Mk 2:18-22 Hearts of Steel and Christian Love

Monday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time
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By KATIE GROSS

The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were accustomed to fast.

People came to Jesus and objected,

“Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast,

but your disciples do not fast?”

Jesus answered them,

“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.

No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak.

If he does, its fullness pulls away,

the new from the old, and the tear gets worse.

Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins.

Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins,

and both the wine and the skins are ruined.

Rather, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins.”

There is a long-running joke among Catholic school kids that if you don’t know the answer on a theology test, you can just put “Jesus loves me” and you have a 75% chance of getting it right. I have to admit that it makes me laugh a little when I hear it. But there is a sad reality underneath the joke: as a culture, we have deprived the word ‘love’ of its meaning, even when it comes to the love of God. Think—how many times have you sat in Mass while a well-intentioned priest or deacon preaches about God’s love… and then you find yourself dozing off, like you have heard it a thousand times? It’s true—‘love’ today has become less of a lived reality and more of a seemingly unattainable ideal reserved for storybooks.

My favorite liturgical season is Ordinary Time. My favorite flavor of ice cream is also vanilla, but that’s beside the point.Ordinary Time, while maybe not as action-packed as the other liturgical seasons, is where we really get to dive into the teaching ministry of Jesus, where he verbalized for us His vision of love. This Gospel in particular teaches us two key points about what true love is: true love endures forever, and true love has no substitutes.

“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.”Sometimes when I get stumped on a particular part of a Gospel reading, I look over a Catholic biblical commentary. St Bede said about this verse: “When first we begin to be converted to God, the spiritual consolations which God infuses into our souls, cause in us an overflowing of spiritual delights, so that we then feast, and are in the midst of delight; but when the Bridegroom shall be taken away, when these spiritual consolations cease, then we fast, and find the commandments difficult. It is then we must prepare ourselves for tribulation.” Put more simply, the delights and vivid emotions of love don’t last forever. What our culture doesn’t understand is that true love is independent of feelings, but is instead “willing the good of another” through all things, as St. Thomas Aquinas once said.

Maybe some of you are married, and you can relate to this. We have a huge photo album in my house of our family, with photosfrom my parents’ wedding all the way to photos from about five years ago (when everyone got iPhones and the scrapbook died). I always laugh to see the progression—on their wedding day my parents looked so young and alive. Then comes a picture with my mom looking exhausted holding my oldest brother. Then comes one of my sister crying. Then there’s one of my entire family crying on somebody’s high school graduation day, etc, etc. Here’s the point: maybe not all of those memories were glamorous, but what ties them together is that they are all snapshots of real love—the work of a mother, though it is exhausting; the love of a father, even when it hurts to have a son move away, etc. Love hurts. Love is full of sacrifice. The same applies to our relationship with God—it is going to hurt to follow Him sometimes. Just as we don’t abandon our families in the not-so-glamorous moments, so too do we prove our commitment to God by following Him when things seem less than perfect.

“No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak. If he does, its fullness pulls away,the new from the old, and the tear gets worse.” Another thing that our culture doesn’t understand about love is that there is no substitute for the real thing. The fact is we have it written on our hearts to only accept true love—all other substitutes ultimately cause unhappiness.

This Saturday in Dallas was the March for Life to commemorate lives lost through abortion since the Roe vs. Wade decision 42 years ago. What I really appreciate about the Catholic pro-life movement in Dallas is that while it seeks justice, it is also full of mercy. One sign at the march read, “Women need love, not abortion.” How true! How many terrible things in our modern world are caused by our false substitutes for love? Many people fall into unhealthy relationships because they feel it is their only source of love. Many lives are lost through abortion because a mother finds no support from the father of the child and feels alone. Many people make wealth an idol to cover up the gaping hole in their life for love. The one common thread that ties all these people together is the void in their lives was only meant to be filled by one thing: the true love that only God can give.

Our Christian view of love is countercultural to be sure, but it is the only way to go. Our broken world testifies to this fact. Let’s pray that we can begin to foster true love in our families, or wherever God plants us!

1Samuel 3:1-4. Here I am

By SOPHIE DRUFFNER

During the time young Samuel was minister to the LORD under Eli,

a revelation of the LORD was uncommon and vision infrequent.

One day Eli was asleep in his usual place.

His eyes had lately grown so weak that he could not see.

The lamp of God was not yet extinguished,

and Samuel was sleeping in the temple of the LORD

where the ark of God was.

The LORD called to Samuel, who answered, “Here I am.”

