workers and my friends? Do I hunger for belonging? Do I hunger for love from particular people? Do I hunger for a sense of accomplishment?

Before I proceed, let me just say that I think it is important to realize is that our “needs” are neither right nor wrong. They probably are just part and parcel of being human. Even vanity and lust may stem from “passions” that aren’t evil at all such as the need to feel useful and the need to feel loved.

That said, the movie leads my self-examination to another level. It leads me to ask myself: How do I fulfill my needs? Who or what do I rely on to fulfill my needs? And if these needs aren’t fulfilled, what do I do?

It is only then that I begin to understand the Lord’s Prayer a little bit more. When we ask God to “give us this day our daily bread” we are telling him, “Look God, you know and understand my needs better than I do. You know too how best my needs can be fulfilled. In fact I think you want to fulfill my needs because you love me. I turn to you and ask you to help me fulfill my needs. Please show me today how you would have me fulfill my needs”.

It seems logical then that the prayer proceeds to ask God to forgive us our sins and to forgive those who sin against us. We become sinners when we fulfill our needs in a sinful manner, at the expense of others and at the expense of our own souls. Then we pray that we be not led to temptation, the temptation that we fulfill our needs in a sinful way.

I guess in the end, our prayer is that God grants us the grace to be conscious of our daily hunger and that our daily hunger be increasingly fed by the grace of God.

Whatsoever You Do (Lev 19:1-2; 11-18 and Mt. 25: 31-46)

A former student of mine speaks regularly in one on my classes about persons with disabilities. In her talk, she often gives my students tips for dealing with these persons with disabilities. She says, for example, that when talking to a blind person, make sure to inform them when you will leave them otherwise, they might find themselves talking to thin air.

Today's first reading contains a verse which condemn acts against disabled persons. God says, "You shall not curse the deaf, or put a stumbling block in front of the blind." Putting it another way, don't be cruel to persons with disabilities and don't take advantage of their disabilities.

And deafness or blindness here could also be metaphorical. People might be deaf because they don't understand the subtext of what you're saying. They might not be inculturated. Or they might be deaf because you are talking behind their backs. Or people might be blind because they are not familiar with their surroundings or situations. One can also take advantage of such information asymmetries. 

And the Gospel for today completes the warning. While the deaf person or the blind person might not know what's going on, God does. And God knows what is going on because he is the deaf person and the blind person and he is the person who is disadvantaged in society. 

Tempting God (Genesis 9:8-15 and Mark 1:12-15)

Today's Gospel is about the temptation of Jesus in the desert. 

But in a sense, the first reading which tells the story of Noah and his sons returning back to dry land also suggests that even in Old Testament times, God could be tempted. And that is why God felt that he had to create a rainbow. God says:  

When I bring clouds over the earth, 
and the bow appears in the clouds, 
I will recall the covenant I have made
between me and you and all living beings, 
so that the waters shall never again become a flood 
to destroy all mortal beings.

God could be tempted to virtually wipe out almost everything all over again. And he had to remind himself that even when he is tempted to do so, he shouldn't pull the trigger. 

And this is a very Old Testament way of looking at things. God virtually wipes out everything because his people broke his commandments. And he is capable of being so severely tempted to destroy everything that he has to create a reminder to himself not to do so. 

I wonder how things would have been like if the Messiah foretold by the Old Testament writers came down to earth and was actually an agent of the God as conceived by Old Testament writers. That Messiah might have been a Moses like person or someone like Joshua or David. An earthly prophet-leader who shows the awesome power of God and who will make the Romans quiver in their armor. 

Or maybe that Messiah would preach for repentance from the Israelites lest the Roman conquest become even more unbearable. 

And that might have been what Jesus was tempted to do. To threaten one people or another of worldly defeat or torment and become a Savior in the earthly sense. 

But instead of an all-powerful God who sent vengeful rain, what we got was a God who was stripped of worldly possessions in the desert and stripped of dignity on the cross. 

