Sunday, July 15, 2012

15th Sunday of Ordinary Time - The Mission of the Twelve (Mk 6:7-13)


Do the Mission with Trust

Introduction
-         
 The mission is solving the problems of the world and establishing the Kingdom of God, by acting against evil forces. Is this mission possible or practical?
-          Once a man asked god why there are lots of people suffering in this world because of various evils such as poverty, injustice and other kinds of suffering. He asked God, “Are you doing anything in this situation?” God answered, “Yes, I am still active in this world and I working for the establishment of goodness”. The man again asked God, “Can you tell me what you have done to solve the problems of suffering of people of today?” God answered, “I have done a marvelous thing and that is, I have created you”.
-          Christ fought against the evil forces and conquered even the greatest evil power, death, and showed us an example. He told his disciples to continue his mission.
-          How to do this mission according to today’s gospel?

Content
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 The key of today’s gospel is ‘trust’. Trust has four realms such as Trusting God, Trusting Partner, Trusting the community and Trusting the message.
o   Trusting God – Jesus instructed his disciples not to take any material things for the journey. It is a call to trust God completely. It is the conviction that God is enough for me.
o   Trusting Partner – Jesus sends them two by two. It shows the importance companion in the mission of Jesus. In this mission one may lose oriented in course of time. Therefore there is a companion to help and assist. It is a mutual help. The partners may be husband and wife, parents and children, co-workers, friends etc.
o   Trusting Community – Jesus said to stay in a house and eat what is given. Give peace to the community. This community can be the people who surround us where we may be. Without trusting them nothing works.
o   Trusting the Message – Message is Jesus himself. Our trust in the message is to be expressed in ‘healing, exorcism, and peace giving’.
§  Healing can be in the level of emotion, mind or spiritual.
§  Exorcism is standing against the evil forces such as corruption and all the things related to that.
§  Peace giving is sharing Jesus with others. To share we should first of all fill with the divine. Our prayers and other spiritual activities help to fill us with the divine.

Conclusion
-         
 Let us be the people who spread the kingdom of God in the world.
-          Remember that God is still active in this world and it is through me.

Courtesy to Fr. James Thayil CMI

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

13th Sunday of Ordinary Time (B) (Mk 5:21-43) Jairus’s daughter and the Women with a Hemorrhage


Be with Him and Be-live in Him

Once, a pastor was standing at the door shaking hands with the people as they leave church after service. As Joe tries to pass by, the pastor grabs him by the hand and pulls him aside. “Joe,” says the pastor, “you need to join the Army of the Lord.” Joe replies, “I’m already in the Army of the Lord, Pastor.” “How come I don’t see you in church except at Christmas and weddings?” the pastor asks. And Joe whispers back, “I’m in the secret service.” Like Joe, we may have faith in Jesus, but it is very important how do we express, live and deepen our faith. The late archbishop Fulton J. Sheen once said, as Christians we are God’s chosen people but from the way we live out our faith one would think that we are God’s frozen people. How do we experience, deepen and express our Christian faith?
In these Sundays we have been reflecting on the theme faith. Faith is basically a complete trust or confidence in someone or something. In the spiritual realm it is a complete trust and confidence in God. When it is mingled with deep rooted humility and thirst for Jesus in every second of our lives, we witness the miracles as we see in the story of Jairus and the women with hemorrhage (Mk 5: 21-43).
In the incident of Jairus and women with hemorrhage, there were lots of people who came into contact with Jesus. First of all there was a large crowd who were moving with Jesus. They were in contact with Jesus but did not receive any special blessings from Him. It may be because they were ‘mere spectators’ and had no intention of experiencing Jesus. Sometimes we are like this crowd, coming to the church just to see what is happening or just to fulfill our obligation. In that case we may miss a deeper experience of Jesus as our savior.
The second group of people that we come across in the story of Jairus and the women with hemorrhage are those came from the house of Jairus to tell the sad news, ‘the daughter is dead, why to trouble Jesus any further?’ (Mk 5:35). They looked at things as impossible and hopeless. They perceived Jesus with limitations. We may belong to this group of people if we have the mentality of hopelessness and disappointment in our lives.
The third group that we see in that incident is the weeping and wailing people in the house of Jairus. They ridiculed Jesus when he entered the house (Mk 5:40). They may be called ‘realists’ who believed only in what they could perceive in their mind and intellect. When we do not expect any divine intervention or miracles in our life we become part of those realists. We may reject what is irrational to our mind. But the real faith is expecting the unexpected. It is accepting Jesus who is beyond human intelligence.
The fourth group of people in that incident includes Jairus and the Women. They had deep faith in Jesus. They believed that Jesus can make real changes in their lives. They also had a deep sense of humility as it is written, ‘Jairus fell at his feet and begged him repeatedly’ (Mk 5: 23), and the women ‘fell before Him and told the whole truth’ (v.33). These two persons also had a deep conviction that without Jesus they cannot be saved. They felt the dare need for Jesus in their lives.
Jesus asks us to be in the group of Jairus and the women and experiencing the divine interventions in our lives. To be in this group what we need to have is deep faith, humility and strong conviction that we need Jesus at every moment of our lives.