In the reading today, the Lord is calling Samuel. Samuel was lucky. He got to have his Father in Heaven wake him up in the middle of the night to tell him what he wanted him to do. Some of us aren’t that lucky.

Sometimes I wish that from birth, each of us were stamped with a sign of our future profession. Then we wouldn’t have to make any choices, or wonder somewhere down the line that the choice we made was right.

As a high school senior, everyone asks you where you want to go to college, and as such, I can rattle off the list of the eight colleges I have applied to in about three seconds flat. But I don’t know yet. And I’m hoping and praying that the one I decide to go to will be the right one, the one where I will be able to fulfill every dream I have.

Then after college, I plan on attending medical school with the intent of being a surgeon, which will require extra years of residency and fellowship after. But what if that isn’t the right choice? I have found over the past two and a half years that I really enjoy teaching, but I have heard plenty of stories of teachers who got “stuck” teaching because they didn’t follow their dreams into medical school. Was that the right choice—for them to teach? Or were they meant for the medical profession? Oh, how I wish we were born with a stamp.

Sometimes, I think that if only the Lord just started talking to me in the middle of the night, just as he did with Samuel, then I would be happy; I would know exactly what I needed to do to be happy and fulfill his plan for my life. But then, I get scared. That’s super scary for the voice of God to speak to you in the middle of the night! And so I pray for a sign. But there have been many signs (quite literally, actually, because every bumper sticker turns into a “sign” when you’re looking for one) and how am I to know if a sign I see is the “right” one.

We can’t know that the path we choose is the right one, but whatever one chooses, be it the medical profession, teaching, pastoral ministry, or petroleum engineering, there is joy to be found and one must look for it. That is the will of God—for each one of us to be happy while following each of his laws to a T. And I know that whatever I choose, I will find joy in it (although I’m still almost hoping for that voice in the night to clear things up).  

Heb 2:14-18 Looking For Someone Just Right

Wednesday of the First Week in Ordinary Time

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By BENEDICT AUGUSTINE

“therefore, he had to become like his brothers and sisters in every way,that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest before God

to expiate the sins of the people. Because he himself was tested through what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.”

The founder of a religion matters, often even more than the teachings, the subsequent history, the present state of the religion, or the leaders of the religion. Christians choose to be Christian because of Jesus, first and foremost. Catholics choose to become Catholic because of St. Peter and his special role in acting as Christ’s first vicar and the Church’s first pope.

People may find fault in the teachings of Catholicism which inevitably run against popular opinion. They may find fault with the history of the Catholicism because past scandals. They may find fault with contemporary Catholics who know little about their faith and do nothing to remedy it. They may find Pope Benedict boring, Pope Francis confusing, or the Bishop of the area a bumbling fool. Christians in general may find the Christianity, done correctly, is way too difficult.

Fortunately, Jesus overcomes all these failings. He does not fail, and requires no excuse from His disciples. He lives a perfect life, dies a perfect death, and rises from that death in a perfect deliverance for all who believe. And yet, in His perfection, He lives as a man, subjects Himself to men, knowing and feeling as man. He performs miracles, but He also takes time to pray in the morning. He helps others with His power, but He makes His life far more cumbersome with it. He has a mother and father; He bears the cross; He dines with others; He cries. No one who knows Him, believes in Him, prays with Him, cannot fail to love Him. He is so perfect, yet He is also so human.

I can never become Muslim because I know Mohammed was a violent man personally responsible for the brutal deaths of thousands. I know he lied to others to gain an advantage over his enemies. I know he had many wives, and many more concubines. Whatever progress Islam has made, however popular or dominant it is, however easy it is to practice, however favorable it would be to a male like myself, I cannot convert because I know Mohammed and I cannot love him like I love Jesus.

I can never become Buddhist because Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, concluded that the goal of life was nothingness and that everything else was suffering. His life consists of interwoven legends, nothing concrete or historical. He exists in the dark part of one’s imagination, a fearful abyss ofemotional desolation. I cannot love Buddha because he is not real, and my neighbor is.

I can never become Hindu because Hinduism does not have a founder, or a church, or one sacred text.Rather, it has many gods, many legends, many self-made spiritual leaders, and little coherence. Hinduism is the religion of India, and only India, and I am not Indian.

I can never become Jewish because I was not born a Jew. I revere their founder Moses, as Jesus did; and I do respect Jews as God’s people, as Jesus did; but they do not want me as a convert, and they did not want Jesus as the messiah. I could love Moses, but Moses would want me to love Jesus instead, the man he prophesied, the man he spoke to in the Transfiguration, the Word incarnate.

