How easily do you give up when this do not go your way? Will you persevere today?

In the text of today, Mark has used what is known as the sandwich construction. This means that he has introduced the incident about Jairus’ daughter being ill (5,21-24), interrupted it with the cure of the woman with the flow of blood (5,25-34) and continued again and completed the incident of the curing of Jairus’ daughter (5,35-43). The reason for this sandwich construction seems to be to heighten the suspense. Since Jairus’ daughter is at the “point of death”, Jesus must not tarry but hurry if she is to be saved. Yet, Jesus tarries, confident in the knowledge that he can indeed raise even the dead.
In these miracles, both of those who are healed are female, and the number twelve appears in both. The woman has been ill for twelve years and the girl is twelve years old. In both, the cure is the result of faith. These incidents indicate that Jesus has power over both life and death. He is indeed Lord of heaven and earth.
We may tend to give up and lose heart especially when our prayers remain unanswered for a period of time. We may sometimes accept defeat and stop praying. We may lose faith. These miracles call us to continue to hope even if there are times in our lives when our prayers do not seem to be answered. If we persevere and have faith like the woman and Jairus, we too can obtain from the Lord what seems impossible.

How often has another person’s need been more important to you than your own?

The healing miracle of today is known as the healing of the Gerasene demoniac. The man is so utterly possessed, that it seems almost impossible that he will be healed. Addressing Jesus as the Son of the Most High God, the demon attempts to possess Jesus. However, Jesus will have none of it, and silences him with a word. The name “legion” used by the demoniac may mean on the one hand that he did not want to give his name and so be cast out by Jesus, and on the other hand may also refer to the Roman occupation of Palestine. The presence of pigs suggests that it is Gentile territory, because Jews considered pigs as unclean animals, and would not have them near. Some have raised questions about the destruction of nature because of the fact that the herd of pigs is drowned after the demon is sent into them. However, it may also be interpreted as the extent of concern that Jesus had for the man. In other words, the salvation of a human being is worth any price. The healed man becomes an apostle.
Today there are various demons that can possess each one of us. Some of these are consumerism, selfishness, addictions and the like, which result in tensions within the family and at times leads to a breakdown of family life. We need first to become aware of them and call them by their names so that with the Lord’s grace they will be exorcised from our hearts and lives.

Have you stopped rowing the boat of life because you are overwhelmed with the storms? Will you start rowing again today?

The Gospel reading of today appears immediately after Jesus has completed the Parable Discourse. It is commonly referred to as the miracle of the calming of the storm. While this miracle appears also in the Gospels in Matthew and Luke, the language of the disciples in Mark is harsh. In Matthew, the disciples address Jesus as Lord, and their cry is a plea for help, much like our “Lord have mercy” at the penitential rite. In Luke, like in Mark, Jesus is addressed as “Master” but no allegation about his uncaring attitude is made. In Mark, the disciples allege that Jesus is unconcerned about them. Mark also brings out the contrast between the agitated disciples and the serene Jesus. Jesus is able with a word to calm the forces of nature, and suddenly, there is a great calm.

The boat has often been seen as a symbol of Christianity. The storm then would be the trials and tribulations that attack Christianity from without. Jesus is present with his people even in the midst of all these trials, even though sometimes it may appear that he is asleep and unconcerned. He is able with a word to clam these forces, and so there is no need for agitation and anxious care. We need to keep rowing and trust that he will see us safely to the shore.

Do you more often than not focus on the present or the future? Do you focus on the now or on the later?

The text of today contains two parables. The first of these (4,26-29) is known as the Parable of the seed growing secretly, and is found only in the Gospel of Mark. The second (4,30-32), known as the Parable of the Mustard seed is also found in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke.

In the first parable the point that is being made is that the one who scatters the seed only does so and then goes about his routine, not worried about the outcome of his effort. The seed continues to grow, simply because he has first scattered it. He knows that by worrying the seed will not grow faster, and so he lets it be.

In the Parable of the Mustard seed, the point that is made is that from little, there will be much. Small beginnings have great endings. The parable is a call to begin what one has to do without worrying about how small or big the outcome will be. The growth is sure and definite.

When Mark says in 4,33 that Jesus did not speak to the people without a parable, he is in effect saying that there was a parabolic character about all of Jesus’ teaching. This means that all of Jesus’ teaching involved the listener and it was the listener who supplied the lesson to the teaching and not Jesus. This indicates a freedom of choice that every listener was given at the time of Jesus. They were the ones to decide for or against. Jesus would never force them to accept his point of view.