In so doing, God did not unleash a torrent of death but through the resurrection, put an end to the finality of death. God did not renew the earth by destroying people but renewed it by letting his only son be destroyed at the hands of man, and saving us once and for all by showing that love conquers all temptation. 

The Company You Keep (Isaiah 58:9-14 and Luke 5:27-32)

It seems like there are a number of readings these past few days that contrast the Old Testament and the New Testament. 


In the Old Testament today there are a number of conditionalities attached to God's presence.


If you remove from your midst oppression,
false accusation and malicious speech;
If you bestow your bread on the hungry
and satisfy the afflicted;
Then light shall rise for you in the darkness,
and the gloom shall become for you like midday;
Then the LORD will guide you always
and give you plenty even on the parched land.
He will renew your strength,
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring whose water never fails.

If you do this or that, light will rise and the Lord will guide you always. 


In the New Testament however, Jesus calls Matthew the tax collector to follow him. I'd hardly think Matthew qualifies on the count of bestowing bread on the hungry and satisfying the afflicted. More likely, he took bread away from the hungry and afflicted the satisfied (and the dissatisfied). 


And yet Jesus still chose him. And his reasons for doing so reverse the conditions in the Old Testament. He says, "Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do.I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners."


It is as if Jesus is saying, 


If you are the source of oppression,
false accusation and malicious speech;
If you take away bread from the hungry
and afflict the satisfied and dissatisfied;
Then light shall rise for you in the darkness,
and the gloom shall become for you like midday;
Then the LORD will guide you always
and give you plenty even on the parched land.
He will renew your strength,
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring whose water never fails.

He came to give light to the sinners and renews their strength like a spring whose water never fails. 

Fasting (Isaiah 58:3-9)

The readings for the day are about fasting. In the Gospel, Jesus dismisses John's disciples concern about Jesus' disciples not fasting. A large portion of the First Reading is worth pasting here in full without commentary.

"Why do we fast, and you do not see it?
afflict ourselves, and you take no note of it?"

Lo, on your fast day you carry out your own pursuits,
and drive all your laborers.
Yes, your fast ends in quarreling and fighting,
striking with wicked claw.
Would that today you might fast
so as to make your voice heard on high!
Is this the manner of fasting I wish,
of keeping a day of penance:
That a man bow his head like a reed
and lie in sackcloth and ashes?
Do you call this a fast,
a day acceptable to the LORD?

This, rather, is the fasting that I wish:
releasing those bound unjustly,
untying the thongs of the yoke;
Setting free the oppressed,
breaking every yoke;
Sharing your bread with the hungry,
sheltering the oppressed and the homeless;
Clothing the naked when you see them,
and not turning your back on your own.

Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
and your wound shall quickly be healed;
Your vindication shall go before you,
and the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.
Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer,
you shall cry for help, and he will say: Here I am!

Isaiah 58: 3-9 

The readings for the day present a nice contrast. On the one hand, Moses tells his people If you obey the commandments of the LORD, your God... loving him, and walking in his ways, and keeping his commandments, statutes and decrees, you will live and grow numerous, and the LORD, your God, will bless you in the land you are entering to occupy. On the other hand, Jesus who kept the commandments of his Father, loved him and walked in his ways says "The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised." "If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself?" So on the one hand, Moses proclaims a form of prosperity theology. Follow God and you will grow numerous and your land will be blessed. On the other hand, Jesus says, follow God, take up your cross, and follow me in suffering greatly and being rejected and killed. Talk about tough love. Beyond Prosperity (Deuteronomy 30: 15-20 and Luke 9:22-25)

The readings for the day present a nice contrast. On the one hand, Moses tells his people 


If you obey the commandments of the LORD, your God...
loving him, and walking in his ways,
and keeping his commandments, statutes and decrees,
you will live and grow numerous,
and the LORD, your God,
will bless you in the land you are entering to occupy.


On the other hand, Jesus who kept the commandments of his Father, loved him and walked in his ways says 


"The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected
by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
and be killed and on the third day be raised."

