This coming Sunday is the 15th Sunday of Ordinary Time in Year B. The gospel for the day comes from Mark 6 and narrates the beginning of mission for the disciples.
Instructions for the Mission. 10 He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave from there. 11 Whatever place does not welcome you or listen to you, leave there and shake the dust off your feet in testimony against them.” Continue reading
Apart from milking them, herding them, and delivering salt to the cows, there were two other interesting stories from my time in the west of Kenya that pertains to cows.
One of the traditions of the Luo people of western Kenya (at least where I was residing) was the use of cows as part of a funeral procession. I was told that there were two mainstays of the Luo funeral procession – only one of which I was witness to – and those are cows and mourners, both of which can be hired for the occasion. In the west of Kenya, cows are a mainstay of assets, and the procession of cows is a way to honor the deceased. When it comes to death, it has been a long tradition that evil spirits can play a role in someone’s passing. Mourners may wail, sing, and dance to scare away the evil spirits. To be fair, I have not done justice to the Luo death and funeral rituals which are far more traditional and extensive than the other tribes in Kenya. Still, it was a sight to behold in the one funeral procession I observed. Continue reading
In today’s gospel, “A demoniac who could not speak was brought to Jesus, and when the demon was driven out the mute man spoke.” In Jesus’ day, deafness and dumbness usually went together in persons, who are deaf from their birth. They could not hear, and so they could not learn to speak. But this man seems to be unable to speak, not by nature, but through the possession of a demon, who had taken away, or restrained the use of his speech, out of demonic malice. Continue reading
This coming Sunday is the 15th Sunday of Ordinary Time in Year B. The gospel for the day comes from Mark 6 and narrates the beginning of mission for the disciples.
Rejected by his own family and home crowd, Jesus preaches elsewhere and sends his twelve disciples out with special instructions and powers. It is good to remember that the apostles are not sent out as a reaction to the rejection. The mission of the apostles is part of a larger plan. First, Jesus had call them personally (1:16–20). Then he selected twelve special ones to accompany him (3:13–19). The Twelve, tutored by Jesus and present with him as he healed many from sickness and evil (chapters. 3–5), are now ready to become apostles, in Greek, literally the “ones sent out.” Continue reading
There I was: on mission, in the west of Kenya near Lake Victoria, living at an all-boys high school, speaking neither Kiswahili nor Dhluo, and not quite sure what was next. It is interesting to look back through my journal which is filled with all manner of reflections, notes about an adventure for the day, but I have no distinct memory of having any enduring task that carried me from day to day. I did help out in teaching mathematics occasionally. The Form 3 and Form 4 (that means, 11th and 12th grade) math teacher had recently started a family and the first child had many health issues which took him away from the school on an recurring but irregular basis. You might ask how could I teach without common language skills? Mathematics has its own language of symbols and signs, many of the key words are in English, and with a little imagination and waving of hands, it was possible to get through a class. There was also a student available who could translate, but as I recall in the Form 3 class the translator was not the best of mathematicians. Not sure what was lost in translation. Continue reading
This coming Sunday is the 15th Sunday of Ordinary Time in Year B. The gospel for the day comes from Mark 6 and narrates the beginning of mission for the disciples.
Some context for the gospel. The miracles of the preceding chapter in the Gospel according to Mark demonstrate his divine powers. Jesus overcomes the life-destroying powers of demonic possession, chronic illness, and death. The gospel two weeks prior contained the stories of Jairus/his daughter and the women with the hemorrhage. Each account tells of an imperfect faith, yet enough faith that God enters into their lives in a way that is healing and ultimately life-giving. For Jairus’ daughter, it is the restoration of life; for the woman with the hemorrhage it is being restored to the fullness of life as her illness will no longer keep her from living life to its fullness in this lifetime. The miracles, viewed together even as they as told together, are the vestige of Jesus’ fuller mission: that all might have life eternal, free from death, and have life completely. Jesus is forming new family bonds, no longer centered on blood relationships, but on faith and those willing to act on that faith. Continue reading
Does anyone here really understand bitcoin? It is a mystery to most of us, we really don’t know what it is or how it works – we sort of know – it’s like electronic money, right? In any case, we can figure out how to use it. I think it’s theological parallel is grace; the grace that St. Paul talks about in our second reading. “My grace is sufficient for you.” It’s short, sweet and to the point. Three times St Paul asked and the answer was essentially “No.” But grace is sufficient…. If he can figure out how to use it.
In Bible studies this passage always raises lots of questions. In the course of the dialogue I have always been struck by language we use surrounding the topic: sanctifying grace, actual grace, habitual grace, prevenient grace, sacramental grace, get grace, lose grace, fall from grace, a state of grace and more. Grace is part of the mystery of God and so we humans will ever want to describe it, categorize it, tame it, corral it – all in hopes we can discreetly and definitively understand grace. But it is a mystery. Continue reading
The world is a much smaller, more connected place. Times change, technology changes, and it unfolds in different experiences. In an earlier post, A Persistent Memory, I mentioned that back in 1960 or so the Maryknoll missioners relied on letters and a trip home every 10 years or so. Today the Franciscan Lay Missioners live among the poor and disenfranchised – but that does not mean there is no internet or cell phones. The missioners report and communicate on social media, email, and so are able to connect the people where they live with people back at home in the United States. I served in the between times. Transportation was more easily facilitated, there was the possibility of telephone communications (most days only the possibility), and there were not any internet cafes. One communicated by hand written letters. The “turnaround time” between posting a letter to home and receiving a reply was 5 to 6 weeks. One adjusts to that schedule in ebb and flow of the everyday, but there are times when you want to reply immediately. There are times when you need information, decisions, and advice. Then 5-6 weeks is an eternity. Continue reading
OK, pop quiz time. Who were the “Freedom Riders?” My random (and quite small) sample yielded some interesting answers. The most common was a speculation that it was an organized motorcycle ride akin to the “Rolling Thunder” ride in Washington D.C. around Memorial Day. As it turns out the initial “Rolling Thunder” ride was officially titled “Ride for Freedom.” These rides are a way to bring full accountability for prisoners of war (POWs) and missing in action (MIA) service members of all U.S. wars. It was a good guess and in their way, the Rolling Thunder rides honor those who struggled to preserve our freedom. But they are not the “Freedom Riders.”
When last seen, in the previous post, I was in the final throes of deciding to step on the plane and go to Kenya. Here were the variables: my house was occupied by a family, my bags were packed, the mission group was financially strained, we were being given one-way tickets, the formation program was finished. A deep breath and a leap of faith, and off I went to Kenya.
It might make an interesting post to go through the thought process of how one decides to pack for a 3-year mission to a somewhat remote part of a foreign land. Will you take one razor, a pack of razors, a super-sized pack, or will you decide just not to shave? Can you buy razors there? What can you buy there if needed? There are lots of questions, practical questions you wish you asked along the way. In the end, I felt a bit like Noah: some things were packed two-by-two and others in groups of seven. (In case you are wondering about the reference to “seven”, please see Gen 7:2). Continue reading
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