JESUS Is Presented In The Temple

 "When the day came for the purification according to the law of Moses, they brought the baby up to Jerusalem to present HIM to the LORD, as it is written in the law of the LORD: Every firstborn male shall be consecrated to GOD.  And they offered a sacrifice as ordered in the law of the LORD: a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.

There lived in Jerusalem, at this time, a very upright and devout man named Simeon; the Holy Spirit was in him.  He looked forward to the time when the LORD would comfort Israel; and he had been assured, by the Holy Spirit, that he would not die before seeing the Messiah of the LORD.  So, he was led into the temple by the Holy Spirit at the time the parents brought the child JESUS to do for HIM according to the custom of the law.  

Simeon took the child in his arms and blessed GOD, saying,

'Now, O LORD, YOU can dismiss YOUR servant in peace,

for YOU have fulfilled YOUR word

and my eyes have seen YOUR salvation,

which YOU display for all the people to see.

Here is the light YOU will reveal to the nations,

and the glory of YOUR people Israel.'

HIS father and mother wondered at what was said about the child.  Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, HIS mother, 'Know this: your Son is a sign; a sign established for the falling and rising of many in Israel, a sign of contradiction; and a sword will pierce your own soul so that out of many hearts thoughts may be revealed.'" - Luke 2:22-35  

(Mary and Joseph went to the temple to fulfill a ritual of the Jewish religion [Leviticus 12:8].  JESUS being a firstborn male must be consecrated to GOD [Exodus 13:1].

Simeon and Ana like Mary and Joseph belong to the "small remnant of Israel."  This minority of GOD's people live their faith in humility and faithfulness to the prophets' teaching: GOD knows how to make HIMSELF known to them.

What is the meaning of the sword that will pierce Mary's soul?  It indicates Mary's grief upon seeing her Son die on the cross.  It also signifies that Mary will suffer because she will not always understand what her Son does.  The best shared love will not prevent each from remaining a mystery to the other, and more so for GOD than for anyone else.  GOD does not watch our fidelity from heaven, but rather seeks us [HE tries us in the sense of asking us to reveal ourselves].  The love of the FATHER will be Mary's cross just as it would be for JESUS.

CHRIST is GOD's light which enlightens people, but which also blinds and confuses them at times.  HE is a sign that is opposed, but this is a mystery--those who oppose HIM are not always the worst.  There are some people who believe in CHRIST, but do not follow HIM.  Unable to see HIS light they do not know that it condemns them.  There are good people who do not believe because GOD wills that they seek the light their whole life long.)

On-Site

The Mission

"JESUS then went around the villages, teaching.  HE called the Twelve to HIM, and began to send out two by two, giving them authority over evil spirits.  And HE ordered them to take nothing for the journey, except a staff: no food, no bag, no money in their belts.  They were to wear sandals and were not to take an extra tunic.

And HE added, 'In whatever house you are welcomed, stay there until you leave the place.  If any place doesn't receive you, and the people refuse to listen to you, leave after shaking the dust off your feet.  It will be a testimony against them.'

So they set out to proclaim that this was the time to repent.  They drove out many demons and healed many sick people by anointing them." - Mark 6:7-13 

JESUS Sends Out The Twelve

(JESUS begins a third stage of HIS ministry by organizing a mission throughout the province.  Before, the apostles accompanied JESUS but now HE sends them ahead of HIM.

JESUS is an educator.  HE not only teaches HIS followers, HE has them share in HIS mission.  HIS apostles must also proclaim their faith and perform healings as the Master does.  By doing this, they put into practice what they have discovered of the kingdom of GOD.  The disciples should be first to believe what they themselves proclaim: GOD makes HIMSELF present.  Because of this, they must live day by day, trusting in the FATHER's Providence, not frightened but always conscious of GOD's mission and power.

Oil was used at the time as a remedy, but JESUS gives it a new meaning: the healings bring more than just well-being, they are also the sign of spiritual healing, the reconciliation of people with GOD.

JESUS concern to form communities of believers is already present.  HE sends HIS disciples out two by two so that the message will not be from one person only, but the expression of a group united in one mission.  JESUS tells them to stay under one roof with one family so that this may be a center radiating faith.)   

On-Site

Is HE Not The Carpenter?