It is sometimes the case that we spend much of our time worrying about the outcome of our actions even before we can do them. This attitude does not allow us to be in the present moment and so the action that we do is not done to the best of our ability. We do not put ourselves fully into the action that we do. At other times, we do not act at all but only worry. While the first of today’s parable is calling us to act and then relax rather than worry, the second is assuring us that our actions will indeed bear fruit.

How would you define the WORD OF GOD? Have you assimilated this WORD?

The text of today follows immediately after the interpretation of the Parable of the Sower and the seed and contains two similes: that of the lamp and the measure. In Mark they seem to be connected with the response that a person makes to the Word spoken by Jesus. This Word is not an esoteric or secret Word. It is a Word that is to be make known, to be revealed, like a lamp is to be on a lamp stand. If one is open and receptive to this Word (the Measure of one’s openness) one will receive from God not only the ability to understand it but also to assimilate it.

Sometimes our closed attitudes and minds and our reluctance to accept change and newness may result in our missing out on all the revelations of the glory of God taking place around us. If we only open the eyes of our heart to see and the ears of our hearts to hear, we will be able to find God in all things and all things in him.

How often have you given into despair and lost hope? Will you continue to hope today?

The text of today is taken from what is known as The Parable Discourse in the Gospel of Mark. The text contains an introduction to the Discourse (4,1-2), the parable of the Sower (4,3-9), a saying on the kingdom and its secret (4,10-12) and the interpretation of the parable (4,13-20). It is important that while it is likely that Jesus uttered the parable, in all probability the interpretation is the work of the early church. This is why; the interpretation of these texts must be done separately.

The parable of the Sower seems to point out that of the four types of soil in which the seed falls, it is LOST in three types and bears fruit in only one type. This indicates that while three quarters of the effort are lost, only a quarter is gain. However, the focus of the parable is not on the loss but on the gain, which even that one-quarter brings. The Parable is pointing out to the fact that this is how life often is. Three quarters of our efforts seem to be wasted and it is possible that when this happens we may give in to despair. However, we are called to focus not on this but on the enormous gain that the one-quarter of our effort will indeed bring.

We may tend to lose heart when we see that most of our efforts do not seem to be bearing fruit. At times like these the Parable of the Sower offers hope that even though much of our effort may seem to be lost, the gain that will arise from it will be enormous. It invites us not to ever lose heart but to keep on doing our part and leave the rest to God. It is calling us to sow and rest confident in the hope that God will make it grow.

If Jesus were to point to his family today, would you be counted as a member?

The text of today forms the second part of the “sandwich” construction that Mark has used here. He introduced the family of Jesus in 3,20-21, interrupted this with the text on the Beelzebul controversy (3,22-30) and returns to the family of Jesus is today’s text 3,31-35. By using such a structure, Mark indicates that the family of Jesus are also hostile to Jesus. Also, Mark places them “outside” while Jesus is “inside” the house. This too indicates that they are not disciples. Jesus then defines family in terms of those who do the will of God. Some also think that by not mentioning the father of Jesus, Mark wants to assert that for Jesus and his disciples, only God is Father.

We may imagine that because we have been baptised are bear the name Christian we are automatically counted as members of Jesus’ family. However, baptism alone will not make us members of Jesus’ family, but the living out of the baptismal promises in our lives. This means that we must each do what we are called to do, namely our best at every given moment.  

Is your general attitude to life positive or negative? Will you make an attempt to interpret every incident positively today?

The text of today is known as the Beelzebul controversy. Scribes who come from Jerusalem accuse Jesus of casting out demons by the prince of demons. Jesus refutes their claim by showing how absurd it would be for Satan to cast himself out. The strong man whom Jesus talks about is Satan and the one who binds up the strong man is Jesus himself. Rather than accuse Jesus, the scribes must be able to see that with the coming of Jesus the reign of Satan is at an end.

The sin, which cannot be forgiven, is the sin against the Holy Spirit. Since there is the danger of looking at this sin as a specific sin, Mark clarifies that the reason why Jesus says this is because they accused him of having an unclean spirit. This means that the sin spoken of here is an attitude rather than a specific sin. It refers to the attitude of being closed to the revelation that God is making of himself in Jesus. It is an attitude of closing one’s eyes and refusing to see.

