god

ICTHYS!

In today’s gospel account, chosen because of the feast of St Paul’s conversion, we read:

Jesus appeared to the Eleven and said to them: “Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature” (Mk 16:15).

The Eleven, and Paul who would encounter Jesus after his Resurrection (cf. Acts 9:1-9), are commissioned with carrying the Gospel to the whole world. What did they preach? How are we do follow in their footsteps?

The earliest kerygmas, Greek for “to preach”, and in this case to preach the Gospel, were very simple but effective mnemonic devices. Each disciple was taught what was needed to be covered in sharing the Good News. One such “blueprint” was the symbol of the fish. In Greek, fish is written as ichthus. Each of the characters of ichthys represented the keywords that needed to be covered as follows:

Iésous – Jesus
Christos – Messiah or Anointed One
Theos – God
Hyíos – Son
Soter – Savior.

Jesus Christ is the Son of God our Savior.

The dynamic truth of these five words is profoundly transformative if we truly believe them. What we need to ask ourselves is, do we believe this statement to be true? If we do, how can we stop ourselves from smiling, from dancing, from sharing that Jesus is truly who he said he is!

Jesus is fully God and fully man and he became one of us so that we can become one with him. Through the Son of God’s Incarnation, Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension, we are called, as were the first disciples, to share in the divinity of Jesus. We become deified, meaning we participate in the life of God through our participation in the life of Jesus. The foundation of our faith has to do with our encounter with Jesus the Christ.

Jesus invites us and encounters us in our own unique way. No one can save another. We can only propose, invite, and present the Good News that Jesus Christ is the Son of God our Savior, and share our own experiences of this reality. Our encounter with Jesus does not need to be as brilliant as happened with Paul. More often, Jesus invites us in more quiet and subtle ways. We are to share the Gospel with joy and accompany each other on our journey by providing support, encouragement, and guidance, and let God be who he is and work through us as he will.

The Apostles and Paul, Mary the Mother of God, Mary Magdalene and the many who have continued to answer yes to his invitation through the ages up until and including our day were willing to be shaped and conformed by the love of Jesus and sent on mission. Each of us, have a part to play in salvation history, and so are invited to have our own unique experience of Jesus. As Bishop Robert Barron says often, “Our faith will grow as we give it away.” We too are called. When we say, “yes” to Jesus, we too will be shaped, conformed, and sent on mission to proclaim the Gospel, to give our faith away!
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Picture: The mosaic of Jesus Christ the Pantocrator, Ruler of the Universe, at Hagia Sophia, in Istanbul, Turkey. What does he ask of you today?

Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, January 25, 2025

Let us pray and follow the lead of Jesus.

Jesus went up the mountain and summoned those whom he wanted and they came to him (Mk 3:13).

Through the centuries mountains have been sites where people have gone to rise above their daily experiences, to rise above the clouds, where the air is crisper, cleaner. It is a means of gaining a new perspective, transcending the human to touch the spiritual, and with the hope hearing the voice of God. When one of the Gospel writers inserts the detail that Jesus is present on a mountain, we can be prepared that something significant is going to happen.

In today’s Gospel of Mark, the good news revealed to us is that Jesus calls to himself the Twelve, the Apostles, to preach and cast out demons. They are to continue the ministry of Jesus. These are not perfect men, but each will have a part to play in salvation history. Jesus will entrust them with the deposit of faith that they are to protect, yes, but more so to proclaim by word and deed. Apostle means one who is sent.

Jesus will continue to call the Twelve to himself, to teach, mentor, model, and empower them so that they will continue his mission to call people to repent and believe in the Gospel. Even though, especially through the Gospel of Mark, it often looks as if Jesus may have made a mistake in his choice. The Twelve do not ever grasp who Jesus really is, and when Jesus needs them most, Judas will turn him over to the Temple guards, the others flee at his arrest, and Peter will publicly deny him three times. It will not be until after the Resurrection and Ascension that the seeds that Jesus had sown in them would begin to germinate and bear fruit.

Just as Jesus called the Twelve, he calls us as well. Each generation must experience and embrace the deposit of faith that has been given to us and pass it on to the next. Are we perfect, no. Do we have doubts, fears, weaknesses, yes. Does God call us and love us anyway? Yes. Like each Apostle, we are to go out and proclaim the good news that Jesus is our Lord! We do this daily with our words, faces, and actions. We are to think, look, speak, and act in ways that are kind, empowering, uplifting, and convicting while at the same time resisting the temptation to fix others. We are to strive to bear witness, be present, accompany and guide one another.