"Leaving that place, JESUS returned to HIS own country, and HIS disciples followed HIM.  When the Sabbath came, HE began teaching in the synagogue, and most of those who heard HIM were astonished.  They commented, 'How did this come to HIM?  What kind of wisdom has been given to HIM that HE also performs such miracles?  Who is HE but the carpenter, the son of Mary and the brother of James and Joset and Judas and Simon?  HIS sisters, too, are they not here among us?  So they took offense at HIM.

And JESUS said to them, 'Prophets are despised only in their own country, among their relatives and in their own family.'  And HE could work no miracles there, but only healed a few sick people by laying HIS hands on them.'  JESUS HIMSELF was astounded of their unbelief." - Mark 6:1-6  

 

(The brothers and sisters of JESUS are HIS relatives and acquaintances of Nazareth.

How did this come to HIM?  Does this mean that JESUS traveled to other countries in order to get magic powers?

Because HE always lived among them and never did anything extraordinary, they were astonished that, in such a short time, HE became famous throughout Galilee.  In fact they do not know HIM: most of the time people mistakenly believe they know their neighbors.

Prophets are despised only in their own country.  After living with HIM so long and treating HIM like anyone else, how could they suddenly show respect and have faith in HIM?

Who is HE but the carpenter?  The term the Gospel uses is craftsman.  There is no further specification.  Yet the first Christians of Palestine asserted that JESUS was a carpenter.

What kind of wisdom has been given to HIM?  Many people say that because CHRIST was GOD, HE knew all things, but divine knowledge is nothing less than GOD HIMSELF.  HE knows all at once in an instant that never ends - this is eternity.  On the other hand, humans think in ideas, and do not embrace all at the same time.  That is why, from birth, JESUS had to learn from experience and discover.  Yet HE had a clear awareness that HE was the Son, although at the beginning HE did not have the words to think or express this.

JESUS received HIS human learning from Mary, Joseph, and HIS neighbors in Nazareth.  HE acquired HIS wisdom from the Bible and the culture of HIS people.  Yet the FATHER gave HIM HIS Spirit to judge as GOD does and to recognize GOD in all things.  For HIM [as for us now] what was important was not accumulating data and experiences but to be able to appreciate all that occurred.   JESUS inspired by the Spirit, felt all the realities of life in a different way: this was Wisdom.)      

On-Site

Loyalty In GOD's Service

                              "Listen, O YAHWEH, and answer me, for I am afflicted and needy.

Preserve my life, for I am GOD-fearing; save your servant who trusts in YOU.

Have mercy on me, O YAHWEH, for I cry to YOU all day.

Bring joy to the soul of YOUR servant; for YOU, O YAHWEH, I lift up my soul.

YOU are good and forgiving, O YAHWEH, caring for those who call on YOU.

Listen, O YAHWEH, to my prayer, hear the voice of my pleading."

- Psalm 86:1-6

(This is a gentle psalm, a little muted in tone, without cries for help or loud shouts of anguish.  The psalmist, here, is making a sincere and true appeal to GOD to answer his prayer.  There are always enemies about; but GOD is not asked to destroy them [a refreshing change!].  HE is asked only to 'turn and take pity' on the persecuted.  GOD could scarcely resist it.  The psalmist never stops asking, and he is rightly sure that such a GOD could never stop giving. 

Whenever we live moments of anguish, whatever their cause, it will be good for us to confide our burden on another, on GOD, whose presence in this psalm, is comforting.  JESUS tells us in Matthew 11:24: 'Whatever you ask for a prayer full of faith, you will receive.'  We have this assurance from JESUS HIMSELF.  So, full of faith, let us also pray to GOD, for whatever we need, assured that it will be answered.)

On-Site

The Gerasene Demoniac

"They arrived on the other side of the lake in the region of the Gerasenes.  No sooner did JESUS leave the boat than HE was met by a man with evil spirits who had come from the tombs.  He lived among the tombs, and no one could restrain him, even with a chain.  He had often been bound with fetters and chains, but he would pull the chains apart and smash the fetters, and no one had the strength to control him.  Night and day he stayed among the tombs on the hillsides and was continually screaming and beating himself with stones.