"If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself
and take up his cross daily and follow me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.
What profit is there for one to gain the whole world
yet lose or forfeit himself?"


So on the one hand, Moses proclaims a form of prosperity theology. Follow God and you will grow numerous and your land will be blessed. On the other hand, Jesus says, follow God, take up your cross, and follow me in suffering greatly and being rejected and killed. 


Talk about tough love. 

Public Displays of Affection (Mark 6: 1-6, 16-18)

In today's Gospel, Jesus says that we must not call for attention to ourselves when we do godly deeds such as alms giving, praying, and fasting. Our faith must not just be for show but sincere.

If we think of the way we deal with God as a relationship, then it makes sense that some acts of love we do for God be done in private, just as this is the case for any relationship. The audience of these acts of love must be directed to the lovee, as it were, and not to every one else who we want to be watching.

At Peace (Mark 9: 30-37, Psalm 55: 23)

It seems strange that on the one hand, the Gospel for the day speaks of Jesus' prediction that the Son of Man being handed over to be killed and yet the Psalms for the day says that never will God permit the just man to be disturbed.

I guess this suggests that what matters is not the absence of horrible situations but that in the presence of those horrible situations (the reading from the letter of James today talks about wars, for example), we are able to maintain a certain sense of (what might be called in Kung Fu Panda as :-) inner peace.

The Psalms tell us to throw our cares on the Lord and God will support us. And that support is the source of inner peace.

The thought that he would be handed over to man, (tortured) and killed must have made Jesus queasy but he threw his cares upon his Father, received support, and thus maintained inner peace (or at the very least, the courage to do what had to be done).

Man's Effort, God's Grace (Mark 9: 14-29)

Today's Gospel involves the healing of a boy possessed by a mute spirit. It comes right after the Transfiguration and when Jesus comes down from the mountain, he finds the disciples he had left behind trying to drive out the spirit but failing to do so. Jesus reacts by lamenting "this faithless generation" then after talking a bit more to the father, he proceeds to drive out the spirit.

In private, the disciples ask, "Why could we not drive out the spirit?" Jesus replies. "This kind can only come out through prayer.”


Sometimes I feel that it is not only possession that can be handled through prayer. Sometimes we feel powerless before situations around us which can easily lead us into despair. Sometimes we feel powerless even before our own abilities to reform ourselves. 


Today's Gospel is a nice reminder that all things are possible with God and those things which make us feel powerless are best handled with prayer. 

Something New (Isaiah 43:18-19 and Mark 2-1-12)

Remember not the events of the past,
the things of long ago consider not;
see, I am doing something new!
Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
Isaiah 43: 18-19

The Gospel for today is about the paralytic who was brought to Jesus by his four friends. In the Gospel, the scribes question Jesus' authority to forgive the man's sins. Only God, after all, can forgive sins. Of course, it was way beyond their capacity to understand that Jesus was God.


I think the First Reading for today is very appropriate for the Gospel. In it God says through Isaiah, "See, I am doing something new!" And indeed Jesus was doing something new: he was forgiving sins. God was doing something new. Instead of sending a prophet, he sent his only son.


But in order to see what's happening, the scribes and people of Israel were called to "remember not the events of the past, the things of long ago, consider not." Only then can they perceive that which is springing forth.


The scribes were all about the events of the past and the things of long ago. God was right before their eyes, forgiving sins, healing the sick. And they failed to perceive him. 


Which just goes to show that these events of the past and things of long ago can really make us miss out on the good things that are right in front of us. 

Moral Support (Mark 9:2-13)

Today's Gospel is about the Transfiguration. Jesus confers with Moses and Elijah and James, Peter, and John are there to witness it. 


We could interpret this as a manifestation of Jesus' divinity. 


But in the context of the last few days where Jesus rebukes Peter for tempting him to forego suffering and death and Jesus giving himself a pep talk about giving up one's life, maybe Jesus was up there on the mountain with Moses and Elijah because they were giving him morale support. 


