1-page summary of OT XXVI (Sept 30) Mk 9:38-43, 45, 47-48 (L/18)

Central theme: Today’s Scripture readings give us a strong warning against jealousy, intolerance and scandal.

Scripture lessons:  In the first reading, we find jealousy, in its destructive form of envy, raising its ugly head in Moses’ assistant and successor, Joshua.  Moses and seventy future helpers were called by the Lord God to the Tent of Meeting for the Spirit-giving Ordination ceremony. But two of the invitees were absent, and Joshua could not tolerate these absent men prophesying in the camp without receiving God’s Spirit in the Tent of Meeting. Moses had to instruct Joshua to be tolerant. This selection is intended to provide a Biblical background for Jesus’ response to the same kind of jealousy noticed in his apostles.  In the second reading, James warns the rich against giving scandal by their denial of social justice to their workers in refusing to give them a living wage, by ignoring the needs of others and by condemning and murdering the innocent and the righteous.  Withholding a day-laborer's wage was a terrible act of injustice, tantamount to murder in the agricultural economy of the ancient Middle East.  Baptism commits every Christian to work for social justice, through peaceable (rather than violent), means. The Refrain for today’s Responsorial Psalm (Ps 19), “The precepts of the Lord give joy to the heart,” reminds us that obedience to the spirit of the Law will draw us closer to God and so give us lasting joy.  In the Gospel, we find intolerance among the apostles of Christ. John complains to Jesus that a man outside their group of selected disciples has been exorcising demons in Jesus’ Name, in spite of their attempt to prevent him from doing so.  Jesus responds by giving the Apostles lessons in his kind of tolerance and in the reward to be given to outsiders for good deeds they have done for the disciples of Jesus.  We also hear the strong warning of Jesus against giving scandal, especially to innocent children, vulnerable members of the community and beginners in the Faith. Jesus instructs the Apostles, and us, that, just as a doctor might remove by surgery a limb or some part of the body in order to preserve the life of the whole body, so we must be ready to part with anything that causes us or others to sin and which leads to spiritual death.

Life messages: 1) Let us avoid conduct that can lead to scandal.  We give scandal and become stumbling blocks to others: a) when we are unkind or unjust in our treatment of them, b) when we humiliate them by hurting their pride and damaging their self-image, c) when we discourage, ignore, or refuse to accept them, and d) when we become judgmental of those who are still struggling to reach a level of commitment that we feel is too low to be useful.  

2: Let us learn the Christian virtue of tolerance: Christian tolerance asks that we bear with the weaknesses of others (without condoning the evil they do), by: a) remaining true to our conscience and beliefs, b) respecting the differences we encounter, c) working together on projects of common interest, d) affirming what is good in the other person’s position, even when we disagree on certain things, and e) allowing the light of Christ to shine through our loving words and deeds.   

OT XXVI [B]: Nm 11:25-29; Jas 5:1-6; Mk 9:38-43, 45, 47-48

Homily starter anecdote: #1: "Could you not have tolerated him for just one meal?"   There is legend told about Abraham, the grand patriarch of the Jews, in the Mideast. According to the legend, Abraham always held off eating his breakfast each morning until a hungry person came along to share it with him. One day an old man came along, and, of course, Abraham invited him to share his breakfast with him. However, when Abraham heard the old man say a pagan blessing over his food, he jumped up and ordered the old man out from his table, and from his house. Almost immediately, God spoke to Abraham. “Abraham! Abraham! I have been supplying that unbeliever with food every day for the past eighty years. Could you not have tolerated him for just one meal?" We are all children of God, and, hence, we have to love and tolerate everyone, as explained in today’s first reading and the Gospel. (From Jack McArdle).

# 2: "If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off." It was one of the most gripping news stories of 2003. In the beautiful but desolate mountains of southeastern Utah, a twenty-seven-year-old mountain climber named Aron Ralston, made a desperate decision. An avid outdoors man, Aron was rock-climbing one day when his right arm became trapped under a boulder, a boulder estimated to weigh at least eight hundred pounds. He saw immediately that he was in deep trouble. Unable to budge the rock at all, Aron took out his pocketknife and chipped away at the rock for 10 hours, managing to produce only a small handful of dust. Obviously, this was not going to work. Days were passing. No one knew where he was. Even worse, his family and friends were used to his going off for days without contacting anyone, so they were not even looking for him. With his arm still wedged beneath this enormous boulder Aron Ralston recorded a video message to his parents telling them good-bye. At the end of several days with no food or water, however, Aron made a remarkable choice. Aron Ralston decided to amputate his arm in order to save himself. And that's exactly what he did, using only a pocket knife. What an amazing display of courage and determination! After he was finished, he applied a tourniquet to his arm and rappelled nearly 70 feet to the floor of the canyon. Then he hiked five miles downstream where he encountered some other hikers and was rescued. Aron Ralston made the obviously excruciating decision to amputate his right arm to save his life. It is an amazing story! Who can read this story without thinking of Jesus' words from our lesson for today, "If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell"? What a stark declaration. "If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off." Aron Ralston certainly made a choice – to sacrifice his arm in order to save his life. There are choices that must be made in life, and those choices determine our destiny.

#3: Gandhi, Mandela, Dorothy Day and Martin Luther King Jr. With our fallen human nature, we fall victim to the evil tendency of trying to control the Spirit of God by our intolerance.  Our own arrogance insists that another is not qualified to speak on justice or morality because of his/her lower educational qualifications, low-grade lifestyle, humble social background or race.  As a society, we also tend to question people’s legitimacy – especially when they challenge us. Mohandas Gandhi, a Hindu leader in India, challenged the colonial rule of the British Empire over India with his principles of peace and non-violence.  But the intolerant British Empire, initially dismissing him as a “silly, half-naked fakir,” tried to silence him by imprisonment. But later they found, to their horror that the entire nation was behind him in its fight for freedom from colonial rule.  Nelson Mandela was ignored by the minority ruling class and was jailed for many for years as a radical because of his option for the poor and the oppressed in South Africa.  Dorothy Day was imprisoned in the U. S.  for her beliefs and was accused of being a Communist.  Martin Luther King Jr. challenged a nation and its policy of discrimination.  He was continually under surveillance by the FBI and was accused of inciting sedition and of being unpatriotic.  There are Christians who still look on believers belonging to non-Christian religions and on members of Christian denominations different from their own as heretics and semi-pagans.  In today’s Gospel, Jesus gives his disciples a lesson in Christian tolerance along with a warning against jealousy and scandal.

23 Additional anecdotes are uploaded in my website: http://frtonyshomilies.com/

Introduction: Today’s readings give us a strong warning against jealousy, intolerance and scandal.  In the first reading, we find jealousy, in its destructive form of envy, raising its ugly head in Moses’ assistant and successor, Joshua.  Moses and seventy future helpers were called by the Lord God to the Tent of Meeting for the Spirit-giving ordination ceremony. But two of the invitees were absent, and Joshua could not tolerate these absent men prophesying in the camp without receiving God’s Spirit in the Tent of Meeting. Moses had to instruct Joshua to be tolerant. This selection is intended to provide a Biblical background for Jesus’ response to the same kind of jealousy noticed in his apostles.  The Refrain for today’s Responsorial Psalm (Ps 19), “The precepts of the Lord give joy to the heart,” reminds us that obedience to the spirit of the Law will draw us closer to God and so give us lasting joy.  In the second reading, James warns the rich against giving scandal by their denial of social justice to their workers in refusing to give them a living wage, by ignoring the needs of others and by condemning and murdering the innocent and the righteous. Baptism commits every Christian to work for social justice through peaceable (rather than violent), means.  In the Gospel, we find intolerance among the apostles of Christ. John complains to Jesus that a man outside their group of selected disciples has been exorcising demons in Jesus’ Name, in spite of their attempt to prevent him from doing so.  Jesus responds by giving the Apostles lessons in his kind of tolerance and in the reward to be given to outsiders for good deeds they do for the disciples of Jesus.  We also hear the strong warning of Jesus against giving scandal, especially to innocent children, vulnerable members of the community and beginners in the Faith. Jesus instructs the Apostles, and us, that, just as a doctor might remove a limb or some part of the body in order to preserve the life of the whole body, so we must be ready to part with anything that causes us or others to sin and which leads to spiritual death.  Jesus is inviting us to integrate our bodies into our following of Christ, so that our hands become instruments of compassion, healing and comfort, our feet help us to bring the Gospel to the world and our eyes learn to see the truth, goodness and beauty all around us.

First reading, Numbers 11:25-29, explained: The Book of Numbers was written down after the Exile, in the 6th century BC, by Jewish priests who were hoping to put the broken nation back together and to keep it faithful to God.  Chapter 11 has two stories of God's responses to the continuing complaints of the wandering Israelites.  First, they had lamented the absence of meat from their diet, comparing the manna unfavorably to the variety of foods they had eaten while enslaved in Egypt. Moses appealed to God, saying that he was unable to manage the people alone. God heard his plea and told him to select seventy elders --- experienced men from among the tribes --- whom God would appoint as leaders of the people under Moses and assemble them in the Tent of Meeting.  Moses did so, and their God bestowed on them part of the Spirit He had given Moses. At once, they began to prophesy---a sign to the people that God had appointed them as His representatives. They prefigured the ministry of the apostles.  But Joshua, a close follower and aide of Moses who was jealous for Moses' reputation, complained about two men named Eldad and Medad.  Though both had been on Moses’ list of 70, neither had attended the Spirit-giving ordination ceremony in the Tent of Meeting, yet both were prophesying.  Moses asked Joshua, "Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the people of the Lord were prophets!" and reminded him gently that God is free to choose anyone He pleases as His prophet. Moses promptly corrected Joshua for showing the tendency toward institutionalizing the power and presence of God. Through Baptism, all of us are made God's ministers and God’s prophets.  We are filled with God's Spirit and empowered to interpret God's vision and message to the people around us, and we are not to grow jealous of those serving the community in positions of greater authority or working for the community in different venues.

Second Reading, (James 5:1-6), explained: The passage from James illustrates how the rich give scandal by their unjust treatment of laborers and their gross violation of the principles of social justice.  Today's passage is a straightforward moral condemnation and a strong denunciation of the unscrupulous rich who enrich themselves by treating others unfairly and spend their riches in self-indulgence. Withholding a day-laborer's wage was a terrible act of injustice, tantamount to murder in the agricultural economy of the ancient Middle East.  James is merciless in his condemnation of ill-gotten wealth.  There's hardly a more emphatic passage in the New Testament. Baptism commits every Christian to work for social justice through peaceable (rather than violent), means. Pope Paul VI’s encyclical on social justice echoes the tradition of James. Jean Paul Sartre, the French existentialist made the false statement: “Hell is other people!” But the truth is that hell is the “person of only one book.” Hell is me, when I am alienated from others, and, from God.

Gospel exegesis: Today’s Gospel gives us lessons in Christian tolerance and exemplary Christian living.

