Are You Busy Friday Night?

The Son of Man is to be handed over … [and killed].

The Son of Man will rise.

What’s with this Son of Man title?

We’re all offspring of humans.

But it’s the title that Jesus chose to use to describe himself.

No one else in the Gospels calls him that.

Only Jesus himself.

It may be a reference back to the Old Testament.

Or a way to delay his being handed over and killed.

But it’s surely a sign of his humility.

While others call him the Messiah, the Christ, the Holy One of God.

Jesus calls himself, simply, the Son of Man.

And, of course, he is.

He’s the son of Mary—he inherited her human nature.

And, as it turns out, that was a critical element of God’s plan of salvation.

A perfect human being to represent the rest of us.

A perfect person, with two natures; one human and one Divine.

God’s own Son.

Not just the Son of Man, but also the Son of God.

That’s what we call him; the Son of God.

We’ll have an opportunity this weekend to enjoy a new perspective on the Son of God.

A new movie, Son of God, is being released Friday.

It’s a high-quality, professional, Hollywood-type production.

Produced and directed by typical big-name movie industry folks.

But with one difference—these Hollywood folks are on a mission of evangelization.

They want to spread the Word to a new audience; people who don’t know the true story.

And to help those of us who do know the story to gain a stronger appreciation.

And a new inspiration.

Evidently, they’ve done a very accurate job presenting the Gospel.

They’ve won the support and endorsement of many well known Christian leaders.

Among them, our own Cardinal Donald Wuerl.

There’s a 20-minute movie trailer on the web.

And it includes Cardinal Wuerl, giving his endorsement.

Last week I was at a meeting with the Cardinal, and he urged us to promote the movie.

He said it’s important that as many of us as possible go to see it during its initial days.

A strong opening box office will keep it in the theaters for an extended run.

Movies that don’t draw crowds that first weekend are quickly replaced.

And we would like this movie to stay a long time and be seen by more and more people.

In the hopes that they’ll be deeply touched by it.

Son of God will open in a dozen or more local theaters this Friday.

Go and see it.
Take a friend.
Spread the Word.

Tuesday, 7th Week of Ordinary Time

Mk 9:30-37           Read this Scripture @usccb.org

Do You Still Not Understand?

Do you still not understand?

The disciples have been following Jesus for some time now.

They’ve been eyewitnesses to many of his miracles.

Healing the sick, driving out demons, even raising the dead.

They’ve heard his teaching; seen his wisdom, virtue and compassion.

They’ve seen his unique knowledge about God, and his special closeness to God.

Twice, they’ve seen him miraculously feed thousands of people.

Starting with nothing but a few loaves of bread and a couple fish.

And somehow ending up with massive quantities left over.

He's an inexhaustible font of abundance.

Now they're in the boat with Jesus.

And they're concerned about not bringing enough bread.

Don't they recognize his absolute power?

Don't they understand who he is?

It's enough to frustrate a Messiah!

Scholars break the Gospel of Mark into sections.

And here, deep into the Gospel, in the middle of Chapter 8, they mark the end of Part I.

And they mark it with Jesus' frustrated exclamation or question.

Do you still not understand?

We hear Jesus’ words.

And we're struck with how dense those disciples were.

That is, until we direct those words as a question to ourselves.

And contemplate on that question—

Looking at the priorities we've set in our own lives.

Calculating how much of our lives we might count as serving God and neighbor.

Poking to find the firmness and depth and strength of our own faith.

Weighing our stores of inner peace, joy, comfort, gratitude and satisfaction.

Our contemplation is likely to confirm that we're still works in progress.

Tomorrow we begin Part II of Mark's Gospel.

And things seem to start getting a little better.

Jesus heals a blind man who slowly begins to see.

And Peter is inspired to answer Jesus saying, You are the Christ.

But today, each of us is left at Jesus' big question.

Do you still not understand?

 Tuesday, 6th Week of Ordinary Time

Mk 8:14-21           Read this Scripture @usccb.org

Tradition Custom Practice Habit?

Once, when I was a kid, my aunt and I made an unplanned stop at church.

She had no hat, so she made-do with a handkerchief with a bobby pin before we went in.

It was unthinkable for a girl or woman to come in without something on her head.

As unthinkable as for a boy or a man to come in with a hat on.

We never questioned the women’s hat rule; at least I never did.

We’d been following it for generations and generations.

It was just accepted as the way things were done in church.

But now, fifty years later, that tradition seems to have vanished.