We know Moses and Elijah to be great prophets but these two actually had very difficult lives. 


Moses had to deal with the Pharaoh and then he had to deal with his whiny people as they spent forty years in the desert. In the end, because of some seemingly small mistake, he never got to the promised land (for those who are not Filipino, promised land in Filipino is pinagakong lupa, thus the name of this site). 


Elijah was another great prophet but he didn't have a nice life either. In an earlier post, I wrote that Elijah had to flee twice (and at one point, prayed for death at which point, he is fed by an angel). At one point, he was being fed by ravens. And it's no joke to confront a King and his Queen. At one point he was so full of despair that he thought of himself as a failure. 


So maybe Jesus was up there with Moses and Elijah asking what it will be like and if it will be all worth it in the end. 

Faith and Works (James 2: 14 and Mark 8:34 - 9:1)

What good is it, my brothers and sisters,
if someone says he has faith but does not have works? 
James 2: 14


In today's Gospel, Jesus says, ""Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the Gospel will save it." 


While Jesus was God, as man, I believe he had his doubts whether or not his Father would vindicate him in the end or whether or not all the suffering he had to go through would be worth it. Thus the sharp rebuke of Peter and the Agony in the Garden. In other words, Jesus had to have faith in his Father regarding the mission he was entrusted with. And this mission involved taking up his cross and losing his life.

So in a sense, Jesus is the perfect model of what James talks about in the first reading, faith that has works. Faith that is translated into action.

Not What You Expected (Mark 8: 27-33)

In today's Gospel, Peter recognizes Jesus to be the Messiah. But when Jesus says he will suffer and die, Peter rebukes Jesus (!) privately and Jesus in turn rebukes Peter in front of the other disciples.

Peter's problem is that while he believes Jesus is the Messiah, he expects the Messiah to be an earthly king who will finally liberate Israel from foreign rule. And we can't really blame Peter because since the time of the prophets (did it start with Isaiah?), the Messiah had been expected to be a political liberator.

And Jesus was telling them, he was not going to be what they expected. In fact, just the opposite. He would suffer and die at the hands of the Romans.

I guess the strongly worded rebuke at Peter (Get thee behind me, Satan) reflects the internal struggle within Jesus. I mean who would want to give up the life of an earthly king and choose to path that leads to great suffering?

I guess it also applies to us to some extent.Some of our friends are called to lives of suffering and persecution or are called to do difficult things and the least we could do is not to tempt them to ignore that call.

Progressive Realization (Mark 8:22-26)

The Gospel for today is the second healing of Jesus that seems to be more elaborate than necessarily. The first one involved the man who was deaf and dumb. This one involved a blind man. The cure now involved Jesus rubbing spittle on the man's eyes and the first time around, the man can see people but as if they were trees. So Jesus rubs the man's eyes again and this time the man sees clearly.

According to the notes, the location of the passage is important. It is sandwiched between Jesus getting frustrated with the disciples for not understanding what he said about the leaven of the Pharisees and Jesus and Jesus getting mad at Peter for not accepting that Jesus had to suffer and die.

The notes say that the gradual healing of the man's eyes was symbolic of the process that the disciples would go through in recognizing who Jesus was and what that meant. And if we think about it, they didn't really get it until the Pentecost.

We can call this the principle of progressive realization. That recognizing God is rarely a one time event but a gradual process of seeing him.

What's on Your Mind Jesus? (Mark 8: 14-21)

After getting into a debate with the Pharisees, Jesus gets into a boat and heads for the far shore. He must have really been upset because in the boat, he told his disciples, "Watch out, guard against the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod."


It just so happened that the disciples had forgotten to bring bread so they thought Jesus was referring to the fact that they didn't have bread. The disciples were probably preoccupied themselves with the fact that they didn't have bread. 


We're so used to coming to God with our petitions. Maybe one lesson we can draw from today's Gospel is to forget about our immediate concerns and ask God once in a while, what's on your mind? 