I can never become Protestant because I know about the lives of Luther, Calvin, King Henry VIII, and the other founders that followed their lead. They could have been saints, but chose to start their own churches and break Christianity into pieces, and establish dissension as the norm. They loved their friends, but they hated their enemies. Luther was careless; Calvin was ruthless; and Henry was a monster. I can understand these men, but I cannot look up to them as I can St. Peter.

I can never become Marxist because I know Marx, and he preached a violent uprising and worship of the state—a secular religion. He was an atheist intellectual who denied God, and consequently denied man. He was a materialist who believed in social engineering and the invisible hand of Progress. He has many adherents even today, and I’m not one of them. I would rather have the whole-man Jesus, king of Heaven, than the half-man Marx waiting for a utopian heaven on Earth.

The world has many religious founders, but none of them were tested like Jesus, suffered like Jesus, orhelped others like Jesus. They have great men—some even have gods—who founded their churches, but none of them loved as Jesus loved. They led armies, wrote amazing texts, incited great social revolutions, and even defined cultures, but they did not rise from the dead as Jesus did. They had faith in God, but not the faith of St. Peter, who trusted Jesus enough to trust himself.

Jesus became like us so that we can become like Him. There is no alternative. We can accept this challenge as He did, or we can fall like the many who have broken away. On the one side lies one truth, and on the other lie a legion of falsehoods. The founder is Truth; we must follow Him.    

Mk 1:14-20 Seeing Jesus

Monday of the First Week in Ordinary Time
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By KATIE GROSS

After John had been arrested,

Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the Gospel of God:

“This is the time of fulfillment.

The Kingdom of God is at hand.

Repent, and believe in the Gospel.”

As he passed by the Sea of Galilee,

he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting their nets into the sea;

they were fishermen.

Jesus said to them,

“Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

Then they left their nets and followed him.

He walked along a little farther

and saw James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John.

They too were in a boat mending their nets.

Then he called them.

So they left their father Zebedee in the boat

along with the hired men and followed him.

While I was thinking about what to say about this Gospel reading, I was considering going the traditional route—talking about how much courage James and John and Simon had to giveup everything they owned and follow Christ, etc, etc. However, as much as we would like to have faith in the rugged risk-taking and blind trust of the disciples, we can’t forget that they were no less human than we are. They were no more likely to take risks than we are.

Imagine: you are going about your day-to-day routine when a man (who appears to be impoverished) approaches you and starts speaking about the Kingdom of God and some ‘good news’ of whose meaning you can only speculate. Do you drop everything and follow him? Do you leave your family behind? Definitely not!!! I equate it in a strange way to the people who evangelize door-to-door or follow you at the mall to ask if you are saved (hint: be very cautious when saying you are Catholic). Very few people actually take to heart what is said by these people. But essentially, wasn’t Jesus like the ancient Israeli radical evangelist? This just goes to show that the first disciples, who were just as human as you and I, must have had some strong, supernatural conviction to follow Jesus. They wouldn’t have just followed Him to follow Him, just like we don’t follow every person who comes to our doorstep to preach on a whim.

In other gospels, the Miraculous Catch precedes the call of the first disciples. “Then, they have reason to follow!” we say. Maybe if the person at our door performed a miracle, we would actually leave and follow after them. But why, then, does Mark not include the Miraculous Catch in his Gospel? Wouldn’t that make the disciples seem less crazy? Each Gospel writer essentially got to choose what to include in his Gospel in order to get his point across. Conversely, sometimes they leave things out to make a statement. What is Mark trying to say? I think Mark does wants to urge us to have some element of radical trust, but primarily, his omission of the Miraculous Catch teaches us something profound about the person of Christ and what it is like to be in His presence.

Take a look at today’s first reading from Hebrews chapter 1:

“In times past, God spoke in partial and various ways

to our ancestors through the prophets;

in these last days, he spoke to us through the Son…

who is the refulgence of his glory,

the very imprint of his being,

and who sustains all things by his mighty word.

When he had accomplished purification from sins,

he took his seat at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

as far superior to the angels

as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.”

What would it be like to behold a person like that? The very imprint of God’s being? Who sustains all things through His word? Have you ever known a person who radiates holiness? We all know one. And if we know that earthly good is only a shadow of God’s goodness, what must it really be like to behold the face of God? Perhaps the disciples didn’t need the Miraculous Catch as proof; maybe they only needed to see Jesus, or to hear Him speak. Maybe it was blatantly obvious that He was God. Sometimes, you just know.