This women’s hat memory led me to do some research.

It turns out that the tradition dates all the way back to the early Church.

But the requirement wasn’t formalized until 1917 when it was specified in Canon Law.

Then in 1983 it was omitted from a new publication of the Canon Law.

Many people took that omission as an indication that the tradition was officially ended.

Today, it’s followed by only those few who choose to do so.

A year ago, everyone knew that popes held their office until death.

That was the tradition—or at least we assumed it was.

Research would have shown us that a handful of popes did resign in the past 2000 years.

And one just 600 years ago.

But why would we research it?  Our expectations just followed the assumed tradition.

At the moment, the world is loving Pope Francis.

Partly because he’s encouraging us to examine some of our assumptions.

And maybe even some of our traditions.

He wouldn’t even be pope if Benedict hadn’t broken with tradition.

Dogma regarding crucial truths can’t change.

It’s directly drawn from Scripture.

And from traditional teachings that have been formally adopted.

Like recognition of the Immaculate Conception.

But the Church can reexamine its positions on even well-established traditions.

Like not allowing priests to marry, or women to be ordained.

Those traditions are not likely to change soon, but lesser traditions could change.

That gets us down into the realm of those traditions Jesus criticized in today’s Gospel.

Traditions we are following with no understanding, and therefore no real benefit.

Traditions that might have once had a solid basis, but have lost their meaning and value.

Traditions that aren’t Church tradition at all, but merely personal beliefs and habits.

And worst of all, traditions or habits that pervert our priorities.

And distract us from what’s truly important.

We should make it a habit to periodically assess our own personal actions and traditions.

Make sure we’re not wasting our time purifying kettles.

While our mother or father or neighbor is suffering from lack of our attention.

Tuesday, 5th Week of Ordinary Time

Mk 7:1-13           Read this Scripture @usccb.org

Dear Lost Child

It’s abundantly clear that Scripture remains timely and relevant to modern life.

It deals with the big problems that weigh on humanity throughout history.

Like suffering and death.

And it gets down to some very specific problems.

Our Gospel from Mark today speaks of problems with affordable health care.

Two thousand years ago.

We hear that [The woman] 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.

I wasn’t aware that the medical industry was already so formally established back then.

We go back a lot further than I realized in our quest for a good Affordable Care Act.

Our Gospel and our reading from Samuel also talk of the timeless sorrow of death.

Suffering and sorrow and pain that’s magnified for all with the death of a child.

And magnified yet again for the parents of that child.

Two thousand years ago Jairus desperately sought to keep his young daughter alive.

Three thousand years ago, King David agonized over the death of his son, Absalom.

David’s torment shows how deeply attached we can be to those we hold dear.

Even to a lost child who has grown to become an adult.

Even to a lost child who has been rebellious.

Even to a lost child who has shown hostility toward us.

Hostility even to the extreme point of trying to kill us.

Dread of suffering and death is a timeless and integral part of our human nature.

That human nature that Jesus chose to share with us.

But, as he showed many times, he had the power to control those dreaded forces.

He sometimes intervened for the sake of others.

And yet, he himself willingly suffered and died.

He cured thousands from disease, and defect, and deformity, and demons.

He even intervened in cases of death.

Raising the daughter of Jairus, the son of the widow of Nain, and Lazarus.

But they were raised only as a temporary measure.

And not for their own sake, but for the sake of those who mourned.

To ease the suffering of Jairus, the widow, Martha and Mary.

Today, doctors and other caring people do a lot to ease suffering.

Physical, mental, emotional and spiritual suffering.

This is a continuation of the healing that Jesus performed so many years ago.

Moved forward by God’s revelations in science, and by dedicated servant-disciples.

By new medicines and procedures and sometimes, still, by miracles.

We now have the power to greatly ease suffering.

But suffering remains forever a part of life.

Sometimes the only end to suffering is death.

Death remains the inevitable, ultimate end of this life.

Fortunately there is a way we can help ourselves and others ease the sufferings of death.

Ease both the fear of death and the pain of mourning.

And that is to build our trust in God.

To remind ourselves, convince ourselves, truly believe, that we are all children of God.

To trust that God, in His great mercy, will somehow draw all of us to Himself.

Us and our lost loved ones.

Because, even more perfectly than Jairus or David or us, God holds-dear every lost child.

 Tuesday, 4th Week of Ordinary Time

Mk 5:21-43           Read this Scripture @usccb.org