When he saw JESUS from afar, he ran and fell from his feet and cried with a loud voice, 'What do you want with me, JESUS, son of the Most High GOD?  For GOD's sake I beg you, do not torment me.'  He said this because JESUS had commanded, 'Come out of the man, evil spirit.'  And when JESUS asked him, 'What is your name? he replied, 'Legion is my name, for we are many.'  And all of them kept begging JESUS not to send them out of that region. 

Now, a great herd of pigs was feeding on the hillside, and the evil spirits begged him, 'Send us to the pigs and let us go into them.'  So, JESUS let them go.  The evil spirits came out of the man and went into the pigs, and immediately the herd rushed down the cliff and all were drowned in the lake.  The herdsmen fled and reported this in the town and in the countryside, so all the people came to see what had happened.

They came to JESUS and saw the man freed of the evil spirits sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, the same man who had been possessed by the legion.  They were afraid.  And when those who had seen it told what had happened to the man and to the pigs, the people begged JESUS to leave their neighborhood.

When JESUS was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed begged to stay with HIM.  JESUS would not let him and said, 'Go home to your people and tell them how much the LORD has done for you and how HE has had mercy on you.'  So he went throughout the country of Decapolis telling everyone how much JESUS had done for him.  And all the people were astonished. - Mark 5:1-20  

(JESUS overcame the raging sea and disembarking on the pagan shore of the lake HE confronts the demon.  The text says three times that the possessed lived among the tombs and mentions also three times the chains with which people had in vain tried to bind him.  For a Jew to repeat something three times is to use the superlative: it is to say that the possessed has partnership with death and with impurity to which it is attached; but no one, absolutely no one is able to master him.  Finally, the possessed, like the servants of idols slashed himself with stones till blood flowed.  This adversary, however, bows low recognizing the superiority of JESUS, Son of GOD the Most High, who forces him to reveal his name.  Here again the name is a symbol: legion that means that this man is possessed by a regiment of demons.  JESUS will free this possessed man: the demon, author of every "impurity" is sent to his own kingdom.  Pigs are in fact, in Jewish tradition, a type of impure animal, and the sea into which they cast themselves is the symbol of the empire of evil.

The herds rushed down.  The actual text of Mark says, "two thousand pigs rushed."  This is an incredible number, for such large herds of pigs were never seen.  In Hebrew, the word for herds is only distinguished from the word for 2,000 by an accent mark.  Probably a mistake was made when Mark's Gospel was written in Greek.

JESUS would not let him.  It is HE who chooses those who will be with HIM.  That does not mean that the others, all those who met JESUS and recognized HIM as Son of GOD, have nothing to do: they will witness in the midst of those they know how HE had compassion on them.  In this way JESUS reminds us of the diversity of vocations.)

On-Site

Call To Praise And Worship

 "Come, let us sing to YAHWEH,

let us make a joyful sound

to the Rock of our salvation.

Let us come before HIM giving thanks,

with music and songs of praise.

Come and worship; let us bow down,

kneel before YAHWEH, our Maker.

HE is our GOD, and we, HIS people;

the flock HE leads and pastures.

Would, that today, you heard HIS voice!

Do not be stubborn, as at Meribah,

in the desert, on that day at Massah,

when your ancestors challenged  ME,

and they put ME to the test."

- Psalm 95:1-2. 6-7. 7-9

(GOD claimed a double kingship over Israel.  She had been created and she had been chosen.  Here, she is invited to celebrate both creation and choice.  But she is warned, too.  The flock divinely led from Egypt had disputed with Moses and tested GOD's patience by its complaints.  We may still thwart the grace of our call--it does not inevitably blossom into the glory of final choice.  Our calling is much higher than Israel's.  From the people's point of view, our election, what we call perseverance, is more sublime.  Not Moses but JESUS, is our leader now, and the 'rest' HE would take us to is not Palestine but a land which the meek inherit, a rest which is the eternal Sabbath of GOD [Hebrews 4:10].  Pray to hear not 'Never shall they enter!' but 'Come, you blessed!')

On-Site

JESUS Calms The Storm

  "On that same day, when evening had come, JESUS said to them, 'Let's go across to the other side of the lake.'  So they left the crowd, and took HIM along in the boat HE had been sitting in, and other boats set out with HIM.  Then a storm gathered and it began to blow a gale.  The waves spilled over into the boat, so that it was soon filled with water.  JESUS was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion.