We all have much on our plate, some of us to overflowing. We may be thinking I cannot possibly do one more thing. Start small by bringing God with us into whatever we are already doing. He will give us the tools and accompany us as we seek to fulfill his will. As did the Apostles, we will make mistakes, make false starts, trip, fall, sin, and deny opportunities to reach out to be a witness. When we commit any or all of the above, we must resist beating ourselves up and instead learn from the experience, lean into Jesus, and with him prepare better for the next apostolic opportunity.

Jesus went up the mountain to pray. We are to make time each day to do the same. Let us begin our day today with a few moments of intentional stillness, to breathe, and ask Jesus what does he want us to do today. Are we worthy of his call? Probably not, for all of us fall short of the glory of God. More important, are we willing? That is a question for each of us to answer today and each day hereafter.

Photo: When we pray, we will know Jesus and we can then better follow the guidance of St. Francis de Sales whose memorial we celebrate today: “If He is with me I care not where I go.”

Link for the Mass readings for Friday, January 24, 2025

May we choose to align ourselves with the Lord of the Sabbath and lead with love.

“The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath. That is why the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath” (Mk 2:27-28).

In making the above statement, Jesus was not discrediting or devaluing the observance of the Sabbath. He was weighing in on one of the common debates that Jewish people engaged in about what was considered work, and thus what could and could not be done on the Sabbath. Jesus went deeper to address the origin of the Sabbath observance in that it, “commemorates God’s creative and saving action for humanity, and alleviating hunger might be an example” (Donahue and Harrington, 112).

Although, the Pharisees who confront Jesus are most likely looking at a strict interpretation of Exodus 34:21 in which even during the time of harvest, one “must rest” on the Sabbath. The rubbing off of the husks in their hands to access the kernels of wheat within constituted such work. Jesus offers David and his followers doing the same thing in their time of hunger when they were fleeing from the soldiers of King Saul. In claiming this account, Jesus is aligning himself and his disciples with King David and his men. The Pharisees in this comparison would then be aligned with the followers of King Saul.

God created us, formed us, and breathed life into us. God seeks intimacy and closeness between himself and us his created beings, his children. God is our source and we are interconnected in our relationship with him and with one another. God continues to deal with us in a personal way. The Torah, the Law or the Teachings, is meant to enhance the intimacy and closeness of that relationship with God and one another, to provide boundaries and definition so that we can resist going astray.

Jesus came not to abolish but to fulfill the Law, to restore it from distortion, while at the same time bring it to a higher level. When asked what commandment is the greatest, Jesus announced that we are to Love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and we are to love our neighbor as ourselves (cf. Mk:12:30-31). To live out this commandment then, we need to foster our relationship with God if we are to experience his love, mercy, and forgiveness, to fill up to overflowing, so to share with others what we have received, otherwise, we have nothing to give.

With or without a relationship with God we can experience emptiness, anxiety, fear, and loneliness. Without a relationship with God, and the community of the Church, we are more vulnerable to the temptations to satiate our hunger with the material, finite, and false goods, that are readily available, and hungering more, falling deeper into the lures of power, pride, prestige, ego, and addiction. We then seek to protect that false sense of self at all costs, and react defensively, as we feed our fear and pride. We buffer ourselves off from the very one we have been created for, and those we consider as other. In following this path, we isolate ourselves from God and one another and this provides fertile ground in which fear, prejudice, sexism, and racism can grow along with the manifestation of the dehumanization and objectifying of human beings.

As a part of the Church and actively engaged, we are constantly reminded that we are not alone and that all of us and creation are interconnected. As Pope Francis shared in his homily in 2018: “Having doubts and fears is not a sin. The sin is to allow these fears to determine our responses, to limit our choices, to compromise respect and generosity, to feed hostility and rejection. The sin is to refuse to encounter the other, the different, the neighbor when this is, in fact, a privileged opportunity to encounter the Lord.”

