Shunning

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Today’s first reading begins: “We instruct you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to shun any brother who walks in a disorderly way and not according to the tradition they received from us.” (1 Thess 3:6).

I have to admit I was surprised with the word “shun.” My first thought was from some movie from long ago when an early American faith community formally “shunned” one of its members for some transgression. Everyone in the church turned their backs to the person, marking the point in time when that person ceased to exist in the life of the community. It was a harsh moment. Continue reading →

Tradition of the elders

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This coming Sunday is the 22nd Sunday. In yesterday’s post we addressed the topic of Sacred Tradition and its role within the Catholic Church – as a prelude to the gospel for this week when the topic of the “tradition of the elders” is part of the dialogue between Jesus and the Pharisees/scribes.

1 Now when the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, 2 they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands. 3 (For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews, do not eat without carefully washing their hands, keeping the tradition of the elders. 4 And on coming from the marketplace they do not eat without purifying themselves. And there are many other things that they have traditionally observed, the purification of cups and jugs and kettles (and beds).)

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Tradition and traditions

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This coming Sunday is the 22nd Sunday. In yesterday’s post we refocused our attention to the Gospel of Mark, last proclaimed on the 16th Sunday as we focused on St. John’s “Bread of Life Discourse.” In this week’s gospel Mark 7:8, refers to “human traditions,” a verse which non-Catholic folk will often hold up as proof text of the manner in which the Catholic Church has gone astray, introducing all manner of non-Biblical beliefs. The usual list includes the veneration of Mary, her Immaculate Conception and her bodily Assumption into Heaven. There is also the transubstantiation, praying to saints, the confessional, penance, purgatory, and more that make their topical list of errors. Continue reading →

A Return to Mark

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This coming Sunday is the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, lectionary cycle B. After five consecutive Sunday gospels addressing the Bread of Life Discourse in John’s Gospel, we again return to the primary source of gospel readings for the year: the Gospel according to Mark. When we last proclaimed this gospel we did so on the 15th and 16th Sundays. In those Sundays Jesus had sent the disciples out on mission “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.” (Mark 6:7-9). Continue reading →

The Next Wall

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I swam competitively most of my life: high school, college, and then later in life with the U.S. Masters swim program. I wasn’t gifted with fast-twitch muscles and so have never had a very good sprint. The middle distance events were my best events. My quip was that I was given a distance stroke with a sprinter’s endurance. A couple of years back I competed in a meet and for some reason signed up for the 1500-meter freestyle – a little outside my usual range, but certainly do-able. Continue reading →

Dem bones, dem dry bones

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Today’s first reading is from the Prophet Ezekiel chapter 37, the famous “dry bones vision.” Ezekiel has been the source of all the first readings for this week. It has been a week in which the Word of God came to the prophet and directed him to preach a word of destruction against Jerusalem, the kingdom of Tyre and the shepherds (kings) of Judah and Israel. Then the Word of God changes.

In Wednesday’s first reading, after condemning the shepherds (kings), we have the wonderful passage from Ezekiel 34:11 “For thus says the Lord GOD: I myself will look after and tend my sheep.” And indeed, God sent his only son to be the King of kings and the Good Shepherd.

Thursday, the Word got even better

“I will sprinkle clean water upon you to cleanse you from all your impurities, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you, taking from your bodies your stony hearts and giving you natural hearts. I will put my spirit within you and make you live by my statutes, careful to observe my decrees…you shall be my people, and I will be your God.” (Ez 36:25-28)

That is what God plans to do and in today’s reading Ezekiel is given the vision of result of the promise

“Thus says the Lord GOD: From the four winds come, O spirit, and breathe into these slain that they may come to life. I prophesied as he told me, and the spirit came into them; they came alive and stood upright” (Ez 37:9-10)

It is always good to pay attention when God breathes into the world. The ruah (breath/spirit) hovered over the void of chaos at Creation and there was life. God sent the Good Shepherd at whose baptism the Holy Spirit hovered. The ruah of God hovered over the disciples at Pentecost and their was new life for the Church – all this just as God promised.

The ruah, breath, Spirit of God is present in the world, fulfilling the promises of the Covenant, fulfilled in Jesus Christ. “…you shall be my people, and I will be your God.” God is fulfilling the divine side of the deal. We are called to let the Spirit heal our dry bones and be the people of God in the world.

Figure out the part of your life, the hard part of your heart, or whatever burdens you. Ask the breath of God to instill new life in you.

Image: central imagery from blockislandtimes.com/sites/ marked as “public”

Grace and Will

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This coming Sunday is the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time.  But there are some of you who do not believe.” Jesus knew from the beginning the ones who would not believe and the one who would betray him. And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by my Father.” As a result of this, many (of) his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him. (John 6:64-66)
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Eucharist or No?

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This coming Sunday is the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time. “It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life” (6:63)

John 6:63 is often a verse that one arguing against any Eucharistic interpretation of the whole of John 6 brings forward. The logic goes like this: “Jesus is saying things that are confusing.  His disciples think he’s being literal.  Jesus clears it up by saying “No not at all. I’m not saying that you should eat my  flesh.  My flesh profits nothing!  I’m speaking with Spirit and life, which is metaphorical in nature.”  Continue reading →

Challenging the grumbling

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This coming Sunday is the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Lectionary Cycle B.  60 Then many of his disciples who were listening said, “This saying is hard; who can accept it?” 61 Since Jesus knew that his disciples were murmuring about this, he said to them, “Does this shock you? 62 What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?  Continue reading →