Asking in Faith (James 1:1-11 and Mark 8:11-13)

What seems to differentiate those who wanted Jesus to heal them (or wanted Jesus to heal someone they knew) and the Pharisees was that those who were ill or knew someone who was ill had hope that Jesus would want to heal them.

The Pharisees, on the other hand, had no faith in Jesus and their requests (in today's Gospel, a request for a sign) were merely a test for Jesus. In fact these fellows didn't even make requests for their own healing (not thinking, I suppose, that they were sick) or for the healing of anyone they loved. They were just obsessed with the difference between clean and unclean.

In today's First Reading, James seems to have something to say about that

But he should ask in faith, not doubting,
for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea
that is driven and tossed about by the wind.
For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord,
since he is a man of two minds, unstable in all his ways.


If you're going to ask, James says, ask in faith. And the faith that's being referred to here is the faith that Jesus wants to heal us in all our different kinds of brokenness. 

Deserted Places (Mark 8:1-10)

Today's Gospel is about the Feeding of the Four Thousand. It is a familiar story of the multiplication of seven loaves of bread and a few fish.

Going through this exercise of reading the mass readings for the day, I couldn't help but notice that this was the nth time in the Gospel of Mark that Jesus was in a deserted place. I've already written about deserted places here and here.

In fact the place where he was for the feeding of the four thousand was so deserted that there was hardly any food around and he was afraid that if he sent the crowd home, they might collapse.

All this talk of deserted places makes me wonder why Jesus kept going to deserted places. Maybe because he didn't want to bother anybody? So if people wanted to go see him, they had to go out of their way and get out of other people's way?

Maybe because he wanted to avoid the places where the powers-that-be were? So far, every time he has been in a non-deserted place, the authorities contested him, his teaching, his practices, and his miracles. And every time they did so, he moved on to the next place. Deserted places, on the other hand, are places where the powers-that-be probably wouldn't go.

I know there's a passage somewhere in the bible where he escaped from a place because they were going to crown him king. So maybe it's that too.

And of course, I have a theory that he went to deserted places to look for deserted people.

I'm pretty sure as the Gospel of Mark continues, there will be more talk of deserted places. Maybe all this suggests that if we're looking for God, we should go and look for him in a deserted place.

Treatment for Scaly Infections (Leviticus 13 and Mark 1: 40-45)

The First Reading and Gospel for today present a nice contrast of the attitude towards leprosy. 


The First Reading from Leviticus describes how lepers must be treated.


"The one who bears the sore of leprosy
shall keep his garments rent and his head bare,
and shall muffle his beard;
he shall cry out, 'Unclean, unclean!'
As long as the sore is on him he shall declare himself unclean,
since he is in fact unclean.
He shall dwell apart, making his abode outside the camp."


In other words, the leper becomes socially excluded.


In the Gospel, Jesus heals a leper by touching him. Jesus' touch sets aside rules of social exclusion which deems anyone who touches an unclean person to be unclean. Jesus also tells the leper to present himself to the priests so that the leper may be formally re-introduced into the Jewish community.

I think Jesus' mission is truly catholic, i.e. universal. He seeks to integrate everyone into his community, especially those who have been excluded through man-made laws.

Deserted Places II (Mark 8: 1-10)

Today's Gospel is about the Feeding of the Four Thousand. It is a familiar story of the multiplication of seven loaves of bread and a few fish.

Going through this exercise of reading the mass readings for the day, I couldn't help but notice that this was the nth time in the Gospel of Mark that Jesus was in a deserted place. I've already written about deserted places here and here.

In fact the place where he was for the feeding of the four thousand was so deserted that there was hardly any food around and he was afraid that if he sent the crowd home, they might collapse.

All this talk of deserted places makes me wonder why Jesus kept going to deserted places. Maybe because he didn't want to bother anybody? So if people wanted to go see him, they had to go out of their way and get out of other people's way?

