The 16th Sunday (OT B) offers us a picture of a group of people who appear like “sheep without a shepherd”. To the eyes of the Church which has been given the task to proclaim the Good News, the picture is that of the world that awaits salvation. The liturgy therefore is an invitation to see the world as Jesus sees it and as an opportunity for giving a saving word. The gospel tells us that when Jesus saw them he had compassion over them and began to teach them many things. This is just the prelude to something bigger of course. For now, however, Mark’s gospel narrative tells us that the returning apostles has brought with them a multitude that looked upon Jesus for direction and hope.
After listening to the Lord’s lesson about prophets in their native land, the disciples are sent on a mission. The “Twelve” are the ones Jesus called from their work to walk behind him. They are also the ones He chose to be with Him. Now, he sends them off, giving them authority to drive away demons and to heal, associating them with His work. All the baptized have become an “alter Christus”, another Christ. They share in his prophetic office, an office they carry out when they give witness to their faith and proclaim it to others.
From the 12th to the 13th Sunday, we have been reminded by the liturgy of the importance of faith. In today’s Gospel narrative, we are told that the lack of faith among the townspeople of Nazareth rendered Jesus’ work in his own home town difficult. There is however another “faith” that is implied in the Gospel message: the “loyalty” of the disciple to his mission as prophet. Jesus’ statement about the prophet who finds no honor in his own country is to be understood as an invitation to go on with one’s work even if it becomes difficult.
Relevant Articles
- A Prophet Without Honor
- My Grace Is Enough For You (2 Corinthians 12:7-10)
- Mag-aral Tayo: Ang Propetang Walang Karangalan
For the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time, we are given two healing miracles in one narrative that has been composed in a way that shows us the relationship between those two healings. Both miracles are related to life. A woman’s life ebbs away at each drop of blood that comes out of her body; a young girl dies. To both, Jesus’ gift is the vitality that flows from him. Coming as it does after the Easter and Post-Easter feasts, the story becomes an occassion for us to reflect on the way we make our own (appropriate) the life won for us by the Risen Lord.
For the 12th Sunday of OT (Year B) the Church offers us a consoling picture of the Lord who truly is with His Church inspite of the fact that the Church may doubt His presence. The Gospel text is from Mark 4:35-41. Jesus is crossing to the other side of the Sea of Galilee on a boat with his disciples. There were many boats with them, but the boat that Mark focuses on is the boat where Jesus was. While at sea, a storm breaks and the disciples found themselves in danger of being engulfed. Engulfed by a great fear and about to be engulfed by the Sea, they turn to Jesus and find him … asleep!
“On the night he was betrayed…” Everytime we celebrate the Mass, we recall the words of the institution of the Eucharist so as to keep fresh before us the memory of the Lord "who loved his own until the end" (John 13:1). The Eucharist is the memorial of that love. With the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ we celebrate the Lord’s act of self-giving on the Cross, giving us His Body and Blood as the assurance of our own salvation.
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Catholics are often dumbfounded when asked “How can one be three; how can three be one”? The fact is that in the created universe, one cannot be three nor can three be one. But that the one God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit is something that belongs to a wholly different order. Here mathematics does not enter, since mathematics is for quantitative beings. In God there is no quantity. Even the phrase “one God” is not a mathematical expression, but a metaphoric one. Strictly speaking, we cannot say there is “one God” since God cannot be counted. We count the pencils on the table, or the bottles in the refrigerator; but we cannot count God. We can only affirm something about God. But when God Himself reveals that He is “One” yet He is also Father, Son and Holy Spirit, then we can only bow to Him in faith, for we know that He does not lie.