 1) Warnings against jealousy and intolerance: The apostles wanted to reserve God's love and healing power to themselves as the "sole owners" and "authorized distributors"! We hear John complaining to Jesus that a stranger was driving out demons in Jesus’ Name, though he was not of their company.  They want Jesus to condemn the man.  As occasionally unsuccessful exorcists, they may have been jealous of this stranger.  Jesus, however, reprimands his disciples for their jealousy and suspicion and invites them to broaden their vision and to recognize God's power wherever it is found.  Like Moses in the first reading, Jesus challenges a rigid understanding of ministerial legitimacy. He wants the apostles to rejoice in the good that others are doing, for God is the Doer of all good.  Jesus enunciates a principle for his disciples: "Anyone who is not against us is for us."  God can and does use anyone to do His work. The invitation to proclaim the good news of salvation, in both word and work, is not restricted to the twelve apostles or seventy disciples but extended to anyone who will hear and respond to it “in Jesus’ name.” The Church has no monopoly on God's work, truth, love or power to heal and reconcile.  The work of the Kingdom is not confined to the baptized, although it is certainly our special work. This lesson is especially valuable today. Intolerance rising from fear and envy has a long history in the Christian Church and Christians are still known for a spirit of intolerance.  Ask the average person on the street what he/she thinks is a Christian attitude, and he/she will use words like "judgmental," "narrow-minded," "dogmatic," "condemning," and "intolerant."  The road to the brotherly love Jesus commands must begin with each of us.  The cause of Christ is not served by one's rejecting other ways to God than one’s own, or by one's claiming that no real good can take place outside the boundaries of one's own denomination.  It is through mutual respect that we find common ground with others and discover strengths in different beliefs.  Wherever we see God's work being done, we should give it our support and be ready to work together with those doing the work, whether they are Christians or not, believers or not.

2) A millstone for the scandal-giver: Jesus' second warning is against scandal-givers: those who cause the “little ones” to sin.  The Greek word for "little ones" is micron, meaning the smallest or the least.  It can mean children, those who are new to the Faith, or those who are weak in Faith.  Jesus is pointing out that the scandalous behavior of older believers can be an obstacle to those whose Faith is just beginning to develop.  Etymologically, the word scandal comes from the Greek skandalon, which was a trap-stick or bent sapling used for a snare.  With a skandalon a hunter could catch a rabbit or other small prey.  We may remember how the Enron scandal, the Monica Lewinsky affair, and of course, the horrible sexual abuse of children by the clergy were pictured by the media.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines scandal as “an attitude or behavior which leads another to do evil” (#2284).

3) Modern scandal-givers: The truly dangerous people to whom Jesus is referring are those evil ones who wear the mantle of religious leadership, and at the same time, by their counter-witness, turn the weak and the innocent away from God, and cause them to sin.  Today, we know the irreparable harm done to the Church and the faithful by the scandals of clerical sex abuse.  Likewise, scandal is often given by unorthodox theologians and false preachers, who propagate their anti-Christian ideas under the guise of Biblical and psychological research.   Professors, even at some Christian universities, sometime advocate moral relativism and nihilism, converting students to their false beliefs.  Even teachers at Catholic universities sometimes criticize papal pronouncements as “an infringement on academic freedom."  Do they not give scandal?  Our major social institutions — the news media, the Internet, law, public education, and the entertainment industry -- under the guise of “freedom of speech and expression,” often seem hostile towards religion, erecting stumbling blocks to believers.  We have an obligation to make known, with Christian courage, our views on these matters so as to protect the innocent.

3) Interpreting Jesus' words about self-mutilation? Our hands become instruments of sin according to what we touch and how we touch, in lust or greed or violence. Our feet are used for sin according to the places we have them take us.  Our eyes become doorways for sins according to what we choose to look at or refuse to look at. However, it is important to understand that, in these passages about "plucking out an eye or cutting off a hand," Jesus is not speaking literally.  We have more sins than we have bodily parts.  Besides, even if all offending parts were removed, our hearts and minds -- the source of all sins-- would still be intact. Hence, these sayings are actually about our attitudes, dispositions, and inclinations.  Jesus is inviting us to integrate our bodies into our following of Christ, so that our hands become instruments of compassion, healing and comfort, our feet help us to bring the Gospel to the world, and our eyes learn to see the truth, goodness and beauty all around us.

By these startling words about self-mutilation, Jesus also means that we must cut out of our lives all practices that keep us away from God and retain only those habits that draw us closer to God.  Jesus is setting before all his disciples the one supreme goal in life that is worth any sacrifice. That goal is God Himself and His will for our lives, which alone leads us to everlasting peace and happiness.  Just as a doctor might remove a limb or some part of the body in order to preserve the life of the whole body, so we must be ready to part with anything which causes us to sin and which leads us or others to spiritual death.  Billy Graham has a fantastic way of summing up this Gospel message by concluding his Crusades with a final challenge: "Decide! Cut away anything that prevents you from a radical decision for Jesus Christ! Decide for Christ!"

Life messages: 1) We need to avoid conduct that can lead to scandal.  We  give scandal and become stumbling blocks to others: a) when we are unkind or unjust in our treatment of  them, b) when we reject them because of their weakness, faults or sins, c) when we humiliate them by  hurting their pride and damaging their self-image, d) when we discourage, ignore, or refuse to accept them, e) when we ridicule them or deflate their dreams, f) when we follow a double standard: "Do as I say; don't do as I do,"  g) when we set standards which are so high that we are unable to meet them  ourselves, and h) when we become judgmental of those who are still struggling to reach a  level of commitment that we feel is too low to be useful. On the other hand, we become good role models: a) when we support and guide others in moments of doubt, weakness, and suffering, b) when we increase other people’s self-confidence by accepting them as they are and enabling them to discover their hidden talents, c) when we help them to grow by inspiring and correcting them, d) when we forgive them and listen to them with patience, and e) when we make ourselves examples of Christian witnessing.

#2: Let us learn the Christian virtue of tolerance: Christian tolerance asks that we bear with the weaknesses of others, without condoning the evil they do.  Intolerance is a sign of a weak faith.  Intolerance is also ineffective.  It does nothing but damage to the cause it seeks to defend. When we attack a heretic, we don’t change his mind, for the most part. We just give him an audience.  To ban a book, is, almost surely, to make it a best seller. Condemning a sinner immediately draws people to defend him.  An intolerant attitude will alienate, rather than attract, sinners.  Only genuine agape love can overcome hatred.  The Church should display this patient love to a hate-filled world.  The Church is expected to present Christ to the world.  How can the Church present Christ when it is arrogant or intolerant rather than loving others as Christ loves us?  We cannot exalt love by encouraging hate.  Hence, let us try both to learn and to practice the virtue of Christian tolerance in our interfaith and ecumenical endeavors by: a) remaining true to our conscience and beliefs, b) respecting the differences we encounter, c) working together on projects of common interest, d) affirming what is good in the other person’s position, even when we disagree on certain things, and e) allowing the light of Christ to shine through our loving words and deeds.  

# 3: “He who is not against us is for us:” (Emailed by Fr. Fredie A.C. freddieac@gmail.com): There is a tendency   in us to downgrade, condemn, slander, ridicule, put down and make defamatory remarks against anybody who is different from us. Since the Church of Christ is scandalously divided on denominational lines, it is in our nature to think other denominations as inferior and ridicule or condemn them. When some lay people do better than the clergy in preaching and healing ministry, it is natural for the latter to feel envious of them and question their authority. The Gospel invites us to respect the gifts and charisms of all those who work in Jesus’ name. Though we need not and cannot accept all the viewpoints of those who are opposed to us, Jesus teaches us to respect them and their viewpoints. All have a right to their own views and thoughts. How wrong we are in thinking that we alone are right, all others are wrong; we alone possess the truth, others do not; we alone possess a monopoly over salvation. This does not mean we accept anything and everything from anybody and agree with it. We too should have our own personal convictions. Tolerance involves a respect for various aspects and facets of the truth. Intolerance gives the impression that nothing is true beyond what our eyes can see. Again, is this also not a sign of arrogance? How difficult it is for us not to hate the person himself when we hate his/her views/ beliefs/ opinions! Jesus calls us to build up a truly tolerant and inclusive society.

JOKES OF THE WEEK #1: Intolerance in the blood: In Belfast, Ireland, a Catholic priest, a Protestant minister and a Jewish rabbi were engaged in a heated theological discussion.  Suddenly an angel appeared in their midst and said to them, “God sends you His blessings. Make one wish for peace and your wish will be fulfilled by the Almighty.” The Protestant minister said, “Let every Catholic disappear from our lovely island.  Then peace will reign supreme.” The priest said, “Let there not be a single Protestant left on our sacred Irish soil. That will bring peace to this island.” “And what about you, Rabbi?” said the angel. “Do you have no wish of your own?” “No,” said the rabbi. “Just attend to the wishes of these two gentlemen and I shall be well pleased.” (Anthony de Mello, in Taking Flight).

#2: "Die, heretic scum!" I was walking across a bridge one day, and I saw a man standing on the edge, about to jump off.  I immediately ran over and said "Stop! Don't do it!" "Why shouldn't I?" he said. I said, "Well, there's so much to live for!" "Like what?" "Well ...  are you religious or atheist?" "Religious." "Me too! Are you Christian or Jewish?" "Christian." "Me too! Are you Catholic or Protestant?" "Protestant." "Me too!  Are you Episcopalian or Baptist?" "Baptist." "Wow! Me too! Are you Baptist Church of God or Baptist Church of the Lord?" "Baptist Church of God." "Me too! Are you Original Baptist Church of God, or are you Reformed Baptist Church of God?" "Reformed Baptist Church of God."  "Me too! Are you Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1879, or Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1915?" "Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1915!" To which I said, "Die, heretic scum!" and pushed him off. {An Emo Phillips skit}.

# 3: Jealousy even in death: Feeling very ill, a tough businessman went to see his doctor. After examining him, the doctor backed away and said, "I regret having to tell you this, but you have an advanced case of highly infectious rabies. It appears you've had it for some time. It will almost certainly be fatal." In shock, the man asked the doctor for pen and paper. "Do you want to write your will?" the doctor asked. “No! I want to make a list of all the people I want to bite!" the man replied.)

USEFUL WEBSITES OF THE WEEK

1) Guide to catholic Internet Resources: http://www.catholicusa.com/

2) Your guide to Catholic beliefs: http://www.aboutcatholics.com/

3) Families with students: http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/home.jsp

4) Catholic mothers: http://www.catholicmom.com/

5) DOUAY-RHEIMS Online Catholic Bible:

http://www.catholicdoors.com/bible/index.htm

6) Text Week homilies: http://www.textweek.com/mkjnacts/mark9c.htm

“Scriptural Homilies” Cycle B (No 50) by Fr. Tony: akadavil@gmail.com

Visit my new  website: http://frtonyshomilies.com/for previous Cycle B homilies, 141 Year of Faith “Adult Faith Formation Lessons” (useful for RCIA classes too) & 196 “Question of the Week.” Contact me only at akadavil@gmail.com. Visit http://www.vaticannews.va/en/church.html for the Vatican version of my homilies.

Fr. Anthony Kadavil, Chaplain, Sacred Heart Residence of the Little Sisters of the Poor, 1655 McGill Ave, Mobile, AL 36604.