As Christians, we have the hope that one day we will all be able to see Jesus face to face.  Let us pray that this hope is ever present in our lives, and we will have the same conviction of the Apostles to follow Christ on earth.

PS: If you thought it was impossible to make a rap song out of Hebrews chapter 1, think again. This is by Lecrae and it has been my Monday morning jam since freshman year.

Mk 1:7-11 Safe Passage

The Baptism of the Lord
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It happened in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized in the Jordan by John.  On coming up out of the water he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon him.  And a voice came from the heavens, "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased."

God's preferred place.  When the Son of God was born, the world found him in a stable and lying in a manger.  It goes to show that God loves simple and humble places.  But this was not the Lord's doing.  It was Mary's.  She and Joseph placed Him there. 

So where exactly does the Lord love to be found?  Well, you would think it would be at a wedding ceremony, like the wedding at Cana, since God is love and that is where love may be easily found... and in abundance.  But that was where Christ performed his first miracle, not where he made his first public appearance.

So where did the Lord first appear, and appear on his own volition?  In line.  In a line full of sinners.

The Lord willed to be with sinners.  Why?  Because He wants to show the world that He loves us, and that He has not forgotten us or, even worse, abandoned us.  The Lord does not identify with us.  On the contrary, He is without sin.  Rather, He wants to accompany us on the road to recovery; that is, repentance.

Sky's the limit?    And guess what happened next?  The heavens opened up.  The sky is no longer the limit.  Heaven is the limit.  In fact, it is the end of the road. 

Friday morning I read one of the most thoughtful headlines I have ever read in the Dallas Morning News.  Referring to the terrorist attacks in Paris, France, that left over 16 dead and many wounded, the headline read:  "Bloody end, or beginning?" 

Great question!

We know our sky, our atmosphere - the dome - is part of God's creation.  We know it was meant to protect us and even provide for us.  We know it is our safety net, our catch all, our shield.  But reading Friday morning's Dallas Morning News newspaper, I wonder if the dome has not become our prison cell! 

Life without exit.  Life without a light at the end of the tunnel, where death is our only escape.

Terrorism!  Fear!  Horror!  Killings in the name of God and without mercy or regrets!  Is there no end in sight?  Is there no escaping from this hell?  Is it possible our dome is not our home but our doom? 

No.  Because the sky is not the limit.  God has provided us with a channel - a gateway - to His peace, His grace, His presence!  There is a way out.  We don't have to die!  Well, not physically, that is.  Rather, we must REPENT.  We must die to ourselves, our sinful and selfish selves and be REBORN.

This is our escape! 

Baptism is our safe passage from "hell on earth" to "heaven and a new earth."  Baptism is our rite of passage from childish ways to child-like ways; from the immaturity of self-righteousness to the maturity of love and compassion. 

Is life just vanity of vanities or is there anything beyond our universe?

Is there an end in sight to the spiraling out of control of rationalized violence and fundamentalist terror that rests below us?  There is.  Lord, increase my faith! 

Is there any escaping from this body of flesh and bones that becomes weak, tired and deformed under the weight and pressure of time?  There is.  Lord, send down your Holy Spirit! 

Is there no end in sight to the cycle of life and all routines?  There is.  Lord, give me hope!

Is there any chance of escaping the rationalizing and calculating of our actions and/or the manipulating and judging of others?  There is.  Lord, teach me how to love. 

Let's not forget:  the Lord made his first public appearance in the confession and baptismal line near the Jordan.  His last public statement was the following:  "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Mt 28:19-20).

Baptized at the very beginning.  Baptize till the end. 

This is how the heavens will remain open and our earth will be our home, not our prison.

Go and makes disciples of all the nations!

Lk 5:12-16 When The Going Gets Tough

Friday after Epiphany

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By JENNIFER BURGIN

It happened that there was a man full of leprosy in one of the towns where Jesus was;

and when he saw Jesus, he fell prostrate, pleaded with him, and said, “Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.” Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him, and said, “I do will it. Be made clean.” And the leprosy left him immediately.

 Remember Billy Ocean's classic song When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going?   Any fan of the 80's may have seen the "Jewel of the Nile" movie which made this song famous.....

When the "going gets tough" do we turn to Jesus like the leper in today's gospel reading? I think of the poor leper, in horrific pain and discomfort, approaching Jesus with hopefulness.  He sees relief from his immense suffering standing in front of him.

Will Jesus flinch at the sight of his ugly sores?  No way! Will Jesus run away like so many other people? Absolutely not!  Will Jesus heal him? Undeniably YES!