The Pharisees that were confronting Jesus felt threatened. They refused to see who he was. We know there were other Pharisees that came to trust in and follow Jesus, Nicodemus and most famously, Saul who became Paul. They were able to see past their blind spots and come to believe that Jesus was the Son of Man, the Son of God. We are offered a choice to see Jesus as a liar, a lunatic, and blasphemer, or as our Lord.

My invitation is for us to align ourselves with the Lord of the Sabbath, who walked with his disciples among a field of wheat one day, and who is now our Bread of Life this day. Empowered by the Eucharist we are filled with the love of Jesus, we will then better be able to let no evil talk to pass our lips and to say only the good things that people need to hear (cf. Ephesians 4:29). Receiving God’s love, we will better be able to will each other’s good, even toward those who profess hate. Feeding hate will only contribute to it. Meeting hate with love can provide an invitation for hearts to soften. As with Dr. King, whose memorial we celebrated yesterday, we are called to be instruments of the light to dispel the darkness and conduits of love to transform hate.

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Photo: Rosary walk among the sea oats back in July, Riomar Beach, Vero Beach, FL.

Donahue, S.J., John R., and Daniel J. Harrington, S.J. The Gospel of Mark in Sacra in Sacra Pagina Series, vol. 2. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2002.

Pope Francis full text of homily at Mass on World Day of Migrants and Refugees, Sunday, January 14, 2018: http://saltandlighttv.org/blogfeed/getpost.php?id=79091

Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, January 21, 2025

In this in between time, we fast and feast.

“Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast. But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day” (Mk 2:19-20).

The conflict, the third one in this gospel, that Jesus is responding to was that he is witnessed eating and drinking, practicing table fellowship with his disciples, as well as tax collectors and sinners. There is no evidence that he and his disciples practice fasting. Jesus’ response utilizes the image of a wedding banquet, which for the people of his time would often last at least a week.

Devout Jews, following the pharisaic tradition, would often fast one to two days per week, many Jews, once a year during Yom Kippur, but during a wedding feast, there was an exemption from fasting. Now that Jesus has begun his public ministry, it is a time of celebration, because Jesus has been proclaiming the good news that the kingdom of God is at hand, the bridegroom is with his, bride, his people. As Donahue and Harrington write: “People are summoned to hear the good news of the victory of God over evil, illness, and sin. Even those thought to be habitually outside the pale of God’s forgiveness are welcomed to the banquet” (Donahue 2002, 108). This is indeed a time to rejoice for heaven and earth have been wedded in Jesus, fully human and fully divine. Even more his promise is that humanity can participate in this divine union!

People are being healed of chronic conditions, having demons exorcised from them, are able to see, to hear, and be restored to the community that they had been separated from. These are causes of celebration, why wouldn’t those receiving the gift of new life not celebrate? We have and will continue to see Jesus preaching, healing, and inviting those in his midst to participate in God’s kingdom played out in our daily readings. That is one of the gifts of reading the Gospels daily.

Jesus also references his death, when he will be taken away, and then on that day people will fast. We, like the community of Mark, live in between the time after Jesus walked the earth and proclaimed his message of the good news, after his Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension, until the time when he will return. We are living in a time of both/and. If we look at the course of a week as a model, we may contemplate the opportunity to fast on Fridays in remembrance of the day he gave his life for us, and to feast on Sundays, the Lord’s Day, when we celebrate his Resurrection.

The course of our lives follow an ebb and flow of sorrow and joy, sickness and healing, conflict and resolution, sin and reconciliation. In the midst of our everyday experiences, Jesus, the one who is fully human and fully divine, invites us to yoke our lives to his. Let us resist the temptations of overindulgence and gluttony while at the same time resist the polar opposite of a hyper asceticism. We are a unity of soul and body, so we need to attend to and take care of both our spiritual and physical needs.

Make a list of three things you can do for yourself this week to take care of yourself spiritually and physically. Three things to take care of the spirit, such as go to Mass or gather in the community of your faith practice, spend five minutes a day in quiet prayer, read from the Gospel of Mark, or a spiritual book, meditate in silence, and/or listen to some music. Three things to take care of the physical, such as plan your meals so they are a little healthier, fast with smaller meals on Fridays as well as even an occasional Tuesday or Wednesday, and invite family and friends to gather this Sunday for a meal and fellowship together, spend some quiet time reading, add some exercises that include a combination of stretching, cardio, and weight-bearing, take a walk outside, breath in some fresh clean air.

