Category: Gospel of Mark
Most of us have had the experience of working so hard on a project that we start feeling overwhelmed. Sometimes it is a project at school or work, at others it can just be the way your whole life feels.
In this week’s Gospel (Mk 6:7-13) Jesus sends the Apostles out two by two to preach the Good News and drive out demons. In some way’s this is out of sink with the American idea of rugged individualism. I am sure I am not the only one who likes to be independent and do things my way. When I say “my way,” I really mean, “the right way.”
In today’s Gospel (Mk 5:21-43) we hear about the wonderful miracle of saving Jairus’s daughter. What could be more wonderful than bringing a child back from death?
I know many people worry about loved one who have either fallen away from the church, or have never had a relationship with God. If you fall in this category, I hope you listen to this weekend’s Gospel (Mk 4:26-34). Jesus tells us that the Kingdom of God is like a man who scatters seeds in a field. Once this is done, it is the seed itself that does the work. Even in our age of science, it can seem like a mystery how a seed can fall in the earth, they grow into a full plant with its own seeds.
This weekend we celebrate the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord. Traditionally, this would have been celebrated last Thursday (40 days after Easter), but in resent times the observants has been moved to the Sunday before Pentecost. The Ascension must have been a frightening time for those first followers of Christ. Just when they thought that they had Jesus back after he rose on Easter, he leaves them again. Now, seeing him rise on a cloud was probably not as traumatic as seeing him crucified on a cross, but none the less today’s reading leave him standing there staring up into the sky. Next week, we will hear that they spent the next ten days locked inside their house.
Today’s Gospel (Mk 1:12-15) opens with Jesus being driven into the desert, and being tempted by Satan for forty days. I don’t know about you, but sometimes I feel that better describes my last forty years. For me, the beginning of lent always seems like it will last for another forty years.
In this weekend’s Gospel (Mk 1:40-45) Jesus tells the healed leper to say nothing about the miracle that was preformed. This seems strange at first because you would think Jesus would want everyone to know he was God incarnate, and share the Good News.
My two sons are now three and four years old, and if there is anything in this world that love it is dinosaurs. They eat, sleep and breath dinosaurs. If we go on family walks, they stop strangers on the street to preach the ‘Gospel of Dinosaurs.’