One thing interesting is the leper didn't demand to be healed by shouting loudly or making a scene.  He didn't push his weight around acting like he "deserved" healing.  He lay prostrate in obedience simply stating, "Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean."  He allowed the Lord to call the shots!  Wow, if we all had the same faith and patience as the man with leprosy!  So many times we want to battle things out ourselves. When we're sick, we moan and groan refusing to go to the doctor.  Herbal remedies will help.....When we're having a bad time at work; we take out frustrations on the spouse and kids.  That releases stress.....When we're financially under water; we maintain our high life style through credit cards.  Plastic is our savior....

Back in 2012, shortly after I returned from my overseas trip to Malaysia, I came down with a bad case of strep throat.   I took a round of antibiotics with the symptoms soon disappearing.  However, six months later I broke out in a horrible rash all over my face. It turned out to be staph infection related to my original bout with strep. (It had laid dormant for that many months.) It was a more uncommon strain, so I had to go through two different types of antibiotics.  I felt like a leper inside and outside!  The itching and pain was miserable. I tried to hide my face as best I could but the redness and sores could not be covered up too well....

What if I lived in biblical times?  I'd be an outcast in society for a simple skin infection.  People would think I gravely sinned against God.  I may be living on the streets begging for food.  Maybe by some miracle I could repent of my "sins" and be cleansed by a priest in the temple.  Just think if Jesus saw me in my pain and discomfort, he'd be willing to cure me! Awesome!

When the going gets tough, the tough get going!  We can "get going" by accepting situations as being part of God's will, leaving the control up to Him.  We can also "get going" by praying!  Don't lose site of the power of prayer when troubles leave us drainedphysically, emotionally, and spiritually.  

"Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you."  -St. Augustine

1 Jn 4:19 Food Fights and More

Thursday after Epiphany
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By SOPHIE DRUFFNER

Beloved, we love God because he first loved us.  If anyone says, "I love God," but hates his brother, he is a liar..."

My house is a food battlefield. Fruit at our house is gone within three days. Chocolate-chip cookies and pizza are given a day, less if it’s a Saturday. You wouldn’t believe how fast our refrigerator empties, or how ravenous four sisters can get.

  

So, at fourteen, I resorted to hiding my candy and special foods in specific places. Ice cream was strategically covered with different freezer foods and disguised. I saved choice cookies in a tin box, and placed the box among empty boxes in a cabinet. Apples were hidden in the top corner of the Tupperware cabinet, away from the vultures whom I feared would descend. (When they did, they flew off with the sweet plunder and I was lefthelplessly giggling on the floor, the victim of a tickle attack).

The most notorious offenders are my mum, with the help of my fourteen-year-old sister, who once tickled me to the ground so that she could steal my stash of chocolate-chip cookies. My dad, upon discovering my Halloween Candy under the couch, proceeded to raid all the Reeses, calling “Treasure! Treasure!”Vultures.

Coming to high school, I discovered that no food was left untouched. It was socially acceptable for friends to steal cookies or fries off your plate. I soon exploited the system and began taking fries and cookies as well, but I always got a funny feeling when someone reciprocated. That was my fry she was eating! How dare she.

And then I met one of my closest friends who was one of the most generous friends I have ever had. Her parents would pick you up to take you somewhere, even if it was a few miles out of their way. She would let you have a pen or pencil always and she even made extra copies of blank study guides to give to people who forgot theirs.  And she and her dad would always offer you a water bottle if you needed it. Somehow, it was always cold, even if she had been carrying it around all day.

Comparing my attitude to hers, I am reminded of the boy in the story of the five loaves and two fishes. I can imagine being the boy, and having a great lunch ahead of me, imagining the crispycrunch of the bread and the delicious taste of roast fish. All of a sudden, a dusty disciple comes over and asks me to come right this way.  Reaching the top of the hill, he asks me if I will divide my share with a few people around me. I acquiesce reluctantly, but suddenly another bearded man with an air of authority takesmy food away from me. (How dare he!)

At once, he says a blessing over the bread and from nowhere, the great meal multiplies, and multiplies again! The amount of food exponentially explodes from formerly empty wicker baskets; I cannot believe my eyes. Then, the bearded man with the air of authority thanks me, blesses me, and I turn and walk away across the dusty hill, dazedly putting one foot in front of the other, hardly touching the food I had once longed so much for.

This year, one of my New Year’s resolutions is to be more generous, more caring, and to always offer whatever I have. Although I am unsure as to the status of my food stashes, I know that I will begin to act as my friend who always has everything for everyone.  Imagine if everyone had that listening ear or that kind eye or was generous with everything they said about others--how thankful we all would be.