Life goes too fast, let us not take the gift of our life for granted, and commit this week to take better care of ourselves and each other, to celebrate the victory we have received in Christ, the wedding of heaven and earth, the human and divine.

Photo: My sister and me celebrating my mother’s birthday this past September.

Link for the Mass readings for Monday, January 20, 2025

When we trust in Jesus, just as he transformed water to wine, he will transform us with his love.

God takes the initiative to reach out to us and then we have the choice to respond. Our very desire to encounter God in prayer is already a prayer in itself, because we are acknowledging our relationship with God that already exists. Awareness that God exists is not the end goal but only the beginning. A deist believes God exists. Our God, though transcendent and beyond our realm of understanding, is at the same time a God who draws close, who initiates an encounter and invites us, each and every one of us, to have a relationship with him.

Our relationship with God begins with our awareness of his presence in our lives and a recognition that he invites us to experience him more and more. Our relationship develops in intimacy and authentically when we are willing to reveal ourselves to God and be still and open as he reveals himself to us.

Many times our relationship with God and others flattens out or plateaus for many reasons. The core of which is that we close in on ourselves. We focus too much on work or projects, seek false truths, deny our own emotional and spiritual hurts and wounds and instead of seeking help or reaching out, and we keep God and others at arm’s length. We begin to live a half life or merely exist day to day. Instead of living, we find ourselves going through the motions or reacting from survival mode.

God seeks for us to be fully engaged in life. We can see this in the account of John’s Gospel for today. The wine has run out at the wedding feast of Cana. This may seem odd until we realize that Jewish weddings during this time were a week long. Mary though is aware of the need and the possible embarrassment to the bridegroom and his family if anyone finds this out. She turns to her Son, who seems to be indifferent to the situation. Is pushing back is not because he is indifferent to the need, but to affirm to Mary that this is not the hour to reveal his true presence.

This sign of changing of about 180 gallons of water to wine is only a beginning of the fulfillment of the “messianic banquet” which was to boast a superabundance of wine (see Isaiah 25:6-8). This sign will not be in the open for all to see, but only for his disciples so that they can see and come “to believe in him” (John 2:11). This will be a foretaste not only of the Last Supper, but the celebration of the Mass where heaven and earth are wedded. For Jesus is our bridegroom and we the Church are his bride. The Mass is the celebratory feast!

Our discernment for our vocation and path in life becomes clearer when we trust in Jesus. God sent his Son to invite us and help us to deepen our relationship with his Father. Jesus meets us all in our present situations and invites us to be still and listen. If doing that is not easy, or you have been attempting to do so, but continue to be diverted and distracted, past hurts and wounds arise that are in need of healing, indecision, anxiety, anger, impatience, or any other distractions or diversions assail you as you attempt to slow down and be still. Then come to a place of quiet, make the sign of the cross, and take one slow, deep breath for the Father, one for the Son, and one for the Holy Spirit. Then take another and call to mind the words of Mary: “Do whatever he tells you” (Jn 2:5).

No matter what distractions arise, return to these words, again and again, and if it helps make them your own. “I will stay still and do whatever Jesus tells me.” Or remain with Mary’s words. Begin small with five minutes a day. Be open in the time you stay with him and return to the phrase throughout the day. Over time, you will begin to slow down, experience some stillness, and you will hear his guidance.

When we are willing to turn to and sit at Jesus’ feet, listen to and follow his guidance, he will lead us to the source of our being, God his Father and our Father, and to the truth of who we are and are called to be. Just as Jesus transformed the water to wine, as our relationship with him grows, we will be transformed by God’s love. We will experience joy and strength, healing and renewal, access and means, as well as fulfillment and joy in our lives as we continue to do whatever Jesus tells us.

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Photo: Stained glass window of Jesus changing water to wine, St. Anthony’s Croatian Church, Los Angeles, taken June of 2019.

Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, January 19, 2025

Would we choose to remain paralyzed or be healed?

In a time when word of mouth is the way to get news out, the momentum still moved quickly. Jesus has preached with authority and moved people with his words, he has healed people and exorcised unclean spirits. So when it was known that Jesus was in the vicinity, in his present home of Caparnaum, people came. Jesus came not to abolish the law but to fulfill it. That meant that he did not water down the message of God, but raised the standards even higher than they had been before under the leadership and legacy of Moses. Unlike some of the Pharisees though, Jesus did not just add heavy burdens to leave the people to carry on their own, Jesus accompanied those he challenged, he carried the weight of their sin, all the way to Calvary.