They woke HIM up, and said, 'Master, don't YOU care if we drown?'  And rising up, JESUS rebuked the wind, and ordered the sea, 'Quiet now!  Be still!'  The wind dropped, and there was a great calm.  Then JESUS said to them, 'Why are you so frightened?  Do you still have no faith?'

But they were terrified, and they said to one another, 'Who can this be?  Even the wind and the sea obey HIM!'" - Mark 4:35-41 

(In Jewish mentality the sea is a daily reminder of primitive chaos, it is there the marine monsters move around, monsters which only GOD, for HE is the all-powerful, can challenge: Leviatan and Rahab.  In commanding the sea: Quiet now!  Be still!.  Just as HE does with the demons [Mark 1:25] JESUS affirms HIS divine power over the forces of evil.

Confronted with all the forms of evil that attack them, in the midst of tempests that arise, people, at times, wonder if GOD "does not sleep."  JESUS is there.  HE is not surprised by the disciples' fear of the tempest, but of their lack of faith; only trust in the victory of JESUS, Son of GOD, over the forces of evil, will allow them to overcome this fear.

At the very instant when they discover this divine power in JESUS, the apostles are terrified, as was Moses at the burning bush [Exodus 3:1], and Isaiah at the time of his vision in the temple [Isaiah 6:5], as all those to whom GOD shows HIMSELF in a special way: more than a friend, more than a master, JESUS revealed HIMSELF to them in the truth of HIS being.  This fear in discovering GOD so close to them was greater than the fear they had felt during the tempest a few moments earlier.)

On-Site  

The Seed Growing By Itself

"JESUS also said, 'In the kingdom of GOD it is like this.  A man scatters seed upon the soil.  Whether he is asleep or awake, be it day or night, the seed sprouts and grows, he knows not how.  The soil produces of itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.  And when it is ripe for harvesting, they take the sickle for the cutting: the time for harvest has come.'" - Mark 4:26-29 

(In every period of time, people become impatient.  When will the kingdom of justice be realized?  Will violence and corruption soon come to an end?  JESUS answers: invisible forces are already at work; the world matures and the Kingdom grows on.)

On-Site

Proclaim The Good News To All Creation

"Then HE told them, 'Go out to the whole world and proclaim the Good News to all creation.  The one who believes and is baptized will be saved; the one who refuses to believe will be condemned.  Signs like these will accompany those who have believed: in MY Name they will cast out demons and speak new languages, they will pick up snakes and, if they drink anything poisonous, they will be unharmed.  They will lay their hands on the sick and they will be healed." - Mark 16:15-18  

(Proclaim the good news to all creation.  The Good News is the seed that will be planted in the world and will flourish, in its proper time, in every field of human endeavor.  Salvation is not a matter of saving isolated souls or individual beings.  The Gospel is to be proclaimed to all creation in all activities and acts of those who have been renewed by baptism.  They are to be the yeast that transforms human history.)

On-Site

The Parable Of The Sower

"That same day, JESUS left the house and sat down by the lakeside.  Many people gathered around HIM.  So, HE got into a boat, and sat down, while the crowds stood on the shore; and HE spoke to them in parables about many things.

JESUS said, 'The Sower went out to sow; and, as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path; and the birds came and ate them up.  Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where there was little soil, and the seeds sprouted quickly, because the soil was not deep.  But as soon as the sun rose, the plants were scorched; and they withered, because they had no roots.  Again, other seeds fell among thistles; and the thistles grew and choked the plants.  Still, other seeds fell on good soil and produced a crop: some hundredfold, others sixty, and others thirty.  If you have ears, then hear!'" - Matthew 13:1-9 

(JESUS uses comparisons just as simple country folk and working people usually do.  Proverbs and parables have always been an effective way of teaching wisdom.  But we must observe that a parable is not just any comparison; its characteristic is to awaken in the listeners an awareness of their present situation and oblige them to make a decision.

For those listening to JESUS, the reign of GOD signified first of all a liberation of HIS oppressed people, and this called for clear explanation.  JESUS, for HIS part, could only give an answer to those who accompanied HIM; for the kingdom is one of those things that cannot be seen as long as one has no belief in it.  JESUS will only speak of it in images and we will understand according to the degree of our experience of that kingdom which is developing throughout the world.)

On-Site