Maybe because he wanted to avoid the places where the powers-that-be were? So far, every time he has been in a non-deserted place, the authorities contested him, his teaching, his practices, and his miracles. And every time they did so, he moved on to the next place. Deserted places, on the other hand, are places where the powers-that-be probably wouldn't go.

I know there's a passage somewhere in the bible where he escaped from a place because they were going to crown him king. So maybe it's that too.

And of course, I have a theory that he went to deserted places to look for deserted people.

I'm pretty sure as the Gospel of Mark continues, there will be more talk of deserted places. Maybe all this suggests that if we're looking for God, we should go and look for him in a deserted place.

Elaborate Healing (Mark 7: 31-37)

The memorable word for today's Gospel is Ephphatha. Jesus is in another place which I assume is filled with Gentiles (Decapolis) and a man was brought to him who had a speech impediment.

What amazes me about this particular healing (and the one involving a blind man and mud) is that Jesus does quite a bit to heal this fellow. He puts a finger in the man's ear, spit, touched his tongue, looked up to heaven, groaned, and shouted Ephphatha!

I seriously doubt that all of that was necessary. As we read in yesterday's Gospel, Jesus could heal from a distance. So all Jesus had to do was will it and the man would have been healed. No touching needed.

Of course it could be argued that Jesus healed from a distance when the ill person was not around and someone just came to Jesus with a request. When the person was right in front of Jesus, he tended to touch them. But in most cases, all Jesus had to do was to touch (or be touched by) someone and they would be healed. So all he had to do was to touch this person with a speech defect.

Re-reading the passage, I'm thinking now that Jesus did everything he did because he felt he was expected to do something like this. The passage notes that some people brought the man with a speech impairment to Jesus and asked Jesus to lay his hand on him. If he were just asked to heal the man, then maybe no touching was required. But he was asked to lay his hands on the man. So he laid his hands on the man and then some.

I guess Jesus heals us in the way we expect to be healed, even if that method is not absolutely necessary.
Or maybe it's the miracle equivalent of speaking in parables.

Tests of Faith (Mark 7:24-30)

Today's Gospel continues the theme of yesterday's Gospel about opening up the faith to the Gentiles. In yesterday's Gospel, Jesus declared all food clean. In today's Gospel, Jesus goes to Tyre, a non-Jewish place and a Greek asks Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.

Knowing that Jesus had just come from a debate with Pharisees who by definition are against the infiltration of foreign influences, especially Hellinistic influences, on Judaism, the healing of a Greek's daughter provides a clear message regarding Jesus' mission. He didn't come only for the Jews (which was probably a message the disciples tried to grapple with after Jesus' ascension).

Of course, Jesus could have made things easier for the woman by just granting the request right away. Instead, he feigned resistance and said something to the effect that she wasn't a Jew and so why should he bother with her request. Her reply was that even if she wasn't a Jew, she'd still accept any scraps from the blessings given to Jews. at which Jesus healed her daughter (must note that this is another one of those healings without physical contact. And it's a Gentile again!) The woman was able to demonstrate her faith that God was not just a God for the Jews.

Since I started this exercise of writing everyday about the mass readings, this is the second episode I encountered where Jesus doesn't heal a person right away but introduces a test of faith. The first one involves a blind man. When the person passes the test, Jesus grants the request.

I guess the lesson to be learned is that we must not be deterred from asking God for things that we know is good for us. Maybe sometimes he is just testing out faith.

What Enters the Heart (Mark 7:17-23)

Do you not realize that everything
that goes into a person from outside cannot defile,
since it enters not the heart but the stomach
Mark 7: 18-19


The Gospel for today is a continuation of the Gospel for yesterday which was about the question of ritual cleansing before meals. The standard interpretation for today's Gospel is that Jesus is opening up religion to all persons by getting rid of all exclusions arising from diet. In Mark 7: 19 there is a parenthetical remark that Jesus in effect declared all food clean.


What draws me to the passage for today is something that Jesus did not say in the quotation found above. In that quotation he is saying that everything that goes into a person from outside cannot defile since it enters the stomach, not the heart.