If Jesus had a business card to hand out as people gathered around him, it may have had written on it his first words recorded by Mark in his Gospel: “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel” (Mk 1:15). The time of fulfillment is indeed at hand in the presence of the Son of God made flesh. The entrance to that kingdom is measured by a willingness to turn away from sin and turn back to God. Those who are open to the love of God, willing to be shaped and transformed by his love, who are in touch with their hunger and yearning to be one with the Father, recognizing that there is more to life than the false promises, apparent goods, and even the finite goods of this world, are drawn to Jesus.

When Jesus returned to Capernaum after some days, it became known that he was at home. Many gathered together so that there was no longer room for them, not even around the door, and he preached the word to them (Mk 2:1-2).

It is clear that there is a movement afoot in just these first two chapters of Mark. Another key verse from Mark is the very first line of his Gospel: “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ [the Son of God]” (Mk 1:1). This is an amazing line, unless we read the words only, missing its proper contextual background. Those reading or hearing these words in the first and early second century would have grasped Mark’s intent immediately. There are two words in that verse that would have leapt off the pages or the lips of the reader; gospel and Christ.

The geopolitical powerhouse lording over Israel at the time of the life of Jesus was Rome. The house of Caesar was its head. Augustus Caesar was emperor at the time of the birth of Jesus. Tiberius Caesar reigned during most of the adolescence and adult life of Jesus. The term gospel, euangelion in Greek, meant good news. This gospel was spread throughout the Roman empire by messengers especially on two occasions, at the behest of the emperor; on his birthday and after great military victories. Christ, or Christos in Greek, meant the anointed one. The only ones who were anointed were emperors, kings, and priests.

Mark was making a very clear point with this opening verse, the proclamation of the good news: Jesus is the Christ, the anointed one, not Caesar. It is not Kaiser Kyrios, Casaer is Lord, but Iēsous Kyrios, Jesus is Lord! This verse is treasonous in the face of Caesar and a subversive rallying cry for the followers of Jesus then and today. Yet Mark was not calling for a military coup, or a power play, but transformation from within.

In his gospel account, Mark revealed that the first opposition to rise up against Jesus was not by the Roman occupiers. It came from the scribes of his own people. Instead of being amazed that Jesus had forgiven the man’s sins and was about to heal him of his paralysis, they seek to label him as a blasphemer. Imagine what the man felt who was just about to be healed before the interruption? Thanks to his friends, he was able to overcome the obstacles of getting to Peter’s house in the first place and then through the roof when no one would let them pass, and yet, would he get so close only to be denied by the scribes? Before these doubts could take hold, Jesus spoke: “I say to you rise, pick up your mat and go home” (Mark 2:11).

Jesus freed this man from his paralysis. Unfortunately, the scribes remained paralyzed. How about us? Do we believe that Jesus is a blasphemer or Iēsous Kyrios! May we come to see and to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, our healer, and Lord. He will free us and heal us when we are willing to surrender our ego and allow ourselves to be transformed from the darkness of revenge, hatred, pride, and division, and instead be conformed to his Body, and like the man’s friends, uphold the dignity of our brothers and sisters through our acts of mercy, love, caring, and unity.

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Photo: “Truly this man is the Son of God” (Mark 15:39)! Processional cross, sanctuary of St. Vincent de Paul Chapel, SVDP Regional Seminary, Boynton Beach, FL.

Link for the Mass readings for January, 17, 2025

Healing happens when we receive and share the love of Jesus.

There is a danger when we read a comment from Scripture such as when Jesus, “cured many who were sick with various diseases, and he drove out many demons” (Mk 1:34). The danger is that we may not believe we are capable of healing as Jesus did, so we don’t do anything active with our faith. We also might think that Jesus is divine, so of course, there is no way we can measure up to what he has done. An even less helpful line of thought would be to disbelieve that the healings of Jesus ever happened at all that they were all made up.

