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 Healer

In today’s Gospel, Jesus is still on the Sea of Galilee, and now crosses back to the other side.  While in last week’s reading Jesus admonishes for lack of faith, in today’s Gospel He praises for having faith.  First He comes across a man in moment of crises, the dying of his daughter.  As He goes across town to the man’s house to cure the girl, He comes across a woman who is in her own crises, a woman with a twelve year hemorrhage.  The woman does something that is astonishing, she touches Jesus in the hope of being healed.  She is healed.  Jesus then continues on to the sick girl when it is announced that she has died.  But Jesus undisturbed goes to the home and raises her up.  These two stories are interlocked.

 

When Jesus had crossed again in the boat

to the other side,

a large crowd gathered around him, and he stayed close to the sea.

One of the synagogue officials, named Jairus, came forward.

Seeing him he fell at his feet 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."

He went off with him,

and a large crowd followed him and pressed upon him.

 

There was a woman afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years.

She had suffered greatly at the hands of many doctors

and had spent all that she had.

Yet she was not helped but only grew worse.

She had heard about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd

and touched his cloak.

She said, "If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured."

Immediately her flow of blood dried up.

She felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction.

Jesus, aware at once that power had gone out from him,

turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who has touched my clothes?"

But his disciples said to Jesus,

"You see how the crowd is pressing upon you,

and yet you ask, 'Who touched me?'"

And he looked around to see who had done it.

The woman, realizing what had happened to her,

approached in fear and trembling.

She fell down before Jesus and told him the whole truth.

He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has saved you.

Go in peace and be cured of your affliction."

 

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?"

Disregarding the message that was reported,

Jesus said to the synagogue official,

"Do not be afraid; just have faith."

He did not allow anyone to accompany him inside

except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James.

When they arrived at the house of the synagogue official,

he caught sight of a commotion,

people weeping and wailing loudly.

So he went in and said to them,

"Why this commotion and weeping?

The child is not dead but asleep."

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.

He took the child by the hand and said to her, "Talitha koum,"

which means, "Little girl, I say to you, arise!"

The girl, a child of twelve, arose immediately and walked around.

At that they were utterly astounded.

He gave strict orders that no one should know this

and said that she should be given something to eat.

~Mk 5:21-43 

There are so many similarities and parallels between the two stories.  A couple of weeks ago I mentioned the story-telling technique of interlocking stories that Mark seems to love as the Markan Sandwich.  

Fr. Geoffrey Plant again this Sunday explains the passage superbly. 

Sunday Meditation: "If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured."

 

Instead of a hymn this Sunday, I will provide the wonderful dramatization of this passage as performed in the series, The Chosen.

I find that very gripping.  It captures Jesus’s lack of concern for what I will call Pharisaic reverence for what is more important to Him, mercy.

Sunday Meditation: His Brothers and Mother

We are now fully back in Ordinary Time, and the Gospel reading picks where we left Jesus before Lent and Easter entered the liturgical season.  Jesus had been preaching in Galilee with His disciples and now this Sunday returns home.  This passage is an example of what some scholars call a Markan Sandwich, that is, a technique that Mark likes to use in telling a story.  A Markan Sandwich is one where Mark starts with one story, transitions to another, and then returns—thereby creating the sandwich—to complete the original story. 

 

Jesus came home with his disciples.

Again the crowd gathered,

making it impossible for them even to eat.

When his relatives heard of this they set out to seize him,

for they said, "He is out of his mind."

The scribes who had come from Jerusalem said,

"He is possessed by Beelzebul,"

and "By the prince of demons he drives out demons."

 

Summoning them, he began to speak to them in parables,

"How can Satan drive out Satan?

If a kingdom is divided against itself,

that kingdom cannot stand.

And if a house is divided against itself,

that house will not be able to stand.

And if Satan has risen up against himself

and is divided, he cannot stand;

that is the end of him.

But no one can enter a strong man's house to plunder his property

unless he first ties up the strong man.

Then he can plunder the house.

Amen, I say to you,

all sins and all blasphemies that people utter will be

forgiven them.

But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit

will never have forgiveness,

but is guilty of an everlasting sin."

For they had said, "He has an unclean spirit."

 

His mother and his brothers arrived.

Standing outside they sent word to him and called him.

A crowd seated around him told him,

"Your mother and your brothers and your sisters

are outside asking for you."

But he said to them in reply,

"Who are my mother and my brothers?"

And looking around at those seated in the circle he said,

"Here are my mother and my brothers.

For whoever does the will of God

is my brother and sister and mother."

~Mk 3:20-35

So the first story is that of Jesus’ family thinking He’s gone insane.  The middle part of the story is the conflict with the Scribes and His answers to their claims.  And finally He returns to conclude with a resolution to the first story.

Fr, Joseph Mary of the Capuchin Franciscans offers a pertinent homily.

 

Now some may be shocked by the verse about the unforgivable sin.  Jesus says, “But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an everlasting sin.”  What is this unforgivable sin, because I want to make sure I never commit it?  An old favorite of mine, Fr. John Corapi explains, taken from St. Augustine I might add.

 

 

Got that?  The unforgivable sin is refusing final repentance.  

 

Sunday Meditation: “For whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”

 

Let’s end with a hymn from John Michael Talbot, “One Faith.”