Today the sin against the Holy Spirit is to refuse to believe that the Spirit can transform me. Practically this means to give up even before one can begin. It means to give in or throw in the towel. It means not to give the Spirit a chance to work in our lives. It means a refusal to persevere and keep on keeping on.

The old is past. The new is now.

Zebulun and Naphtali were the first provinces of the Northern kingdom that were captured when the Assyrians took Israel into exile. This is the humiliation that Isaiah speaks about in the first reading of today. However, that is now past. There will now be a reversal brought about by God through his Messianic king, and these will be the first to experience it.

Darkness has turned into light and for Matthew this prophecy of Isaiah is seen as being fulfilled in the ministry of Jesus in Galilee. This ministry in Matthew begins after the arrest of John the Baptist. The choice of location for the beginning of the ministry is Caprenaum and in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali mentioned in the first reading and serves as a setting for the fifth formula quotation in the Gospel. The movement from darkness to light that Isaiah prophesied about comes about in Matthew through a response to Jesus’ call to repentance. It is important to understand the placement of the words by Matthew. Though Matthew places the imperative (Repent) before the indicative (for the kingdom of heaven has come near) it must be understood that the basis or reason for repentance is that the kingdom has come near. Something has happened or taken place and therefore something needs to be done. The text does not say that the kingdom will come after repentance rather because the kingdom has indeed come and in the person and ministry of Jesus, people should repent.

The word “repentance” has sometimes been translated to mean “be sorry”, but nowhere in the Gospels does Jesus ask anyone to be sorry for their sins. Yet, he constantly calls people to repentance. The English word “repent” is a translation of the Greek metanoeō which literally means “change one’s mind” quite like the man who came home one day and told his wife, “Honey, I’ve changed my mind.” “Thank God,” said his wife, “I hope the new one will function better.” Repentance therefore literally taking out that small mind which engages in stereotyping and dwelling on negatives and replacing it with a mind that is open and flexible and filled with the positive of God’s unconditional love. This openness is the result of having accepted that the kingdom as manifested in Jesus has indeed come near. The coming of the kingdom means that God’s unconditional love, mercy, forgiveness, pardon and acceptance have all been given freely in Jesus. Since this is so, we can do nothing to earn this love; all we have to do is receive it with gratitude and in humility.

How is this repentance shown in action? Paul gives the answer to this question in the second reading of today when he calls the Corinthians and through them us as well to be united. Differences must be made up and disagreements must be ironed out. Each Christian individually and all Christians collectively belong only to Christ and to no one else. To heal the wounds of the divided body of Christ, right words and slogans are certainly necessary but they are by no means sufficient. Over and above the right statements of faith, we need the right attitudes which spring from a recognition that we all belong to Christ. While unity does not mean uniformity the legitimate expression of diversity should never lead to division since Christ is not divided but one. This is the Christ whom Paul preached and wants each of us to continue to preach. His preaching was not in philosophical terms or treatises but in language that conveyed that all that was received was through grace. It was this grace and free choice of God that led to Jesus to call the first four disciples. Jesus takes the initiative here. He comes to the brothers Simon and Andrew, he sees them and he calls to them. He does the same with James and John. They respond generously to his call which is both a command and promise. The command is to follow the person of Jesus and not merely a value or an ideal. This indicates that following Jesus demands first of all total dedication to him.

The summary statement which concludes the Gospel reading serves as a summary of all three readings namely that like Jesus, the task of the Christian who decides to follow him will also be that of making people whole and through this action to proclaim the Good news that God’s love, mercy, pardon and forgiveness is indeed a reality today. The Kingdom has come.

Would Jesus point to you as member of his family? Why

This text is part of a larger text, which ends at 3,35. It is about the family of Jesus. In 3,20-21 (our text for today) the family of Jesus is introduced in a negative manner. They think that Jesus has gone out of his mind and want to restrain him. One possible reason why his family would have thought that he was “out of his mind” was because he was working miracles and this could have been seen as associated with magic and such persons could either be banned or even executed. His family thus come to take him away by force.

This episode is followed by the Beelzebul controversy (3,22-30) in which Jesus is accused of casting out demons by the power of Beelzebul, by the scribes who come from Jerusalem. Mark then forms a "sandwich construction" by taking up in 3,31-35 a text concerning the family of Jesus. Here, however, Jesus makes clear that his true family are not those related to him by blood only, but by the will of God.

There are times when because we do not understand the actions of another person, we may tend to condemn them or look down on them or sometimes label them. We need to realise that because of our lack of understanding we may need to be open rather than closed and judgemental.