Another challenge can be pride. We may want to heal like Jesus, for the purpose of our own aggrandizement, so people look at us, not God. That was the sin of Simon the magician, who saw the Apostles healing, just as Jesus had, and offered payment to them for the power to accomplish the same (cf. Acts 8:9-25). Along the same line is wanting to do something grandiose, something beyond our own unique gift and charism, again so the focus is placed on us.

What we need to keep in perspective is that Jesus had a specific mission to accomplish, and yes, he is divine, but he is also fully human. As the Son, he was sent by his Father, in turn Jesus sent his Apostles, and he has a specific mission for each and every one of us as well. Jesus himself proclaimed: “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father” (Jn 14:12). Not only does Jesus say we can do works such as these but even greater ones! Jesus knows the plan his Father has for our lives, the part we are to play, and he will share it with us and empower us with that which we need to accomplish it.

We all have the capacity to provide God’s healing presence. God works through us when we are willing to be healed, to stay still long enough and consistently enough to experience his love. When we breathe, receive, rest, and abide in God’s love, we can then share his love as he guides us. There is some way for all of us to contribute.

Throughout the Bible there are accounts of how God invites others to service, each in very small and humble ways – Jesus himself began his days on this earth wrapped in swaddling clothes and placed in a feeding trough, as vulnerable and humble a beginning as there can be. He then lived the next thirty years in obscurity until his public ministry began.

We need to resist the temptation to limit and define Jesus, but instead to embrace the gift of a “sitting theology” in which we allow ourselves to look at Jesus, take him in, for he is “infinite Love incarnate” (Barron). When we are daily willing to place ourselves before Jesus in this way and invite him to be a part of our lives, our hearts and minds will expand.

Spending consistent time with Jesus, he will send us out to be contemplatives in action, open to the experiences that come before us, the opportunities and interruptions that arise in which we can be present to another with a smile, an active listening ear, and a helping hand. In each small act, we say yes to God’s invitation to be present to others and accompany them by our willingness to love as Jesus has loved us, by willing the good of each other. Through our openness to receive the love of Jesus and share in our own unique way, healing happens.

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Photo: Experiencing Jesus in the book of creation.

The thought of a sitting theology comes from Bishop Robert Barron Lesson 5 lecture that he gave on Hans Urs von Balthasar from his Word on Fire Institute. To learn more about the WOFI and what it offers, type the following link into your web browser: https://wordonfire.institute

Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, January 15, 2024

May Mark help us to experience the life of Jesus in our own lives.

Jesus quoted no one. He spoke from his own authority. Nor did he shy away from the attacks of demons.

The Gospel of John picks up the source of Jesus’ authority from the beginning line of his Gospel. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (Jn 1:1). Jesus is the Word, the Logos in Greek. Who would have more authority to speak about the word of God, than the Logos, the Word, himself?

The authority of Jesus was not only limited to teaching but restoration. Jesus is the light who shines in the darkness. His Father sent him to invite us to receive the restoration of the likeness we have lost because of the Fall. As he was teaching in the synagogue he expelled the unclean spirit of a man when he said, “Quiet! Come out of him” (Mk 1:25)! The unclean spirit would not go easy, but could not remain in the presence of Jesus and the command of his word.

Jesus came to teach in the synagogue and the authority of his teaching identified the evil in the midst of the congregation. “Jesus’ teaching has the intrinsic effect of exposing evil so that it can be expelled” (Healy 2008, 42). His first act to follow his address that the kingdom of God was at hand was to begin to undo the disfigurement of the good that God his Father had created. The time of fulfillment was indeed at hand in the coming of Jesus and he began his work by proclaiming and teaching with authority and exorcising his authority over demons.

If you haven’t read the Bible ever, have not for a long time, have been away for a while, or could benefit from a deeper dive, I invite you to read the Gospel of Mark. Do so with the intention not of reading a history book or novel, but to read, study, and above all pray with Mark’s account. In this way, we come to not just know about Jesus, but know Jesus and experience his authority in our own lives. We will come to experience the same awe and wonder of those who experienced Jesus in person.

A great way to do so is to read along with the Church as we are reading the Gospel daily right now in the lectionary or at your own pace, say five to ten minutes a day. What may be even better is to read a short section at a time, read it over two to three times, and meditate on the passage. Mark is the shortest of the four Gospels, it is quick moving, and action-packed; the James Patterson of the Gospels. The accounts lend themselves particularly well to visualizing, and placing yourself in the reading as if you were watching a movie. Open your heart and mind to what Jesus wants to reveal or communicate to you in the silence of your heart.