1-page summary of OT XXV Sunday (Sept 23) homily on Mk 9:30-37
 

Introduction: Today’s readings invite us to become great in the sight of God by doing God’s will, as Jesus did, surrendering our lives in the service of others.

Scripture lessons summarized: The passage from the Book of Wisdom sounds like a messianic prophecy similar to the “Suffering Servant” prophecy in Isaiah referring to Christ’s passion. It urges us to choose the path of righteousness in spite of painful consequences. In today’s Responsorial Psalm (Ps 54), the psalmist prays for help against the insolent people who rise against the upright. In today’s Gospel, Jesus gives us a glimpse of what walking that path is, namely, welcoming and serving the vulnerable in our midst: the defenseless children, the despairing poor, the mentally ill and the marginalized. Jesus also teaches his apostles that child-like humility and selfless service make one great in the eyes of God. The second reading is in tune with the dispute among the apostles about who is the greatest. In it, James warns us that selfish ambitions destroy peace and cause conflicts and war. So, James advises us to choose the path of righteousness and humble service which leads to lasting peace

Life messages: # 1:  We must become great through humble, self-giving service.    Greatness, in Jesus' view, is found in our willingness to accept and welcome and serve those who are considered unacceptable by reason of class, color, religion, wealth or culture.   We must welcome people the way a child welcomes them before he is taught discrimination.   If we are to be truly great, we must be ready to accept four challenges: (1) to put ourselves last, (2) to be the servant of all, (3) to receive the most insignificant human beings with love, and (4) to expect nothing in return.  During the holy Mass let us pray for the true spirit of service and for an attitude of love for those around us. May the Holy Spirit help us to become truly great through humble, selfless service.

2) We need to practice humility in thoughts, words and actions. “Learn from me for I am meek and humble of heart.” "What is the essential thing in the religion and discipline of Jesus Christ?” St. Augustine asks, and then responds, “I shall reply: first humility, second humility and third humility." We should not seek recognition and recompense for the service we do for Christ and the Church as parents, teachers, pastors, etc. Trusting Faith resulting from true humility is essential for all corporal and spiritual works of mercy. Since children reflect the innocence, purity, simplicity and tenderness of our Lord, and since they are given the protection of a guardian angel, we are to love them, train them and take care not to give scandal to them. We need to try to treat everyone with love and respect because, "Beside each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd leading him to life" (St. Basil), CCC # 336. (L/18)

OT XXV (Sept 23) Sunday: Wis 2:12, 17-20; Jas 3:16---4:3; Mk 9:30-37

Anecdotes: # 1: “The most powerful woman in the world!" At the screening of the film Mother Teresa during the fortieth anniversary of the United Nations in 1983, the Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar rose from his seat to introduce St. Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa) to an elite gathering of the representatives of all member countries of the U.N. He needed only one sentence for his introduction:  "I present to you the most powerful woman in the world!" (Hers was the power of humble and sacrificial Christian service!). On March 3, 1976, conferring on Mother Teresa the highest honor of India’s Vishwa Bharati University, Mrs. Indira Gandhi, who was at that time prime minister of India, said: “I feel myself dwarfed when I stand before this holy and mighty woman who heroically showed the world how to practice Christian love in sacrificial and humble service.” For many years, the world watched, admired and loved this weak and elderly nun, always dressed in a blue-bordered white sari, as the incarnation of humble and sacrificing Christian service.  She was the living proof of Jesus' words in today’s Gospel that real greatness lies in serving others. She did this with love and compassion. Beginning in 1962, she was given several awards, national and international, in recognition of her greatness, attained through the humble service given to the “poorest of the poor.”    On Sept. 5, 1997, the day of the death of this saint who lived with us, practicing what Jesus commanded His disciples to do, Pope St. John Paul II said: “Mother Teresa marked the history of our century with courage.  She served all human beings by promoting their dignity and respect, making them feel the tenderness of God.”

# 2: Dr. Charles Mayo polishing the shoes of his guests: There's a story told about Dr. Charles Mayo who, with his father and brother, founded the world-famous Mayo Clinic. Some European medical experts were visiting the clinic and were staying as guests at Dr. Mayo's home. In their own countries it was the custom of these gentlemen to place their shoes outside the bedroom doors for a servant to polish. As Dr. Mayo was headed to bed, he noticed shoes lined up outside the rooms of his guests, but it was too late to wake up any of the servants. With a sigh he picked up all of the shoes, hauled them to the kitchen, and spent half of the night polishing them. Here is an example of what Jesus tells you and me in today’s Gospel “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” (Msgr. Arthur Tonne).

# 3: “There are no professionals in dying." In George Seaton's film The Proud and the Profane, the steps of a young nurse are traced to a place called Iwo Jima where her husband had been killed in World War II.  She goes to the cemetery where her husband lies buried and turns to the caretaker, a shell-shocked soldier, who had seen her husband die.  "How did he die?" she asks.  "Like an amateur," he replies.  "They teach you how to hurl a grenade and how to fire a mortar, but nobody teaches you how to die.  There are no professionals in dying." Most of us avoid the subject of death.  It's a taboo subject.  We pretend that we are going to live forever.  But the only way we can keep up that pretense is through massive denial.  Woody Allen said, "When I die, all I want is just a few of my good friends to gather around the casket and do everything in their power to bring me back to life." Everyone dies - that we can accept.  But somehow, we think we will be the exception. Jesus knew of the innate fear in the heart of the disciples concerning death, -- his death and theirs.  Jesus also knew that they would all pay a terrible price for their future ministry.  So, in today’s Gospel, Jesus teaches the apostles that he is going to become the Messiah by his death and Resurrection.

Twelve additional anecdotes are uploaded in my website frtonyshomilies.com

Introduction: Today’s readings invite us to become great in the sight of God by doing God’s will, as Jesus did, surrendering our lives in the service of others. The passage from the Book of Wisdom sounds like a messianic prophecy similar to the “Suffering Servant” prophecy in Isaiah referring to Christ’s passion. It urges us to choose the path of righteousness in spite of painful consequences. In today’s Responsorial Psalm (Ps 54), the psalmist prays for help against the insolent people who rise against the upright.  In today’s Gospel, Jesus gives us a glimpse of what walking that path is, namely, welcoming and serving the vulnerable in our midst: the defenseless children, the despairing poor, the mentally ill and the marginalized. Jesus also teaches his apostles that only child-like humility and selfless service make one great in the eyes of God. The second reading is in tune with the dispute among the apostles about who is the greatest. In it, James warns us that selfish ambitions destroy peace and cause conflicts and war. So, James advises us to choose the path of righteousness and humble service which leads to lasting peace

The first reading: Wisdom. 2:12, 17-20.  The Book of Wisdom was written around 100 BC for "the Diaspora," -- the Jews living in pagan cities such as   the cosmopolitan city of Alexandria. Today’s passage is considered to be a messianic prophecy of Jesus’ fate at the hands of his own people, presenting him as a “Suffering servant.” It refers to a righteous sufferer and points to Jesus' crucifixion. This reading tells us how the world often ill-treats those who strive to live justly and do God’s will.   Bible scholars consider this as a reference to a conflict that was developing among the Jews living in Alexandria.  The conflict was between those who were trying to keep their faith pure, and those who were adopting pagan Greek customs.

The second reading (James: 3:16 – 4:3): James is emphatic about the contrast between spiritual wisdom and earthly wisdom. The apostle states that conflicts and disputes come from our inordinate desires, worldly cravings and selfish ambition.  It is precisely this kind of conflict that appears in the Gospel when the apostles argue about who will be highest in the Kingdom of God. James contrasts this kind of jealousy and selfishness with the wisdom from above that produces a harvest of righteousness.

Gospel exegesis:  The context: Jesus was returning to Capernaum after journeying incognito through the Northern Province of Galilee, avoiding crowds and teaching the apostles.  Mark presents Jesus as giving three predictions about his suffering and death in chapters, 8, 9 and 10.   The response by Jesus' disciples is disappointing because they were dreaming of a political messiah who would usher in an earthly kingdom.  In chapter 8, Peter rebukes Jesus for his words.   In chapter 9, (the first part of today’s text), an argument arises among the disciples as to who among them is the greatest.   In the third passage (chapter 10), James and John foolishly ask Jesus to give them seats on his right and left, when he comes to power.  “The grumbling of the other ten disciples at the request of James and John surely implies that they have shared the same hopes of authority and privilege as have the sons of Zebedee.” (Carl W. Conrad; http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/Mark/mk8tr.html). The second part of today’s Gospel describes what happens when Jesus returns to Peter’s house in Capernaum and explains to his apostles what true greatness is.

The Christian criterion of greatness: Jesus says that people who serve humbly are the greatest. He uses a play on an Aramaic word that can mean either servant or child.  Presenting a child before them, Jesus explains that one who wishes to be the first among them must be a servant to all.  True greatness consists in serving one's fellow men and is never self-centered.  It lies in the ability to see and respond to the needs of others, and it presupposes compassion and sympathy. The two conditions of true greatness are humility and service. This vocation to service belongs to the Church as a whole and to every member of the Church.    In other words, the Christian vocation is an apostolate of bearing witness to Christ through loving, humble service.  Christian history teaches us that whenever the members of Christ’s Church have forgotten or ignored this call to service, the Church has suffered. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, gives us this  motto on service: “Do all the good you can; By all the means you can; In all the ways you can; In all the places you can; At all the times you can; To all the people you can; As long as ever you can.”

The paradox of the first becoming the last: Here, Jesus stands conventional wisdom on its head:    the truly great person is a diakonos − a deacon − a servant − a person who spends his/her day taking care of other people! What does it mean when Jesus states that those who want to be the first must be the last? Probably, Jesus is speaking of his life and death in this spirit of his being a servant and considered the last, the loser. Jesus wants his apostles to substitute their ambition to rule thus becoming the first, with the ambition to serve, thus becoming the last. We are all supposed to be serving, whatever our position or role in the society or family or in the Church may be, because true greatness lies  in being the servant or slave of all.

Welcoming children. “It may appear that Jesus’ teaching about innocence and welcoming the insignificant (vv. 33-37) is out of place in the context of his passion prediction (vv. 30-32). However, the prediction of his coming death was actually elucidated by Jesus’ lesson regarding the child and vice versa. Talya or child in Aramaic can also mean servant. To behave as a talya (servant) and to welcome even someone as insignificant (according to the standards of that time) as a talya (child) is to learn the reason for the cross (vv. 31-32) and its lesson of discipleship” (Sánchez files). In Greek also, the usual term for “children” [παις, pais] is the same term generally used for “slaves,” and vice-versa. By this play on words, it seems clear that, as much as Jesus is counseling His followers to welcome children in His name, Mark is also asking the Christian community to welcome “servants [of the Gospel],” in the same way that they would welcome Jesus.  (Dr. Watson). By setting a child before them, Jesus asked them to be like the child, suggesting the importance of   innocence and humility. The trusting innocence of a child’s heart is the place where believers can meet both Christ and God. Besides, a child represents the most powerless member of any society, a person who has no power, no influence; a person who can be controlled, abused or neglected by others.   By introducing the example of a child, Jesus also shows us that, when serving others, we must be careful to serve the least important.   This means that the Christian must show hospitality to those who have no social status: the outcast, the sinner, the sick and the feeble.  In other words, the Christian must serve all of God's children, regardless of whether they are friends or foes. Why? Because such people represent Jesus in our midst and hence they must be welcomed, respected and helped. The passage also tells us that Christians must care for the unwanted, neglected, abused and ignored.