Then I got to thinking, what if something from outside enters a person's heart. Not literally of course, but figuratively. Like that song which haunted Saul. Like the sight of Bathsheba bathing. Then that which came from outside could defile the person. Or more accurately, people could allow things from outside to defile  them. And that defilement leads to the litany of sins that Jesus enumerates.


But what comes out of the man, that is what defiles him.
From within the man, from his heart,
come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder,
adultery, greed, malice, deceit,
licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.
All these evils come from within and they defile.
Mark 7:20-23


And that litany sounds like everything Saul and David did (except maybe for blasphemy). 

The Pharisees (Mark 7: 1-13)

In today's Gospel, the Pharisees demand to know why Jesus allows his disciples to eat with unwashed hands. Jesus' reply is sharp as he calls the Pharisees hypocrites and accuses them (using a quote from Isaiah) of "teaching as doctrine human precepts" and setting aside God's commandment to cling to tradition.

Who were the Pharisees? Apparently, they weren't the priestly class (those were the Sadducees who were in charge of the temple) but were rabbis who relied on oral tradition.

While the Pharisees were villains in the New Testament, apparently, they started off as something like heroes. They emerged during the time of the Maccabees, those folks who refused to taint Judaism with Hellenistic influences. The Maccabees eventually overthrew their foreign overlords. If those were their roots, it is no wonder that they were stuck up when it came to adherence to (their interpretation of) the Law and opposition to any deviation from it.

There's an Ignatian saying that we must not fall in love with the consolations from God but rather the God of our consolations. I guess the problem of the Pharisees is similar. They have sworn to protect and fallen in love with the Law of God rather than God, the giver of their laws. And the greatest irony of it all is that they were accusing God himself of not making his followers practice what the Pharisees believed were God's laws.

Possession (Mark 1: 29-39)

The Gospel for today is a nice segue to the Gospel from yesterday (despite the fact that one is from Mark 6 and the other one is from Mark 1). Like yesterday's Gospel, the crowds go to where Jesus was and bring to him all those who were sick.

While listening to the readings at mass yesterday, I was drawn by the Psalms which spoke of the Lord who heals the brokenhearted and the passages in the Gospel which speak of those possessed by demons. While listening to those passages, I remembered Saul and his own episode of "possession" which lasted until he died. Saul's torment began with a song comparing him to David and from there, he started plotting David's death. If Jesus were around during Saul's time, maybe Saul might have been cured of his demon.

There is a passage in the Gospel where Jesus' apostles are not able to heal a man possessed by a demon and Jesus says this kind of possession can only be cured by prayer. I think it is worth our while to bring ourselves (and our friends?) to the Lord and ask that he heal us from all the "demons" that torment us.

Crossroads (Mark 1:35-39)

Going through this little exercise of writing about the reading for the day shows me that the Sunday readings follow a different pace from the weekend readings. The weekday readings are already on Mark 6 while the Sunday reading is still at Mark 1. So a Gospel passage read for a weekday mass is read again for a Sunday mass.


And today's Gospel from Mark 1: 29-39 is something that was read weeks ago. It begins with the cure of Simon-in-law's mother (Which led me to wonder about Simon's wife), and proceeds to the cure of many from the town in Galilee where Simon lived. Before dawn breaks, Jesus goes off to a deserted place to pray and Simon seeks him out and tells him everybody is looking for him. Jesus decides to move on to the next town.


I'm thinking now that maybe Jesus went off to a deserted place to make a decision. Should he stay on in this town or move on to the next town? The previous night, "the whole town was gathered at the door." When the apostles find him, he tells them, "Let us go on to the nearby villages that I may preach there also. For this purpose have I come." 


The last line suggests to me that Jesus prayed to consult with his Father on what he should do. And prayer suggests that his purpose is not to stay in one place but to move to other places where he can also preach.


This isn't the first time I've noticed that Jesus prays before making a decision. In Luke's Gospel, before he chose the twelve disciples, he prayed all night. 