We can also receive a word or phrase and carry it with us through the day, such as from today’s account. Jesus can be the light that shines in our own darkness and bring us healing. We may not be dealing with being possessed, but if we are experiencing negativity, temptation, stress, feeling indecisive, or divided we can call on Jesus’ words and speak in his name, “Quiet!”, “Silence!”, or “Peace be still!” and receive through the authority of his word his healing presence. We do not have to ever journey alone. We have the gift of prayer and the Holy Spirit to help to bring the words of Scripture alive. Jesus is present with us, ready to help us and others to be aware that the kingdom of God is at hand!

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Photo: A great introduction and resource to reading the Bible is The Word on Fire Bible: The Gospels. (Nails not included.)

Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, January 14, 2025

Let us repent and believe.

“This is the time of fulfillment. The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the Gospel” (Mk 1:15).

With these words as recorded by Mark, Jesus begins his public ministry in time and space and we in 2025 begin the first week of Ordinary Time together. Whether we are in the season of Christmas, Easter, or Ordinary Time, each day is an opportunity to be thankful and celebrate our life for this continues to be “the time of fulfillment”. The Kingdom of God is still at hand because Jesus is still present with us.

We are not alone on our journey. The Son of God became human, as we just celebrated this Christmas season, and as we will celebrate in Easter, he died and rose again. This was no mere resuscitation like with Lazarus who rose and died again. Jesus conquered death and became the firstborn of the new creation. Ordinary Time is the season in which we not only study the life and teachings of Jesus but hopefully continue to be willing to be more conformed to his Body and the will of his Father through the love of the Holy Spirit.

One of the things that may hold us back from embracing the gift of the Kingdom of God in our midst is that we have often chosen to place our focus on other distractions or diversions or placed ourselves first before God and others. Jesus calls us to reorient our lives in urging us to repent, to turn away from the false reality that we are the center and author of our own lives, such that we come to realize the truth that God is our true author and director. To repent also means to open ourselves to his love, to place our trust in him, and to be assured that God accepts us as we are, right now at this very moment.

We do not repent so that God will love us. We do not have to do anything or act perfectly or say the right prayer for God to love us. We just need to “move the Lord out of the category of ‘polite company’ and into that of intimate friend to whom one can tell everything” (Barry 1987, 55). To repent means to turn back to the God whose arms are wide open ready to embrace us. We are given the opportunity to see where we have turned away from God. Let us run into his waiting embrace and receive the forgiveness, mercy, and love that he offers us.

The call to repent that Jesus accentuates is a continuation of the preaching of the prophets and John. What he adds to repentance is to believe. To believe is to “trustingly accept and yield to what God is doing in him. The kingdom is near enough that anyone who so chooses can reach out and lay hold of it through faith (Healy 2008, 42). As we turn back to God, reorient our minds to his guidance and direction, reflect on how much he has blessed us, we will better make an ascent to believe.

To “repent and believe” is a good way to begin our journey into Ordinary Time together. May we resist the temptation to hold anything back and share more with our Father and grow closer to God each day. Let us trust in Jesus who encourages us to resist limiting God and the possibilities he places before us. Instead of attempting to bend his will toward ours, may we allow the love of the Holy Spirit to expand our hearts and minds such that we will believe in and trust God more so to be like a pencil in his hand.

Photo: A good way to reorient our minds and hearts to the will of God and to believe is to slow down and make time to pray. Doing so at the side chapel in the Cathedral of Charleston this past June.

Barry, S.J, William A. God and You: Prayer as a Personal Relationship. NY: Paulist Press, 1987.

Healy, Mary. The Gospel of Mark. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2008.

Link for the Mass readings for Monday, January 13, 2025

Why was Jesus baptized and does it matter in our lives?

Today we celebrate the feast of the Baptism of the Lord and the ending of the Christmas Season. From the timeline of each of the Gospels, even though they emphasize different points, Jesus’ baptism is a significant step in the life of Jesus.

It is good to occasionally reflect on our own baptism and the vows made on our behalf if we were baptized during our infancy or we actually remember if we were baptized older. Each time Catholics enter church, we dip our fingers into the Holy Water. We then bless ourselves with the signing of the Cross. We participate in this act to affirm that we choose again to live by the baptismal vows we or others made on our behalf.