Life messages: # 1:  We must become great through humble, self-giving service.    Greatness, in Jesus' view, is found in our willingness to accept, welcome and serve those who are considered unacceptable by reason of class, color, religion, wealth or culture.   We must welcome people the way a child welcomes them before he is taught discrimination.   If we are to be truly great, we must be ready to accept four challenges: (1) to put ourselves last, (2) to be the servant of all, (3) to receive the most insignificant human beings with love, and (4) to expect nothing in return.  During the holy Mass let us pray for the true spirit of service, for an attitude of love for those around us.  May the Holy Spirit help us to become truly great through humble, selfless service. St. Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa) puts it like this: “Be the living expression of God's kindness through humble service; kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile and kindness in your warm greeting.” Here is the motto of the Missionaries of Charity, the order of nuns founded by Mother Teresa:

The fruit of Silence is Prayer.
The fruit of Prayer is Faith.
The fruit of Faith is Love.
The fruit of Love is Service.
And the fruit of Service is Peace.

2) We need to practice humility in thoughts, words and actions. “Learn from me for I am meek and humble of heart.” "What is the essential thing in the religion and discipline of Jesus Christ?” St. Augustine asks, and then responds, “I shall reply: first humility, second humility and third humility." We should not seek recognition and recompense for the service we do for Christ and the Church as parents, teachers, pastors, etc. Trusting Faith resulting from true humility is essential for all corporal and spiritual works of mercy. Since children reflect the innocence, purity, simplicity and tenderness of our Lord, and since they are given the protection of a guardian angel, we are to love them, train them and take care not to give scandal to them. We need to try to treat everyone with love and respect because, "Beside each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd leading him to life," (St. Basil) CCC # 336.

WEBSITES OF THE WEEK

1. Study on O. T. XXV [B] readings: http://www.textweek.com/mkjnacts/mark9b.htm

2. Sermons from Seattle: http://www.sermonsfromseattle.com/series_b_jesus_loves_all_the_little_children_of_the_world.htm

3. Kurt's Favorite Catholic Links: http://www.psalm40.org/catholic/

4. Are Catholic doctrines biblical? http://usccb.org/bible/understanding-the-bible/study-materials/articles/bible-at-core-of-catholic-beliefs.cfm

5. Scripture Catholic: https://www.scripturecatholic.com/

JOKES OF THE WEEK # 1: Remember potato salad and jokes:   Tony Campolo, used to say, “If you ever start to feel proud, thinking that you are somebody great, just remember that soon after your body has been lowered into the grave, your family & friends will be eating potato salad & telling jokes, & you’ll be history." 

# 2: More My Size! George Washington Carver, the scientist who developed hundreds of useful products from the peanut: “When I was young, I said to God, ‘God, tell me the mystery of the universe.’ But God answered, ‘That knowledge is reserved for me alone.’ So, I said, ‘God, tell me the mystery of the peanut.’ Then God said, ‘Well, George, that’s more nearly your size.’ And he told me.”

# 3: A horrible mistake: Father, I have a besetting sin, and I want your help. I come to church on Sunday and can’t help thinking I’m the prettiest girl in the congregation. I know I ought not think that, but I can’t help it. I want you to help me with it." The pastor replied, "Mary, don’t worry about it. In your case it’s not a sin. It’s just a horrible mistake."   

#4: Prime minister’s humility: Winston Churchill was once asked, "Doesn’t it thrill you to know that every time you make a speech, the hall is packed to overflowing?" "It’s quite flattering," replied Sir Winston. "But whenever I feel that way, I always remember that if instead of making a political speech I was being hanged, the crowd would be twice as big."  

#5: I am proud of my humility: Do you have humility like the man who wrote the best-selling books, Humility and Humility and How I Attained It and The Ten Most Humble Men in the World and How I Chose the Other Nine? 

# 6: Remember this old Sunday school song containing the basic servant-living theology: J.O.Y., J.O. Y. Tell you what it means: Jesus first, yourself last, and others in between.

# 7: The humble pastor: Did you hear about the pastor who prepared a great message on humility.  But he was waiting for a bigger congregation to preach the sermon to! Another pastor was given an award for humility. A week later, the congregation took the award back because the pastor displayed it in his office! L/18 

“Scriptural Homilies” Cycle B (No 49) by Fr. Tony: akadavil@gmail.com

Visit our website: http://frtonyshomilies.com/for previous Cycle B homilies, 141 Year of Faith “Adult Faith Formation Lessons” (useful for RCIA classes too) & 196 “Question of the Week.” Contact me only at akadavil@gmail.com. Visit http://www.vaticannews.va/en/church.html for the Vatican version of this homily.

Fr. Anthony Kadavil, Chaplain, Sacred Heart Residence of the Little Sisters of the Poor, 1655 McGill Ave, Mobile, AL 36604.

Summary of OT XXIV [B] (sept 16) Sunday Homily on Mark 8:27-35

Introduction: Today’s Gospel explains the basis of our Faith as acceptance of Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the Living God and our Lord and Savior. It also tells us that Christ Jesus became our Savior by his suffering, death and Resurrection. Finally, it outlines the three conditions of Christian discipleship, namely, denying oneself, taking up one’s cross and following Jesus.

Scripture lessons: Jesus saw aspects of his own life and mission foreshadowed in Isaiah’s Servant Songs. Hence, a large portion of the Third Song of the Suffering Servant is presented as the first reading today. Like the servant described in today’s first reading, Jesus’ life was one of radical obedience and conformity to God’s will. Thus, the Servant passage provides background for the revelation of Jesus as the suffering Messiah. In today’s Responsorial Psalm (Ps 116), the Psalmist invites us to turn to the Lord for help amidst the trials of this world.  It is in God that we will find deliverance from trouble and relief from our afflictions.  (Ps 116). Today’s second reading, taken from the Letter of James to the Church, reminds us that suffering is not only something to be accepted but also something to be alleviated. James explains how our Faith in Jesus, the Messiah, should help us to alleviate the sufferings of others by our works of mercy, both corporal and spiritual. In the Gospel, in response to Peter’s profession of Faith in him as God’s Messiah and Savior, Jesus foretells for the first of three times his passion, death and Resurrection. Today’s Gospel consists of two sections: 1) the Messianic confession of Peter, who acknowledged Jesus as “the Christ (Messiah), the Son of the living God.” and 2) Jesus’ prediction of his passion, death and Resurrection, followed by his clear teaching on the three conditions of Christian discipleship: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.”

Life Messages: 1) Jesus wants to become a living, present reality for us, loving us, forgiving us, helping us, transforming our lives and outlook and building a personal relationship with us. The knowledge of Jesus as Lord and personal Savior needs to become a living, personal experience for each Christian drawing each of us to loving response. The relationship deepens and grows as we listen to Jesus through the daily, meditative reading of the Bible, speak to him in our daily, personal and family prayers, offer him our lives on the altar in the Holy Mass and see reconciliation with him, asking his forgiveness for our sins every night and in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. In the Eucharistic celebration today, we are celebrating and experiencing in our lives the death and Resurrection of Christ, the Messiah, our Lord and personal Savior.  2) We need to surrender our life to Jesus whom we experience as our Lord and Savior: The next step is the surrender of our lives to Jesus Whose love we have experienced by rendering humble and loving service to others with the strong conviction that Jesus is present in every person. The final step is to praise and thank God in all the events of our lives, good and bad, realizing that God’s love shapes every event of our lives. Click on http://frtonyshomilies.com if you miss any homily.

OT XXIV [B] (Sept 16) Is 50:5-9a; Jas 2:14-18; Mk 8:27-35 (L/18)

# 1: Baby powder and Christian powder:  Yakov Smirnoff (https://youtu.be/5GK8ewRec7c) is a comedian from Russia. When he first came to the United States from Russia he was not prepared for the incredible variety of instant products available in American grocery stores. He says, "On my first shopping trip with my friend, I saw milk powder; you just add hot water, and you get milk. Then I saw orange powder; you just add cold water, and you get orange juice. And then I saw baby powder, and I thought to myself, ‘What a country, you add water to a tin of powder and get a baby!’" Smirnoff was joking on a “Comedy Show.” But some televangelists, preach such instant Christian transformation, leading to eternal salvation. According to this belief, when someone surrenders his or her life to Christ and accepts Him as his or her personal God and Savior and confesses his or her sins to Him there is an immediate, substantive, in-depth, miraculous change in habits, attitudes, and character and he or she becomes a born-again Christian eligible for eternal salvation. Unfortunately, there is no such Christian powder and disciples of Jesus Christ are not instantly born. They are slowly raised through many trials, suffering, and temptations. They are saved by their faithful and lifelong cooperation with the grace of God given for doing good and avoiding evil and for obeying God’s commandments. In today’s Gospel, Jesus explains what his disciples should do: “Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me.” [Adapted from James Emery White, Rethinking the Church, (Baker, 1997), p. 55-57.]

# 2: Shakespeare and Jesus. It was the 19th century British essayist, Charles Lamb, who snatched the 17th century playwright William Shakespeare from his undeserved obscurity, returning him to the limelight of fame. Charles Lamb was once involved in a discussion on the question of who the greatest literary genius of all time had been. Two names finally emerged: William Shakespeare and Jesus of Nazareth.  Lamb put an end to the debate when he said: “I’ll tell you the difference between these two men. If Shakespeare walked into this room right now, we would all rise to greet him, but if Christ came in, we would all fall down and worship.” There is the essential difference between the Man from Nazareth and all the other great people you can think of. Jesus Christ is God, and all others, no matter what their deeds, are but fools strutting on the stage for a brief time and then exiting. Today’s Gospel describes who Jesus really is and gives us the unique conditions for Christian discipleship.

