Sunday Meditation: Receiving One Child

The journey for Jesus and his apostles continues through Galilee.  Here the apostles do something very disagreeable to Christian sensibility.  They try to become superior over each other.  Jesus slaps this down right away, and he admonishes them by telling them that service and sacrifice is what makes one great in God’s eyes.  He tells them again He will be put to death, and juxtaposed to this prophesy He shows them the true meaning of service.  He takes a child and says those who receive such a child is that who is great.

 

Jesus and his disciples left from there and began a journey through Galilee, but he did not wish anyone to know about it. 
He was teaching his disciples and telling them,
“The Son of Man is to be handed over to men
and they will kill him, and three days after his death the Son of Man will rise.”  But they did not understand the saying,
and they were afraid to question him.

They came to Capernaum and, once inside the house,
he began to ask them, “What were you arguing about on the way?”  But they remained silent.
They had been discussing among themselves on the way
who was the greatest.  Then he sat down, called the Twelve, and said to them, “If anyone wishes to be first,
he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” 
Taking a child, he placed it in their midst,
and putting his arms around it, he said to them,
“Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the One who sent me.”

~Mk 9:30-37

I think this was the passage that inspired me to adopt, or at least it confirmed my decision to adopt.  Children are extremely important to Jesus.  Elsewhere Jesus will tell the apostles that unless they need to become like children in order to enter the Kingdom of God. 

To get the full understanding of this passage, I like Fr. Geoffrey’s explanation again.

 

So the Messiah must not be understood in terms of a conquering king, but as a suffering servant and an innocent child.

 

Sunday Meditation: “Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me”

 

I am going to go with this beautiful Communion song, “I Come With Joy (A Child Of God).” 

 

The first stanza captures today’s themes perfectly:

 

I come with joy, a child of God,

forgiven, loved and free,

the life of Jesus to recall,

in love laid down for me.

Sunday Meditation: The Apostles Return

Today’s Gospel we have a continuation from last week’s.  Last week we saw Jesus send forth the apostles two by two to heal and cast out demons.  That was from Mk 6:7-13.  Today the apostles return to tell Jesus all that they had done.  One gets a sense that they are all excited with the accomplishments attained from the power Jesus has entrusted to them.  Jesus must have been satisfied because He rewards them with a period of rest, rest being so important in the Jewish of concept of the Sabbath.  But the apostles (through Jesus of course) must have done a super job because now multitudes are seeking them out. 

Today’s readings are also from Mark chapter six, verses 30 to 34.  So if Jesus sends them out in verses 13 and they return in verse 30, what happened from verses 14 through 29?  Take out your Bibles and see.  It is the story of John the Baptist being imprisoned, bound, and slain so that King Herod could satisfy an oath.  This is another of those Markan sandwiches, a story inserted in between the beginning and conclusion of another story.  First Jesus sends out His apostles; then we get the beheading of John the Baptist, and then the original story concludes with the return of the apostles. 

But why the intertwining of story?  The middle story is supposed to give the main story context and thereby expand the meaning of the main story.  Here is the conclusion of the main story.

 

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.

~Mk 6:30-34

First let’s understand the Gospel passage as explained by Dr. Brant Pitre.

 

So what does the beheading of John the Baptist interlude add?  Certainly King Herod is a bad shepherd.  The bounding and killing of John the Baptist certainly prefigures the crucifixion of Jesus, but I think it also prefigures the future martyrdom of the apostles.

Sunday Meditation: “His heart was moved with pity for them”

 

Instead of a John Michael Talbot song, I think the hymn, “The King of Love My Shepherd Is” would make a very appropriate musical piece for this Sunday.

 

 

The King of love my shepherd is,

Whose goodness fails me never;

I nothing lack if I am His,

And He is mine for ever.

 

Where streams of living water flow,

With gentle care He leads me,

And where the verdant pastures grow,

With heav'nly food he feeds me.

 

Perverse and foolish I have strayed,

But yet in love He sought me,

And on His shoulder gently laid,

And home rejoicing brought me.

 

In death's dark vale I fear no ill,

With you, dear Lord, beside me;

Your rod and staff my comfort still,

Your cross before to guide me.

 

You spread a table in my sight;

Your saving grace bestowing,

And O what joy and true delight,

From your pure chalice flowing.

 

And so through all the length of days,

Your goodness fails me never,

Good Shepherd, may I sing your praise,

Within your house for ever.

 

Good Shepherd, may I sing your praise!

Sunday Meditation: The Sending Forth

In the early chapters of Mark, we saw Jesus call the various apostles to join Him.  In last week’s Gospel reading there was a homecoming for Jesus.  In this week, those He called He now sends forth in a commission.

 

Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two

and gave them authority over unclean spirits.

He instructed them to take nothing for the journey

but a walking stick—

no food, no sack, no money in their belts.

They were, however, to wear sandals

but not a second tunic.

He said to them,

“Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave.

Whatever place does not welcome you or listen to you,

leave there and shake the dust off your feet

in testimony against them.”

So they went off and preached repentance.

The Twelve drove out many demons,

and they anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.

~Mk 6:7-13

That Jesus sends them with a staff is an indication that the apostles are here bishops, or at least proto-bishops since the Church has not been formed yet.  In fact, apostle actually means, “one sent out on a mission.”  The corresponding passage in Luke’s Gospel (Lk 10-1-12) Jesus commissions seventy, but here in Mark it’s the Biblically significant number of twelve, corresponding to the twelve tribes of Israel.  Bishop Barron provides this week’s informative homily.

But it’s not just bishops who are sent forth.  If Jesus calls each of us to join His Body, then each of us is also sent forth. 

 

Sunday Meditation: “Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two”

 

The perfect John Michael Talbot song for this week, “Send Us Out.”

 

To proclaim Your Kingdom and to overcome and heal the world!  

Sunday Meditation: By the Sea of Galilee

This is a very complex Gospel.  There is way more within this that we simple readers of the Bible can surmise.  Hang in there and Dr. Brant Pitre will open this up.

 

When Jesus heard that John had been arrested,

he withdrew to Galilee.

He left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum by the sea,

in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali,

that what had been said through Isaiah the prophet

might be fulfilled:

Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali,

the way to the sea, beyond the Jordan,

Galilee of the Gentiles,

the people who sit in darkness have seen a great light,

on those dwelling in a land overshadowed by death

light has arisen.

From that time on, Jesus began to preach and say,

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

 

As he was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers,

Simon who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew,

casting a net into the sea; they were fishermen.

He said to them,

“Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

At once they left their nets and followed him.

He walked along from there and saw two other brothers,

James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John.

They were in a boat, with their father Zebedee, mending their nets.

He called them, and immediately they left their boat and their father

and followed him.

He went around all of Galilee,

teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom,

and curing every disease and illness among the people.

~Mt 4:12-23

 

First, enjoy a dramatization of the passage.  It will make it much more visual.

 

Dr. Brant Pitre explains it thoroughly.  It again takes two videos.

 

“Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.”