Reflecting in this way, we may see this feast as important to us as well. But we might ask, why is Jesus being baptized? Wasn’t he the Son of God and haven’t we been taught that Jesus is like us in all things but sin? Yes and yes. And this is the wonderful gift of the Bible that the words of Scripture invites us to enter into the tension of humanity and spirit.

Jesus was not participating in baptism as an act of repentance, he was joining in solidarity with us in our fallen and sinful nature, while at the same time affirming that we are not destroyed by sin but only wounded by it. Jesus came to redeem us, to save us, to help to reconcile our fractured relationship with his Father. In the words of St. Irenaeus, “Jesus opened up heaven for us in the humanity he assumed.”

We recall and celebrate this reality that the Son of God, non-being, Infinite Act of Existence, became a finite, human being and then even assumed our sinfulness, while remaining sinless himself. The pure, unblemished, Lamb of God would be the sacrificial offering on the cross. Just as in his birth there were images of his death; the cave foreshadowed his tomb, the swaddling cloths his shroud, and being laid in a trough that was to feed animals, by his death he would become the bread of life to feed us. His baptism also reveals signs of his death.

Jesus was willing to participate in John’s baptism, which was a foreshadowing of his crucifixion, because he loved his Father and was willing to follow his Father’s will all the way. He was willing to show unconditional love for us, by his willingness to walk among sinners coming to John for a baptism of repentance, he his solidarity with fallen humanity. He was showing that not only in his baptism but also in willing to die for us, he would take upon the sins of the world on the Cross. He came among us as human being so that what he assumed, he would redeem. The muddy waters of the Jordan he would be baptized in would also be made pure such that in our baptism we would be made clean, we would be cleansed of all stain of sin.

We have choices each and every day, each and every moment to make. We can turn our back on our God and Father and his love for us, and instead listen to false promises, seek after apparent goods, and give in to temptations and diversions that may satisfy for the moment but leave us empty in the end. Even if they do satisfy for the moment, we will not only be hungry and thirst again, we will never be satisfied and only want more. We can live a life for our selves alone working toward an eternity of eternal separation from the one who loves us more than we can ever know.

We can also choose another path, to allow God to love us, to receive his love and his guidance, to accept his invitation to be in relationship with him, to participate in the plan that God has for us, and to follow his beloved Son. By our baptism into the life of Jesus, we become adopted children of the Father so that we can hear each day, “You are my beloved daughter, you are my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased.” We can actualize our potential and experience the joy and meaning of a life of fulfillment as we collaborate with God and strive to live out the grace he has given us toward a life of eternity with God while at the same time helping others to do the same.

How come Jesus never sinned? Because he never said no to his Father. Jesus always said, “yes.” Jesus’ baptism also revealed the Trinity into whom we are baptized in. When Jesus prayed after his baptism, he did so as the Son of God, fully human and fully divine. As he was praying the Holy Spirit came down upon him like a dove and the Father spoke of him saying, “You are my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased.”

During our Baptism we were indelibly marked, eternally conformed to Jesus and became adopted daughters and sons of the Father, with whom he is well pleased! Such that our Baptism, our being born again, born from above, is just the beginning. God the Father has a part for us to play in bringing about his kingdom. It does not matter how small. We are called to be holy, we are called to be saints. Each and every one of us, each and every day, are invited to say, “yes” to God’s will, to live out our baptismal vows to commit to playing our part in salvation history.

We are not alone in this endeavor. The saints represented in stained glassed windows, with the light shining through, are not just there for adornment. They are examples and reminders of those, who though sinners, and imperfect like us, made a decision one day that their baptism mattered, that they were going to say, “yes” to God. That day, and each day that followed, they allowed the light of Christ to shine through them to others. We can do the same, as the saints cheer us on. The Father and the Son have also sent the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, to empower us through his love, to give us the guidance, the ears to hear, and the courage to act. All that needs to happen for us to begin and continue to live out our baptismal call is to say, “yes,” as Mary did today, tomorrow, and the next day, and in each moment to the will of our Loving God and Father.

Painting: Baptism of Christ by Battistello Caracciollo

Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, January 12, 2025