3:  "Who do Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Islam say that I am?" The first two groups claim to be Christian, and Islam speaks about Christ.  But all of them have a confused Christology. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, more commonly called the Mormons, incorporates the Lord's name in its title, but its beliefs about Jesus are fatally flawed. A basic compendium of the Mormon gospel, entitled Mormon Doctrine, was written by apostle Bruce Redd McConkie, an influential Mormon theologian.  According to McConkie, Mormons believe that "Lucifer, the son of the morning, is our elder brother, and the brother of Jesus." The Journal of Discourses, a 26-volume Mormon publication presenting public sermons by many early Mormon leaders, includes such statements as this: "Jesus, our elder brother was begotten in the flesh by the same character that was in the Garden of Eden, and who is our father in Heaven." The same volumes assert, "Jesus was married at Cana of Galilee and had many wives ... he also had many children." From these writings, it is clear that the Mormons fail the test when it comes to answering Jesus Christ's question, "Who do you say I am?" (v. 29). Ask the Jehovah's Witnesses, "Who do you say Jesus is?" The Jehovah's Witness publication, New Heavens and New Earth, declares by way of response, "Michael the Archangel is no other than the only begotten Son of God, now Jesus Christ."  Consider the religion of Islam. Ask the Muslim who Jesus is and the answer we get from official publications is "Jesus was no more than a mortal whom Allah favored and made an example to the Israelites. They are unbelievers who say God is Messiah, Mary's son" (Sura 43:59, Quran). Until people see Jesus as Peter did, as "the Christ, the Son of the Living God," they miss the mark

Introduction: Today’s Gospel explains the basis of our Faith as acceptance of Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the Living God and our Lord and Savior. It also tells us that Christ Jesus became our Savior by his suffering, death and Resurrection. Finally, it outlines the three conditions of Christian discipleship, namely, denying oneself, taking up one’s cross and following Jesus.  Jesus saw aspects of his own life and mission foreshadowed in Isaiah’s Servant Songs. Hence, a large portion of the Third Song of the Suffering Servant is presented as the first reading today, while in the Gospel, Jesus foretells his passion, death and Resurrection for the first time, in response to Peter’s profession of Faith in him as God’s Messiah and Savior. Like the servant described in today’s first reading, Jesus’ life was one of radical obedience and conformity to God’s will. Thus, the Servant passage provides background for the revelation of Jesus as the suffering Messiah. In today’s Responsorial Psalm (Ps 116), the Psalmist invites us to turn to the Lord for help amidst the trials of this world.  It is in God that we will find deliverance from trouble and relief from our afflictions.   Today’s second reading, taken from the Letter of James to the Church, reminds us that suffering is not only something to be accepted but also something to be alleviated. James explains how our Faith in Jesus, the Messiah, should help us to alleviate suffering in others by our works of mercy, both corporal and spiritual. Today’s Gospel consists of two sections: 1) the Messianic confession of Peter, who acknowledged Jesus as “the Christ (Messiah,) the Son of the living God.” and 2) Jesus’ prediction of his Passion, death and Resurrection, followed by his clear teaching on the three conditions of Christian discipleship: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.”

First reading: Isaiah 50:4c-9a, explained: In the middle section of the book of the prophet Isaiah, in chapters 40-55, there are four short passages which scholars have called the Songs of the Suffering Servant. In the original author's mind, the servant was probably a figure for the people of Israel, or for a faithful remnant within the people. In their original context, the songs were probably composed to help Israel see itself in the role of the servant. Through degradation and suffering, Israel could become for the rest of the world God’s message of liberation and salvation. But Jesus saw aspects of his own life and mission foreshadowed in the Servant Songs. Hence, this section of the third song is presented as the first reading today, while in the Gospel, Jesus foretells for the first time his passion, death and Resurrection, after Peter has professed his Faith in Jesus as the Messiah and Savior. Jesus identified himself and his mission with the sorrowful figure of humiliation and suffering, the Lord’s servant. Like the servant described in today’s first reading, Jesus’ life was one of radical obedience and conformity to God’s will. Thus, the Servant passage provides background for the revelation of Jesus as the suffering Messiah.

Second Reading: James 2:14-18, explained: Today’s reading, taken from the Letter of James to the Church, reminds us that suffering is not only something to be accepted but also something to be alleviated. James tells us that our Faith in Jesus the Messiah should be expressed in alleviating others' suffering through works of mercy, both corporal and spiritual. In other words, professing Faith in the Divinity of Christ and his role as our Redeemer is useless, unless we practice that Faith in genuine deeds of love, mercy, forgiveness and humble service as Jesus lived and demonstrated these qualities. As Christians, we are obliged to meet the material needs of poor persons and to alleviate their sufferings. We should respond concretely to the needs and sufferings of our fellow humans. Otherwise, our Faith is all talk and no action. “Faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” James is not refuting the Pauline doctrine of salvation by Faith but warns us that a lifeless or an unlived faith has no power to save (v. 14) us from judgment.

Gospel exegesis: The context: This Sunday we begin a series of seven Sunday Gospel readings from Mark’s account of the journey of Jesus and his disciples from northern Galilee to Jerusalem. Along the way Jesus gave instructions about his identity and what it meant to follow him (discipleship). Today's Gospel, relating the first of Jesus’ three prophecies of his passion, death and Resurrection, consists of two sections: The Messianic confession of Peter and Jesus’ prediction of his Passion, death and Resurrection, followed by his clear teaching on discipleship.

Two pertinent questions in a pagan pilgrimage center: In Matthew and Mark, Jesus asked two questions about his identity. The incident occurred at Caesarea Philippi, presently called Banias, twenty-five miles northeast of the Sea of Galilee. This city was founded by King Philip, the son of Herod the Great, to perpetuate his own memory and to honor the Roman emperor Caesar. It was situated on a beautiful terrace about 1150 feet above sea level on the southwest slope of Mount Hermon overlooking the Jordan valley. The city was a great pilgrimage center for pagans because it held temples for the Syrian gods Bal and Pan, the Roman God Zeus and a marble temple for the emperor Caesar. Jesus realized that if his disciples did not know who he really was, then his entire ministry, suffering and death would be useless. Hence, he decided to ask a question in two parts.

The first question: “What is the public opinion?” Their answer was, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” John the Baptist was so great a figure that many Jews, and Herod their king, thought that John’s spirit had entered the body of Jesus. Elijah, the greatest of the prophets was believed to be the forerunner of the Messiah.  ["Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes"(Mal 4:5).] It was believed that, before the people went into exile, Jeremiah had taken the Ark of the Covenant and the altar of incense out of the Temple, and hidden them away in a lonely cave on Mount Nebo; before the coming of the Messiah, he would return and produce them, and the glory of God would come to the people again (2Macc 2:1-12).  In 2Esdr 2:18 (an apocryphal work), the promise of God is: "For thy help I will send my servants Isaiah and Jeremiah."  The phrase, "one of the prophets,"   suggested that Jesus had a ministry like that of the former prophets. When the people identified Jesus with Elijah and with Jeremiah they were, according to their lights, paying him a great compliment and setting him in a high place, for Jeremiah and Elijah were the expected forerunners of the Anointed One of God. When they arrived, the Kingdom would be very near indeed.

The second question: “What is your personal opinion?" For the first time in their relationship, Peter, speaking for the other disciples, declared publicly: “You are the Christ (Messiah) the Son of the living God.” Peter was the first apostle to recognize Jesus publicly as the Anointed One (also translated Messiah or Christ).  Christ is the Greek word for the Hebrew word Messiah. To say that Jesus was the Christ, the anointed one of God was to say that He was the Immanuel, the Salvation of God -- God who became Man to save sinners!  It is evident that Jesus was well pleased with Peter’s answer. Jesus first pronounced a blessing upon Peter, the only disciple in the Gospels to receive a personal blessing. "Blessed are you, Simon son of John!" Next, Jesus confirmed Peter's insight as a special revelation from God. "No mere man has revealed this to you, but my Heavenly Father." However, Jesus was quick to explain to the disciples that he was not a political Messiah who would reestablish the Davidic kingdom after ousting the Romans.  Instead, he was the Messiah who would redeem mankind by his suffering, death and Resurrection. Like the Suffering Servant in the first reading, Jesus accepted suffering out of fidelity toward the One Whom He called Father and as part of his Messianic mission. Jesus’ example provides a challenge for us all to accept the mystery of the cross when our turn comes to follow the Suffering Servant and Suffering Messiah.

No suffering, no death, please: The Jewish religious tradition did include a certain amount of suffering and rejection on the part of its religious leaders.  One finds this in several references to Moses and the prophets (Ex 16:2; 17:2-4; Jer 11:18-19; 20:7-10; Mt 23:37). The concept of suffering or self-sacrifice as having a saving effect was also present in the Jewish tradition (Ex 32:32; Is 53:5, 10, 12).  But it received explicit expression in Christian Messianism, not only in the Gospels, but also in the Acts of the Apostles (8:32), and in the epistles (Rom 5:6-8; Gal 3:13; 1 Pt 2:24-25). Jesus rebuked Peter when Peter tried to dissuade Jesus from such a course.  For Jesus, this was yet another temptation in the guise of a close friend's counsel. It tested Jesus’ commitment to the mission which his Heavenly Father had entrusted to him. “Jesus rejected the term “Messiah” if it meant a political, nationalistic leader. Jesus consistently rejected that program as a diabolical attempt to divert him from his God-given mission.” (Reginald Fuller).

The three conditions for Christian discipleship: To counter the opposition expressed by Peter and to emphasize the fact that he was not the political, conquering Messiah of Jewish expectations who would bring perfect peace and justice, put an end to all suffering and death, and provide perfect joy and happiness in this world, Jesus turned to the wider audience of the crowd gathered with his disciples at Caesarea Philippi and emphatically declared the stringent conditions to be met by his disciples. “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.” Christian discipleship demands honesty of a disciple in order for him to practice self-control (“to offer our bodies as a willing sacrifice to God”), willingness to suffer, and readiness to follow Jesus by obeying his commandment of love. A) Denying self:  This means, with God's grace, evicting selfish thoughts, evil desires and tendencies from our heart and filling it with God. In addition, also with God's grace, it means cleansing ourselves of all evil habits, enthroning God in our hearts and sharing Him with others. B) Carrying of the cross with Jesus: First, it means gracefully accepting that suffering without bitterness, as a part of our lives. Second, it means that we may not, in our suffering, pass on any bitterness to those around us. Third, it means that we must accept some other deaths before our physical death, that we are invited to let some parts of ourselves die. Fourth, Fourth, it means that we must wait for the resurrection and the eternal reward for our suffering. Christian life of service is carrying one’s cross in the footsteps of Jesus. Our sufferings become the cross of Jesus with its saving power when we suffer with him by dying to our self-centeredness through serving others selflessly, enduring physical or mental pain and illness without complaint, and offering these sufferings to God in reparation for sin. We also offer penitential practices to God for the same intentions for ourselves and for the world. C) Following Jesus: This means that, as followers of Christ, we should live our lives according to the word of God, by obeying what is commanded by Jesus. Jesus’ predictions about Christian suffering would have had particular meaning for Mark's audience when they experienced their fulfillment in both the horrors of the Jewish war against Rome and the persecution under Nero, when Christians were used as torches to light Nero’s garden.

Life Messages: #1: We need to ask ourselves the question what Jesus means to us. Founder of a religion? Revolutionary Jewish reformer? One of the great teachers? Son of God and personal Savior? This can perhaps be broken down into other questions:  "How do I really see Jesus? Is Jesus a living experience for me, walking with me, loving me, forgiving me, helping me and transforming my life and outlook? What difference does Jesus make in my life?  Have I really given my life to him?  Are there areas where I have excluded Him, where my life is not noticeably different from the lives of those who see Jesus as irrelevant? Who do we say that Jesus is through our daily life? Who do we say that Jesus is when we are in the presence of those who don't know him, those who aren't interested in him? What does the way we live and behave say about who Jesus is? Is the joy, the love, the peace that we find in Jesus reflected in the way we live our lives?  We are gathered here today in the name of Jesus. We have not come together to celebrate a continuing memorial for a merely good man who died long ago. We are here to celebrate the death and Resurrection of Christ, the Messiah, our Lord and personal Savior in this Eucharistic celebration in which we encounter directly the Living God.