In a sense, the Agony at the Garden gives us an inside look as to how Jesus prayed. It was a consultation session with his Father. He probably had some idea of what he had to do but prayed for confirmation. 

Processing (Mark 6: 30-34)

In Mark 6: 7 Jesus deploys his disciples to proclaim the Good News. In today's passage, the apostles come back and "The Apostles gathered together with Jesus and reported all they had done and taught."


This reminds me of a word that we use a lot in our University: processing. That's when we get together after an event and report what we had done but more importantly what we had felt and thought during the event and what we had observed. Then we'd help each other "process" our experience: echo and/or sort out our feelings, work through our thoughts, provide perspectives to observations.


Sometimes we'd have a guide or formator who had the breadth of experience to level-up what we'd share. 


I've always envied the apostles because they had Jesus himself to process their experiences. Jesus was their guide, their formator. He worked intensively on twelve men and on these foundations, he built his Church. 

Point of Reference (Mark 6: 14-16)

The main story of the Gospel for today is preceded by three verses with Herod wondering who Jesus was. Some said Jesus was a prophet like the other prophets. Some said he was Elijah who had been prophesied to make a come back appearance. But Herod insisted that it was John the Baptist whom he had beheaded.

It must have been the guilt talking. He was hesitant, after all, to have John the Baptist beheaded. But Herodias and Herodias' daughter tricked him into doing it. So when he saw Jesus (who was after all John's second cousin) and heard Jesus' message, it must have been like seeing a ghost.

It's very human to have these little constructs in our head in which we fit phenomena. In this passage, we see the following constructs: prophets, Elijah, and John the Baptist. In an earlier passage, we see the construct "Nazarene" when Philip asks, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" These constructs help us to gain a handle on things.

But the constructs never capture reality (ex. something good did come out of Nazareth) and Jesus was a reality like no other. The Messiah, as Peter would later proclaim. A God-made man.

When we view reality through our constructs, it helps us to get a handle on things. But sometimes, it is these handles which prevent us from recognizing what confronts us.

Luke 2:22-40: Blood and the Presentation at the Temple

This little exercise of posting thoughts on the reading for the day has helped me to understand the liturgical calendar more and more.

For the past few days, the Gospel readings have walked through the early chapters of Mark and then suddenly, today, the reading is about the presentation at the temple. So a grown-up Jesus is suddenly a baby again.

But of course the reason that's celebrated today (breaking momentum as it were) is because it's the 40th day since Jesus' birth and this was the time prescribed for the sacrifice of a lamb and a dove or two turtledoves (so that's where it came from!) which symbolized the consecration of the firstborn son and the purification of Mary after forty days of not being able to touch anything sacred.

Seen in the light of this sacrifice of turtledoves and Mary's purification, I can't help but think that there was a lot of blood involved in this little story. Right before this was a single line on Jesus' circumcision which happens on the 8th day after a boy's birth. (I learned that there used to be a Feast of the Circumcision and the Holy Name of Jesus on January 1 but that was changed to the Solemnity of Mary in 1969.) Circumcision involves blood and symbolizes the renewal of God's covenant with his people.

The birth of Jesus involved a lot of blood as all births do. And that blood required Mary to go through a purification period of 40 days and she was not allowed to touch anything sacred. Ironically, she was touching the most sacred thing that could be touched- God himself which just goes to show that God came to (touch and) be touched, and rules of exclusion are set aside.

Then there is the sacrifice of the turtledoves. The turtledoves are offered by the priest to make atonement for the woman who gave birth. In one entry in the internet, a claim is made that the blood of the turtledoves are spread on the sides of the altar of the sacrificial lamb.

All this serves as a preview to the crucifixion, the climax, as it were of blood-letting. The Sacrificial Lamb covered in blood, atoning for humanity's sins, and establishing a perfect covenant.

And a mother, who once held a bloody baby upon his birth holding a bloody son after he was taken down from the cross.