Mountains

Posted on by
Reply

“Jesus departed to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God.” (Luke 6:12)

What is it about Scripture and mountains? Certainly they hold significant symbolic and spiritual importance in many biblical narratives. These mountain settings often serve as locations for divine encounters, revelations, and important moments in the biblical narrative.They are places where individuals are tested, receive divine instructions, or experience significant events that shape the course of their lives and the history of God’s people.  Consider this short list: Continue reading →

Geography and Meaning

Posted on by
Reply

This coming Sunday, the 24th Sunday of Ordinary Time, is taken from Mark 8:27-35. In yesterday’s post we provided a summary of the events/encounters in Mark chapter 6 and 7. All this leads to Caesarea Philippi and one of the pivotal moments in the gospel of Mark. The description of the coming periscope is oddly stated in the Greek, “into the villages of Caesarea Philippi.” Previously Mark had described it as a region (5:1, 17; 7:24, 31; 8:10). In any case, the region was twenty-five miles north of the Sea of Galilee. The area was built up by Herod Philip to serve as the capital of his tetrarchy. It is perhaps noteworthy that the region is two days’ journey north. Its northern location likely served to separate Jesus and his disciples from the crowds that attended his every move earlier in the ministry. Continue reading →

Between the Sundays

Posted on by
Reply

This coming Sunday, the 24th Sunday of Ordinary Time, is taken from Mark 8:27-35. The account fits into a series of narratives that make one thing clear: Jesus’ running debate with the Pharisees and the scribes from Jerusalem continues unabated – even continuing from before last Sunday’s gospel. Here is an outline of some recent Markan pericopes (stories). Continue reading →

Open to listening

Posted on by
Reply

When I was fourth grade I suffered a long series of ear infections and operations that temporarily left my hearing very reduced, some days, virtually deaf. I missed a lot of school that year and when I did return to class there were two things that still stand out in my memory: (a) I had to sit in the front of the class directly in front of the teacher so that I could maximize the chance of hearing her, and (b) I had to stay behind during recess for extra lessons or studying for all that I had missed. Continue reading →

Final Thoughts: hearing and speaking

Posted on by
Reply

This coming Sunday we celebrate the 23rd Sunday of Ordinary Time. The language and the story support the conclusion that at one time the man was hearing-enabled and used a working vocabulary.  Had he been deaf from the beginning there would not have been a post-healing note: “he spoke plainly.” Which perhaps makes his situation even more poignant, one which calls out to our compassion. We can each imagine having hearing and communication taken away from us, severing the social fabric of our lives. We all know some people that are gifted and have “ a way with words.” Pheme Perkins [613] shares some final thoughts on hearing and speech. Continue reading →

Personal

Posted on by
Reply

This coming Sunday we celebrate the 23rd Sunday of Ordinary Time. In Mark’s narration there is a common element to Jesus’ encounter with Jairus, the deaf man, and others – he often takes the people aside, away from the crowds.  Lane [266-67] comments on this: “He [Jesus] regarded the personal relationship between himself and the sick to be of supreme importance, and in this instance all of his actions are intelligible in the light of the necessity of communicating with a person who had learned to be passive in life. Through touch and the use of spittle Jesus entered into the mental world of the man and gained his confidence.” Continue reading →

The Ask

Posted on by
Reply

This coming Sunday we celebrate the 23rd Sunday of Ordinary Time. As noted previously, Jesus’ arrival in the “district of the Decapolis,” while technically Gentile territory, even in Jesus’ time was the home to many Jewish communities. The Decapolis (literally, “Ten Towns”) figures quite prominently in the ministry of Jesus (Mark 5:20, Matt 4:25, Luke 8:26). While many of the cities’ names would be foreign to our modern English ear (Gadara, Abila, etc.), one of the city names would be quite familiar: Philadelphia. Continue reading →

Maturing in Faith

Posted on by
1

Today’s first reading from the 1st Letter to the Corinthians, a book we have been following since last Friday’s readings. A fundamental question Paul is asking the Corinth community is this: are you choosing the Wisdom of men or the Wisdom of the Cross? St. Paul makes it clear that the Cross is not something to which one may add human wisdom and thereby make it superior; rather, the cross stands in absolute, uncompromising contradiction to human wisdom – all part of God’s wisdom and folly. Continue reading →

The Thread that Connects

Posted on by
Reply

This coming Sunday we celebrate the 23rd Sunday of Ordinary Time. This section of Mark has three stories that are often treated separately, not always proclaimed as Sunday gospels, and as such the thread that connects these stories can be lost. The stories are the healing of the Syro-Phoenician woman’s child, the healing of the deaf/mute person and the restoration of sight to a blind person. Continue reading →

Wisdom and Folly

Posted on by
Reply

Today’s first reading from St. Paul is part of a cohesive thought that he has been building upon since the beginning of this 1st Letter to the Corinthians (which began with Friday’s readings and continues for about three weeks.) It all began after Paul left the Corinth community for new evangelizing opportunities. He received a letter from a believer named Chloe who reports problems in the community: there is quarreling in the community all carried on in the name of “wisdom” and some associated boasting about who possessed wisdom and the exact nature of the wisdom. We are picking up the conversation-in-progress, but let me offer that the major point St, Paul has already made is: Are you choosing the Wisdom of men or the Wisdom of the Cross (1:18–2:5)? Continue reading →