2) We need to experience Jesus as our Lord and Savior and surrender our life to him. The knowledge of Jesus as Lord and personal Savior needs to become a living, personal experience for each Christian. This is made possible, with the grace of God, by our listening to him through the daily, meditative reading of the Bible, by our talking to him through daily, personal and family prayers, by our offering to him our lives on the altar in the Holy Mass and by our being forgiven by and reconciled with him in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The next step is the surrender of our lives to Jesus through rendering humble and loving service to others with the strong conviction that Jesus is present in every person. The final step is to praise and thank God in all the events of our lives, good and bad, realizing that God’s love shapes every event of our lives.

# 3:  We should be ready to take up our crosses and follow Jesus. Do we have enough Faith to offer up a genuine sacrifice for Christ's sake? Can a Church in today's self-centered culture ask its people to sacrifice something for the sake of the Gospel? Jesus' challenge to all would-be disciples requires more than a "feel-good" spirituality. A true disciple asks, "Am I willing to sacrifice something for the God Who loves me?"  What made it possible for first-century Christians to choose a martyr's death? What has kept generations of Christians from losing Faith and falling apart when confronted by the violence and hatred of this world? Can we offer even the day-to-day sacrifices asked by Jesus when they demand things we don't want to do?  Can we sacrifice some of our time in order to visit Him in a homeless shelter or soup kitchen? Can we sacrifice our job security and refuse to "go along" with a policy that is unjust? Can we sacrifice our need to be in control and let Christ do with us what he will? Can we refuse to let our children watch television programs filled with sex and violence?

Joke of the Week

# 1: “Who do you say that I am?” On Sunday morning a man showed up at Church with both of his ears terribly blistered. So, his pastor asked, "What happened to you Jim?"
"I was lying on the couch watching a ball game on TV while my wife was ironing nearby. I was totally engrossed in the game when she went out, leaving the iron near the phone. The phone rang, and keeping my eyes on the TV, I grabbed the hot iron and put it to my ear."
"How dreadful," gasped the pastor. "But how did the other ear get burned?"
"Well, you see, I'd no sooner hung up, the guy called back!" He just didn't get it. Lots of folks never get it and never understand how life really works, even at the simplest levels. That's why Jesus is pressing his followers — and us with a challenging question in today’s Gospel: “Who do you say that I am?” (Msgr. Dennis Clarke).

2) "I see millions of stars:" The story is told of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson on a camping trip. As they lay sleeping one night, Holmes woke Watson and said, "Watson, look up into the sky and tell me what you see." Watson said, "I see millions of stars." Holmes asked, "And what does that tell you?" Watson replied, "Astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Theologically, it tells me that God is great and that we are small and insignificant. Meteorologically, it tells me that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. And what does it tell you?" Holmes answered, "Someone stole our tent." Some people are great at speculative knowledge but when it comes to its implication for practical living they score zero. Such is Peter in today's Gospel. L/18

Websites of the week:

1. Where is it in the Bible? https://www.catholicbible101.com/thetencommandments.htm

2. About Catholics: http://www.aboutcatholics.com/ 3) Catholic Spirit: http://thecatholicspirit.com/ 4) Catholic culture: http://www.catholicculture.org/ 5) Vatican on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/vatican

28- Additional anecdotes are uploaded in our website http://frtonyshomilies.com/

“Scriptural Homilies” Cycle B (No 48) by Fr. Tony: akadavil@gmail.com

Visit our website: http://frtonyshomilies.com/for previous Cycle B homilies, 141 Year of Faith “Adult Faith Formation Lessons” (useful for RCIA classes too) & 196 “Question of the Week.” Contact me only at akadavil@gmail.com. Visit http://www.vaticannews.va/en/church.html for the Vatican version of this homily.

Fr. Anthony Kadavil, Chaplain, Sacred Heart Residence of the Little Sisters of the Poor, 1655 McGill Ave, Mobile, AL 36604.

OT XXIII [B] (Sept 9) Isiah 35:4-7a; James 2:1-5;   Mk 7:31-37

Homily starter anecdote:  The “little monk” who opened blind eyes:  At the Annual National Prayer Breakfast on February 2, 1984, Ronald Reagan, the former president of the United States, told the old story of "the little monk," Telemachus, a martyr whose self-sacrificial commitment to Christian ideals opened the blind eyes and deaf ears of the Romans and their fifth century Christian Emperor Honorius. According to the story, this Turkish monk was led by an inner voice to go to Rome in order to stop the cruel and inhuman gladiatorial fights between slaves. He followed the crowds to the Coliseum where two gladiators were fighting.  He jumped into the arena and tried to stop them, shouting, "In the name of Christ, hold back!"   The gladiators stopped, but the spectators became indignant.   A group of them rushed into the arena and beat Telemachus to death.  When the crowd saw the brave little monk lying dead in a pool of blood, they fell silent, leaving the stadium, one by one. Three days later, because of Telemachus' heroic sacrifice of his own life, the Emperor decreed an end to the games. In today's Gospel, which describes the miraculous healing of a deaf mute, we are invited to open our ears and eyes, loosen our tongues and pray for the courage of our Christian convictions to become the voice of the voiceless. There is a little ritual in the rite of Baptism, called the “Ephphatha prayer,” taken from today’s gospel. The celebrant touches the ears and then the lips of the one to be baptized saying: “The Lord Jesus made the deaf hear and the dumb speak. May He soon touch your ear to receive His word and your mouth to proclaim His Faith.”

Introduction: Today’s Scripture readings offer us an invitation to become humble instruments of healing in Jesus’ hands by giving voice to the voiceless, the needy and the marginalized in our society.   Today’s Scripture also invites us to open our ears to hear the word of God and to allow the Holy Spirit to loosen our tongues to praise and worship Him and to convey the Good News of God’s love and salvation to others.   

Scripture lessons summarized:  The first reading (Is 35:4-7), reminds us that God's eyes are constantly focused on the helpless.   God especially cares for "the frightened, the blind, the deaf, the lame, the mute," and He encourages the powerless to "be strong and fearless." Today’s Responsorial Psalm (Ps 146), sings of a God who gives sight to the blind, raises up those who are bowed down and welcomes strangers. The psalmist thanks God and asks us to rejoice because “the God of Jacob keeps Faith forever,” by keeping His promise of peace and fullness of life for His people. That is why, in today’s second reading (James 2:1-5), the apostle gives us some basic and challenging principles of social justice. He exhorts Christians to show no partiality based on external appearance and to practice God’s "preferential option for the poor." He warns the faithful against scorning or shaming the poor while showing special consideration to the rich.   Today’s Gospel describes how Jesus, by healing a deaf man with a speech impediment, fulfills Isaiah’s Messianic prophecy, "The eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped."  The ailments listed by Isaiah are symbolic of our interior illnesses: blindness to the needs of our neighbor, unwillingness to hear God’s voice and the inability to speak words of praise and gratitude. Through this miracle story, Mark also reminds us that no one can be a follower of the Lord without reaching out to the helpless (“preferential option for the poor”).

First reading, Isaiah 35:4-7, explained: The Jews are returning to their homeland after decades of exile in Babylon. Their arrival causes great friction with the other tribes already there, especially the Edomites. Hence, Isaiah reminds Israelites that when God leads his people home, He will work miracles on behalf of those who need it most: blind, deaf, lame and mute persons.  The Lord God’s message expresses the promised redemption in terms of health, healing and well-being for the disabled. Through Isaiah, He assures them that He blesses their return, and that they should be confident and not fearful. The prophetic admonition opens with one of the most frequent Biblical commands, “Fear not.” The life-giving streams of water bursting forth in the desert symbolize whatever is needed to achieve peace and fullness of life. The prophecy gives the Israelites the assurance that God will continue to save them from their enemies, will open their eyes to the reality of what He is providing for them and will open their ears to what He has to tell them through His priests and prophets. This reading from Isaiah echoes the words of compliment given to Jesus by the people in today’s healing story, "He has done all things well; he makes the deaf hear and the dumb speak."

Second Reading: James 2:1-5, explained:  In this very practical pastoral letter, James points out to the members of the Church that they should treat others, whether they are rich or poor with equal honor and courtesy. James is not writing speculative theology, but reacting to real hurts inflicted on real people, and calling real Christians to a higher level of charity and responsibility. He exposes the sad irony of a Christian's giving special consideration to someone who is fashionably dressed and wearing gold rings, while shaming the poor man in his shabby dress.  The poor man, James says, is poor in the eyes of the world but rich in Faith because he recognizes his dependence on God for everything and acknowledges that dependence in the way he lives and acts. James insists that Christians “should show no partiality.” In a society like ours, which values people who have much money, great power or celebrity status, James' admonition turns our cultural assumptions upside-down and inside-out. That's what makes our showing respect to everyone we encounter, despite social and/or economic status, and our treating all people as children of God, our brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, a most valuable, living witness to Jesus who died to save us all. At times, the Church was the only place in the ancient world where social distinctions did not exist. Master sat next to slave, poor beside rich.

Gospel Exegesis:  The human touch and the symbolism of Baptism: Today’s section from Mark’s Gospel begins with the healing of a deaf man with a speech impediment and ends with the healing of a blind man in the non-Jewish area of the Decapolis. (Mark 7:31-10:52). In a culture where physical disabilities and sickness were commonly interpreted as signs of a person’s sinfulness (as a “curse” from God), many Jews would have considered this man to be stricken by God -- a sinner. Hence, Jesus shows his tender consideration for the weak by leading the man away from the crowd so as not to embarrass him. The miracle is described in seven ritual-like steps: (1) Jesus leads the man away from the crowd   (2) puts his fingers into the man's ears  (3)  spits on his own fingers  (4)  touches the man's tongue  with the spittle (5) looks up to heaven  (6)  sighs  (7)  and speaks  the healing command: "Ephphatha"  ("be opened.")  Jesus’ listener, who were familiar with Hebrew Scriptures, would have recognized another signal in Jesus’ command, “Ephphatha! Be opened!” Six centuries earlier, Ezekiel had prophesied, “that day your mouth shall be opened, and you shall be dumb no longer” (Ez 3:27). Why does Jesus carry out this elaborate ritual, while in other miracles he simply speaks a word or touches the individual?   It is probably because the man cannot hear Jesus' voice or express his needs.   People of that day also believed that the spittle of holy men had curative properties.  The early Church Fathers saw an indirect reference to Baptism in the way Jesus healed the man. In Baptism, the priest or deacon who baptized us touched our ears and mouths that we might hear the word of God and speak about Christ to others, sharing the “Good News” with the poor, the imprisoned, the fearful, and the broken-hearted.

God’s love in action: What we see is not simply the healing of a physical defect, but a concrete sign of the transforming power of God's Love. The power of God's Love is working in our lives to transform sorrow into joy, sickness into health, death into new life. The dumb man who is unable to communicate also symbolizes our own communication problem vis-à-vis God. In order to perceive and proclaim God's message, we need to be transformed. The miracle is not only about the physical healing of a person who was deaf and dumb. It also points to the opening of a person’s ears so that he may hear the word of God and loosening of his tongue so that he may speak his profession of Faith in Jesus. The miracle has great relevance to us, because a person can have perfect hearing, and yet not hear the word of God, have perfect speech, and yet be unable to make an act of faith.

A challenge for the Church: All three readings speak of a God who is partial to the voiceless and the afflicted.  Today, however, many of us have lost the ability to recognize the voice of God calling us for action in our modern society.  We are asked to give hearing and voice to the deaf and the mute.   The person healed became a witness to the power of God. A Church that is to bear witness to the example of Jesus' love must not neglect “those who are bowed down.”   Through its healing presence the Church must give voice to the voiceless.

Instruction to Keep Silence:   Why did Jesus ask the man to keep silence? Jesus knew that he still had more to accomplish before his final showdown with the religious leaders in Jerusalem.   If the crowds were to attempt to make him the leader of a revolt, a probable result of spreading the story of this healing around, it would spoil his Heavenly Father’s holy plan. Also, it seems likely that Jesus realized that people could easily misunderstand his healings and could see him simply as a human Messiah figure, a great miracle-worker and healer. In doing so, they would fail to grasp the larger message he had come to preach and live, which included humility and the necessity of suffering and the Cross before Resurrection (Dr. Watson).

Life messages:  1) We need to help Jesus to heal the deaf and the mute today.  Jesus desires to give us his healing touch in order to loosen our tongues so that he may speak to the spiritually hungry through us.   He invites us to give him our hearts so that he may touch the lives of people in our day through us, just as he touched the lives of millions through saintly souls like Francis of Assisi, Damien of Molokai, Vincent de Paul and Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa).  Like them, we are also invited to become the voice of the “poorest of the poor,” the helpless, the downtrodden and the unwanted who are set aside by the “new economy,” or who cannot even “speak plainly and fearlessly” about their concerns. Jesus’ touch will reveal to us how we neglect, scorn or shame some people while showing favor to others.  His compassionate touch will help us to hear the cries of the poor and the sick.  It will teach us to show kindness, mercy and consideration to others. His healing touch will also help us convey peace and hope to those around us.

2) We need to allow Jesus to heal our spiritual deafness and muteness.  In times of grief, despair and failure, we can be “deaf” to the presence of God in the love and compassion of others; or we can become so preoccupied with the noise and clamor of the marketplace that we are unable to hear the voices of those we love and who love us. We may find it hard to speak to God in prayer and harder still to hear Him speaking to us through the Bible and through the Church.  This may be because many of us are satisfied with what we have learned in catechism class about the Seven Sacraments, the Ten Commandments of God, the Six Commandments of the Church and the seven deadly sins. We don’t want to hear more about our Faith through further study of the Bible or the teachings of the Church.  It is not infrequent to meet Catholics who are highly qualified in their secular professions but are basically illiterate in their Faith. Hence, let us imitate the dumb man in the Gospel by seeking out Jesus, following him away from the crowd and spending more of our time in coming to know him intimately as we study Holy Scripture and to experience him directly in our lives in personal prayer.   Our growing awareness of the healing presence of Jesus in our lives will open our ears and loosen our tongues.  

3) Let us bring Jesus’ holy word “Ephphatha” to a generation blighted by the materialistic cultural aggression of our times:   We are reminded that Jesus has the power to heal the spiritual deafness caused by habitual sin. Hearts that have become hardened by a refusal to hear, be changed by, and then live out his words are once again challenged: “Ephphatha! Be opened!” In their day, the Romans imposed their language and culture on Palestine.  Modern secular culture, in fact, is no better. Religion and God are being evicted from schools, colleges, courtrooms, politics and public life. One cannot speak of virginity or marital fidelity without a contemptuous laugh from others.   The unborn child with a precious soul is often considered a “mere nuisance," a “product of conception,” a “fetus,” “a blob of tissue,” or a “tumor that can be gotten rid of,” with no human rights. In today's motion pictures, all religious gestures are either forbidden or relegated to the ignorant or superstitious.   We are told that sixty-five percent of our Catholic youth have no formal religious education beyond the eighth grade. They are exposed to the culture of free sex, loose relationships, liquor, drugs and violence.   No wonder, then, if they become deaf and blind to Christian ideals of morality, holiness in life and social justice! May our Lord touch us through this Gospel so that we also can say “Ephphatha” (“Be thou opened!”) to everything and everyone shut in from or closed to God and His loving Providence. (Prepared by Fr. Anthony Kadavil).

SYNOPSIS: OT XXII [B] (Sept 2) HOMILY: Mk 7: 1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Introduction: Today’s readings explain what true religion is. It is not simply a scrupulous, external observance of rules, laws, traditions and rituals. It is a loving, obedient relationship with God expressed in obeying His Commandments, worshipping Him, recognizing His presence in other human beings and rendering them loving and humble service. Prayers, rituals, Sacraments and religious practices only help us to practice this true religion in our daily lives.

Scripture lessons: The first reading explains that religion is a Covenant relationship with a caring, providing and protecting God, fostered by keeping His Commandments given through Moses. God gave Israel the Law so that the Israelites might keep their Covenant with Yahweh and thank Him for His love and fidelity to His Chosen People. The Law was also intended to keep them a united, holy and intelligent nation, proud of their powerful, protective, single God. In the second reading, St. James defines true religion as keeping the word of God and doing His will by helping the needy, the poor and the weak in the community. He challenges Christians to become doers of the word, not merely hearers. In today’s Gospel, Jesus describes true religion as serving God and all His children with a pure and holy heart.  The Gospel explains the encounter of Jesus with the Sanhedrin observers and the Pharisees who had been sent to assess his unique, controversial teachings. These experts had found Jesus’ teachings an open violation of the “Traditions of the Elders, and his implied and spoken claims “blasphemous. They also noticed that Jesus’ disciples omitted the required ritual washing before meals. It was in the fifth century BC that the scribes started adding oral traditions as interpretations and practical applications of the Mosaic Law. The Pharisees observed them and insisted that all the Jews should do so. The original noble purpose was to sanctify the daily lives of the people, making them “holy as God is holy” (“You are a priestly kingdom, a holy nation” -- Ex 19: 6), and different in lifestyle from their pagan neighbors. Jesus uses the occasion as a teachable moment to give them the following lessons: 1) Don’t teach human doctrines as dogmas of Faith. 2) Sincerity of heart, internal disposition, purity and holiness are more important than mere external ritual observances. 3) Keep your heart holy as it is the source of sins, vices and evil habits. The observance of traditions and of washing rituals does not correct the internal motivations and inclinations that really defile people. 4) External piety without internal holiness is hypocrisy.

Life messages: 1) We need to learn and keep the spirit of the Church’s laws and ritual practices. For example, our Sunday obligation is intended to allow us to worship God in the parish community, to offer our lives to God, to ask His pardon for sins, to thank God for His blessings and to receive Divine life and strength from Him in Holy Communion. Our daily family prayers are meant to thank God for his blessings, to present the family's needs before God, to ask pardon for sins, to maintain the spirit of unity and love in the family and to keep close relationship with God.

 2) Let us avoid the tendency to become cafeteria Christians that is, to choose certain Commandments and Church laws to follow, and to ignore the others as we choose certain food items and ignore others in a cafeteria.

OT XXII Dt 4:1-2, 6-8; Jas 1:17-18, 21b-22, 27; Mk 7: 1-8, 14-15, 21-23  

Anecdotes: 1) "Put your hand in Jesus' hand":  For almost 50 years Mother Teresa worked in the slums of Calcutta, India. She worked among the most forsaken people on earth. You and I would recoil from most of the people that she touched every day – the dispossessed, the downtrodden, the diseased, the desperate. And yet, everybody who met Mother Teresa remarked on her warm smile. How, after almost 50 years of working in conditions like that did she keep a warm smile on her face? Mother explains that it is interesting. "When I was leaving home in Yugoslavia at age of 18 to become a nun, my mother told me something beautiful and very strange”. She said, 'You go put your hand in Jesus’ hand and walk along with him.'" And that was the secret of Mother Teresa's life ever after. (Rev. King Duncan). Many of us here have good jobs, we live in nice homes, and we have easy situations. But we don't have the warm smile on our faces that this little nun, working in the most desperate situation imaginable, had on her face. What's the difference? It may be that we've never put our hand in Jesus’ hand. It may be that we have him only on our lips as St. James remarks in the second reading and as Jesus remarks in today’s Gospel.

2) Ritual washing using drinking-water: William Barclay in The Daily Study Bible tells the story of an old Jewish rabbi in the Roman prison diagnosed with acute dehydration which would have led to his death.  The prison guards insisted that the rabbi had been given his quota of drinking water.  So, the prison doctor and the officer in charge instructed the guards to watch the rabbi and ascertain what he was doing with his ration of water.  They were shocked to find that the rabbi was using almost all his water for traditional ritual washing before prayer and meals.  Today’s Gospel tells us how the tradition-addicted Pharisees started questioning Jesus when his disciples omitted the ritual washing of hands in public before a meal. (Mark Link in Sunday Homilies)

3) “I don’t smoke during Lent!” About 2 o’clock on a cold, blustery morning the rectory telephone rang. “I think grandpa is dying,” an excited voice declared. As it was just two blocks away Fr. Murray decided to walk to anoint the dying man. As he passed an alley a figure with a gun stepped out and demanded: “Give me your money.” The priest told the gunman: “My wallet is in the pocket of my coat. As the priest opened his coat the gunman noticed his Roman collar. He said: “I am sorry, I didn’t know that you were a priest. I beg your pardon Father! Keep your money.” In grateful relief Fr. Murray offered him a cigar. But the fellow shook his head saying, “No Father, thank you very much, but I don’t smoke during Lent!” In today’s Gospel, Jesus calls such blind observance of rules and tradition, hypocrisy. (Msgr. Arthur Tonne).

Introduction: Today’s readings explain what true religion is. It is not simply the scrupulous external observance of rules, laws, traditions and rituals. It is a loving, obedient relationship with God expressed in recognizing His presence in other human beings and rendering them loving and humble service. Prayers, rituals, Sacraments and religious practices only help us to practice this true religion in our daily lives.

Scripture lessons summarized:  The first reading explains that religion is a Covenant relationship with a caring, providing and protecting God, fostered by keeping His Commandments given through Moses. God gave Israel the Law so that the Israelites might keep their Covenant with Yahweh and thank Him for His love and fidelity to His Chosen People. The Law was also intended to keep them a united, holy and intelligent nation proud of their powerful, protective, single God. The Responsorial Psalm (Ps 15) describes a person who practices true religion —blameless and just, thoughtful and honest in dealing with others. In the second reading, St. James defines true religion as keeping the word of God and doing His will by helping the needy, the poor and the weak in the community. He challenges Christians to become doers of the word, not merely hearers.  In today’s Gospel, Jesus describes true religion as serving God and all His children with a pure and holy heart.  The occasion is a debate between Jesus and the Pharisees on the subject of "Tradition." Jesus warns the Pharisees against their tendency to equate traditional “human precepts” with God’s will. He blames the scribes and the Pharisees for giving undue importance to external observances in the name of “tradition,” while ignoring the Law’s real spirit. True religion should focus on the essentials. In particular, Jesus criticizes Pharisaic observance of ritual washing and declares that it is our inner motivations and dispositions that produce our purity or impurity.

First reading: Dt 4:1-2, 6-8, explained: In the fifth century BC, internal corruption and external pressures had brought the Israelites to the brink of extinction.  Kings, priests, prophets and Temple had failed to hold them together. Deuteronomy recorded under the Holy Spirit's direction during the crisis of the Babylonian exile, 587-539 BC, presented the ancient legal traditions surrounding the Law which had been given Israel by the Lord God through Moses. In this book, Moses described the beauty of the Law and commanded its observance as Israel’s sign of gratitude for the Lord God’s promise of the land. He assured the people that their God-given Law and their faithful observance of the Law would serve three purposes: a) it would help Israel survive as a people; b) it would make the people proud of their God and His Covenant; c) it would make neighboring nations marvel at the graciousness and justice of the God of Israel, at His closeness to His people and at their closeness to Him.  Hence, Moses challenged the Israelites with the questions: "What great nation is there that has its gods so near as the Lord our God is to us whenever we call to Him?  What other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this entire law that I am setting before you today?" Moses cited the praise they would receive from neighboring nations as an additional reason for keeping the Law: "This great nation is truly a wise and intelligent people."

Second Reading, James 1:17-18, 21b-22, 27, explained: Today we begin a series of five Sunday readings from the letter of James.  In this letter, James addresses the whole Christian Church in general, rather than speaking just to a particular community or person as Paul did in his letters.  After dealing with the value of trials and temptations and refuting the argument that temptations come from God (James 1:2-18), James provides the only formal definition of religion in the Bible. He defines true religion as translating the love of God into deeds of loving kindness toward the vulnerable members of the community and putting into practice the spiritual and corporal works of mercy. More specifically, true religion means that one is to “care for orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world.”

Gospel exegesis: The context: Our Jewish brothers and sisters called the Law, which guided and directed and sanctified their lives, Torah and regarded it as revelation from God.  But, just as Jesus and his disciples were reforming Judaism by transforming it into Christianity, the Pharisees had begun reforming Judaism at an earlier period. They considered the “Written Law” or Torah or the Law of Moses (the first five books of the Bible), and the “Oral Law” (clarifications of, and additions to, the Mosaic Law given by scribes from the fifth century B.C.), as equally holy and binding.  These oral laws, known in Jesus’ time as the “Traditions of the Elders,” were a series of oral traditions intended to act as “a fence around the Law,” so that the Mosaic Law itself, and, thus, the Covenant, would never be violated. The original, noble intention of the scribes who formulated these traditions and of the Pharisees who practiced them was to have their religion permeate all Israel, purifying the people in their daily lives, making them holy as their God is holy.  In spite of these noble intentions, however, by the time of Jesus, their religion had degenerated, being reduced to only the exact performance of external rituals.  Small wonder, then, that the scribes and Pharisees were scandalized by the revolutionary teaching of Jesus, by the unique Divine and Messianic claims made by him and by his violations of the “Traditions of the Elders”! Hence, the supreme governing body of Judaism, the Sanhedrin, sent from Jerusalem as observers a team of scribes (experts in the Jewish Law), to assess Jesus’ claims, miracles, violations of traditions and controversial teachings.  A few of the local Pharisees accompanied the experts and started questioning Jesus when they noticed that Jesus’ disciples had omitted the ritual cleansing of hands before a party meal.

Ritual versus hygienic washing: Ritual washing was required of the priest, but there was nothing in the Mosaic Law that required the same behavior from lay people.  Pious Jews began to adopt that habit on the principle of Exodus 19:6 — “you are a priestly kingdom and a holy nation,” and gradually it became the “the tradition of the elders.”  The ritual cleansing of raw food items bought from the market, of vessels used for cooking and of the hands of those who were to eat the prepared food, like many similar practices, evolved later, to remind the Chosen People of their call to be "set apart as a holy and consecrated people," with values and life-style consciously different from those of pagans.  But in Jesus’ day, the Jews ignored the spirit of these traditions and practiced them simply as an essential judicial and ritual requisite.  The question "Why do your disciples not wash their hands before eating?" persisted. It created tensions in the early Church, particularly in the Christian community of Mark where some of the new Christians were Jews and some were Gentiles.  The Gentiles did not follow the Jewish customs, and, consequently, some of the Jewish Christians were upset.

Jesus’ reaction: In response to the Sanhedrin’s public criticism, Jesus stands in the prophetic tradition by citing Isaiah 29:13, where the prophet castigates the tendency to “teach mere human precepts as dogmas.”  "This people pays Me lip-service but their heart is far from Me.  Empty is the reverence they do Me, because they teach as dogmas mere human precepts." The Pharisees placed emphasis, not on building a relationship with God and their fellow-human beings, but on checking out their own external behavior.  Originally these religious traditions were intended to symbolize inner realities -- outward signs of inward devotion to God's Will.  But the Pharisees were using them to boost their own egos.  Hence, Jesus flatly denied that external things or circumstances could separate a person from God.  Jesus was not criticizing rituals given in the Mosaic Law, but the giving of disproportionate importance to these things while neglecting what was far more important, the love of God and the care for one's fellow-human beings.  By insisting that uncleanness comes from violations of the moral law rather than of minute ritual prescriptions, Jesus denied a basic principle of Jewish religion and set aside a considerable amount of Mosaic Law.  "Nothing that enters a man from outside can make him impure; that which comes out of him, and only that, constitutes impurity." Jesus contradicted the Pharisees, not because he undervalued the Jewish Law, but because he understood that Mosaic Law was primarily about love and freedom, and that its ritual elements were all subordinate to this primary concern.

Real source of impurity:  As illustrations of the evils which really make a person sinful and alienate him from God, Jesus mentions six evil acts: practices of sexual immorality, thefts, murders, adultery, acts of coveting or lust, and wickedness in general.  Then he adds a checklist of six vices or sins of the heart: deceit (lying), wantonness (shamelessness, immodesty), jealousy or envy, slander (imputing evil to others), pride (arrogance), and folly (the stupidity of one lacking moral judgment).  The point is clear.  Righteousness is not what we do on the outside, but who we are on the inside.  Righteousness is not about the hand; it is about the heart.  Acts of adultery, murder and unkindness come from within, from hearts that are adulterous, murderous and unkind.  For Jesus, a community that is actively worshiping God is a community that does not base its behavior solely on precepts and doctrines, but is integrally connected to God through righteous, just and loving relationships.  What makes a person holy are the attitudes and actions that Paul in Gal 5:22-23 lists as “the fruit” of the Spirit: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”  

Life messages: 1) We need to keep the spirit of the Church’s laws and practices. For example our Sunday obligation is intended to allow us to worship God in the parish community, to offer our lives to God, to ask His pardon for our sins, to thank God for His blessings, to present our needs before Him  and to receive Divine Life and strength from Him in receiving Holy Communion. Our daily   family prayers are meant to thank God for His blessings, to present the family’s needs before God, to ask pardon for all our sins, and to maintain the spirit of unity and love in the family.

 2) Let us avoid the tendency to become cafeteria Christians:  As the Pharisees did, we too show the tendency to add to or subtract from God’s laws given in the Bible and taught by the Church. Some of us pick and choose certain Commandments to follow, ignoring the others as we do food offerings in a cafeteria. For example, some actively do corporal and spiritual works of Charity, but avoid Sunday Mass or remain unfaithful to the obligations attached to the   gift of their sexuality or the sacrament of marriage. Others are interested in fulfilling only the “minimal obligations” of the Faith. They come to Mass late and leave early. They make an effort to avoid serious sins, but don’t go to confession even when they fall into mortal sins.

 3) Let us accept the challenge to become hearers and doers of God’s word as St. James instructs us:  Let us ask ourselves how the Sunday or daily readings are affecting or changing our lives. That will show us whether we are being attentive listeners to, and doers of, God’s word. We become more fully Jesus’ family members, only when we consistently “hear the word of God and do it” (Lk 8:21). When we receive Jesus in Holy Communion today, let us ask him for the grace to become the doers of his word as he was the doer of his Fathers’ will.  

JOKE OF THE WEEK: 1) Amazing family tradition: Isaac Ole had heard from his grandma stories of an amazing family tradition in his family.  It seems that his father, grandfather and great-grandfather had all been able to walk on water on their 21st birthday.  On that day, they'd walk across the lake to the boat club for their first legal drink.  So, when Isaac’s 21st birthday came around, he and his pal Sven took a boat out to the middle of the lake.  Ole stepped out of the boat and nearly drowned!  Sven just managed to pull him to safety. Furious and confused, Ole went to see his grandmother.  "Grandma," he asked," it's my 21st birthday, so why can't I walk across the lake like my father, his father, and his father before him?"  Granny looked into Ole's eyes with a broad smile and said, "Because your father, grandfather and great-grandfather were born in January when the lake is frozen, and you were born in hot July!"

2) The Jewish tradition: Late in the evening, the young Jew knocked at the door and asked as an elderly man opened the door. "Sir, what time is it?"  The old Jew just stared at him and did not answer.  “Sir forgive me for disturbing you at this time,” said the young Jew, “but I really want to know what time it is.  I have to find a place to sleep.”  The old Jew said, “Son, the inn on the next street is the only one in this small city.  I don't know you, so you must be a stranger.  If I answer you now, according to our Jewish tradition, I must invite you to my home.  You're handsome and I have a beautiful daughter.  You will both fall in love and you'll want to get married.  And tell me, why would I want a son-in-law who can't even afford a watch?”

3) Who is the Pharisee?  Father O'Malley was going through the mail one day after his powerful sermon on the Pharisaic life of some of his parishioners on the previous Sunday.  Drawing a single sheet of paper from an envelope, he found written on it just one word: "FOOL."  The next Sunday at Mass, he announced, "I have known many people who have written letters and forgot to sign their names.  But this week I received a letter from someone who signed his name and forgot to write a letter."

WEBSITES OF THE WEEK 1) 200 Useful Catholic Links: http://www.saintfrancis.net/links.htm http://www.rc.net/wcc/readings/2) Movie & Home Video Reviews: http://www.usccb.org/movies/index.shtml

3) U.S. Catholic Magazine   http://www.uscatholic.org/ 4) Text Week homily on Mk 7: 1-23: http://www.textweek.com/mkjnacts/mark7a.htm

5) Spirit Alive: http://spiritualpilgrim.dor.org/  6) Catholic.org:   http://www.catholic.org/ 7) Holy Shroud: what scientists agree on:  http://www.romereports.com/pg161070-the-holy-shroud-what-do-scientists-agree-on--en

Click on http://frtonyshomilies.com/ for 26 additional anecdotes

“Scriptural Homilies” Cycle B (No 47) by Fr. Tony: akadavil@gmail.com

Visit my new website: http://frtonyshomilies.com/for previous Cycle B homilies, 141 Year of Faith “Adult Faith Formation Lessons” (useful for RCIA classes too) & 196 “Question of the Week.” Contact me only at akadavil@gmail.com. Visit http://www.vaticannews.va/en/church.html for the Vatican version of this homily.

Fr. Anthony Kadavil, Chaplain, Sacred Heart Residence of Little Sisters of the Poor, 1655 McGill Ave, Mobile, AL 36604.