Not Always a Wonderful Life
The Nazareth Page - A gospel meditation for your home
March 17, 2024 – Fifth Sunday of Lent, John 12:20-33
REFLECTION QUESTIONS:
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Jesus is coming to the end of his life on Earth. He tells his followers that he is approaching death. He is still relatively young, but he sees opposition building around him. Perhaps he looked back on his recent years, his public life as we call it, and wondered whether it was all good. Did he accomplish what he had hoped to do? And was he always happy?
While the gospels are silent on much of what he experienced, it seems clear that he accepted his past and was not seeking escape from what seemed ahead of him. He recalled good moments, but also those when it was difficult and discouraging. And he likely expected even harder moments ahead. In other words, he had good days, but also times from a human perspective were not always as good. Just like us.
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God So Loved the World
The Nazareth Page - A gospel meditation for your home
March 10, 2024 – Fourth Sunday of Lent, John 3:14-21
REFLECTION QUESTIONS:
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Lent is often thought of as a retreat time for active believers. The actual word, Lent, comes from an earlier word associated with springtime, a time when warmer days come our way, and nature creates new buds and sprouts around us. And the primary message of the liturgy is that new life with God is renewed though our deeper awareness of God and God’s attitude and intent for us. The holiest week of the year is on the horizon when we recall the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus. All of this takes place because of God and God’s reason for creating life, especially our personal lives during this time of Creation.
Perhaps you have pondered the provocative philosophical question: Why is there something and not nothing at all. I certainly have. Many times! And for me the most satisfying answer is what I have learned from my religious faith. And from the catechism that I learned in my youth
Today’s gospel includes this sentence: “For God so loved the world that he sent his only Son ... (that we) might have eternal life.” So why is there something and why are you and me living right now? It’s because the basic attitude of God is that of love. God not only loves, but God’s very nature is loving. God will not do otherwise than share God’s own life with others, with you and me. With everyone. It’s both that simple and that amazing and that wonderful.
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The New Temple
The Nazareth Page - A gospel meditation for your home
March 3, 2024 – Third Sunday of Lent, John 2:13-25
REFLECTION QUESTIONS:
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In the time of Jesus, the primary place where business transactions took place in Jerusalem was on the grounds of the great Temple, the most sacred place in the world for Jesus and his Jewish companions. In his humanness, Jesus sought out places where God’s presence was assumed, locales where people went to pray. Imagine his reaction, his disappointment, and even anger in learning that the grounds of God’s holiest of places was consumed with making money.
Religious life can be violated by those seeing to profit from its operation. We are not surprised when we learn that Jesus immediately proceeded to prevent this corruption of what was intended to bring people closer to God. While religious bodies certainly need financial resources, they do not serve God by simply making money.
Read moreCome Down From the Mountain
The Nazareth Page - A gospel meditation for your home
February 25, 2024 – Second Sunday of Lent, Mark 9:2-10
REFLECTION QUESTIONS:
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On my fiftieth birthday I climbed a famous mountain in Colorado called Pikes Peak. It is over 14,000 feet high and offers a wonderful view of the surrounding landscape. While there was a touristy gift shop atop, I thought it would be a wonderful setting for a home. But I immediately saw the impracticality of that. No one lives on a mountain top.
Today’s gospel is one that most of us are familiar with. It describes an event in the life of the closest disciples of Jesus when he was “transfigured” before them. Some biblical scholars say that Jesus assumed an appearance reminiscent of his resurrection. The scene is placed right before the account of his suffering and death. The contrast is obvious, one scene being horrendous and painful, the other being glorious and triumphant.
Read moreThe Big Game Has Begun
The Nazareth Page - A gospel meditation for your home
February 18, 2024 – First Sunday of Lent, Mark 1:12-15
REFLECTION QUESTIONS:
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We begin the holy season of Lent by recalling the forty days that Jesus spent in the desert before he began his public life. Perhaps this chapter of his life was done in memory of the forty years the Jews wandered in another desert as they made their way from Egypt to the Promised Land. Today, this desert time of solitude in his life is recalled when we spend the forty days of Lent focusing on praying more, some fasting from food on occasion and in doing additional good works. It’s a time when we pay more attention to being closer to Jesus.
In times past most Catholics followed a fixed set of religious practices during Lent. I recall “giving up candy for Lent.” If I was given or acquired any candy during that time, I would store it on a container that was in my mom’s kitchen, and eat most of it the minute Lent ended. Back then this was at noon on Holy Saturday. Looking back, this was a rather stupid practice of mine.
Read moreA person for others
The Nazareth Page - A gospel meditation for your home
February 11, 2024 – Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Mark 1:40-45
REFLECTION QUESTIONS:
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One of the most feared ailments in the time of Jesus was leprosy. It was a contagious condition and was widespread. Lepers had to live in locales outside populated areas. There was no known cure for it although perhaps some recovered from it on their own. Perhaps it was felt that some kind of magic was at play in their healing.
One day Jesus met a leper who asked him to be cured. Maybe the reputation of Jesus as a healer was known. Jesus cured the man’s ailment. Jesus told him to go to the local religious authority to have the cure verified. That was the custom of the time.
Read moreCircle of Service
The Nazareth Page - A gospel meditation for your home
February 4, 2024 – Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Mark 1:29-39
REFLECTION QUESTIONS:
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Today’s gospel invites us to think about the life of Jesus once he began his public ministry. In brief, he spent his time teaching and healing the various ills of ordinary people. We are taken first to the home of Peter’s mother-in-law, a fitting start for the work of Jesus. Scholars have called our attention to three interesting aspects of this narrative.
First, since Peter had a mother-in-law, he must have been married. Although nothing more about this is ever mentioned in the gospels. Second, “they” (not Peter) requested the help of Jesus regarding her “fever.” Jesus reacted and she was made healthy. And third, once back to her normal self, she waited on them. Jesus helped her and she helped others. This creates what might be called “a circle of service.” We are helped by God, and we respond by helping others.
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Mending Walls
The Nazareth Page - A gospel meditation for your home
January 28, 2024 – Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Mark 1:21-28
REFLECTION QUESTIONS:
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When in college, I took a course on speech and drama. As part of the course requirements, I was required to select a poem and recite it to the rest of the class. We were allowed to choose any poem we wanted, but it should we one where we had strong feelings for its message. In other words, no “Roses are red …” selections.
My favorite poet of that time was Robert Frost. Partly because I liked his messages, and it was clearly presented. The poem I selected was called “Mending Wall” and tells the story of two men who met each spring in a field they shared, each one owning half. Between their sections they had built a rock wall, which required repair each spring because the frost had made some rocks fall on the ground.
As I read today’s gospel “my poem” of choice back then came to mind. Jesus enters the synagogue and meets there a man who is described as having an unclean spirit. He was likely segregated from the regular congregation because the text reads that he asked Jesus why he was associating with him (and implied, “others like him.”)
Read moreA Season of Hope Remains
The Nazareth Page - A gospel meditation for your home
January 21, 2024 – Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Mark 1:14-20
REFLECTION QUESTIONS:
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“Tis the season” is a phrase that many will recognize as connected with the annual celebration of Christmas. Soon we will enter “the Lenten season,” a time for perhaps more prayer and good works. Some will be watching more basketball when we enter “March Madness.” And on and on we go, passing from season to season which invites certain attitudes and activities. We anticipate, we celebrate and then we recall how it went.
Something similar regarding “a season of new possibilities” was in the air when Jesus entered his public life. The Jewish people were hoping for a messiah, someone who would restore better times, like how it was during the glorious reign of King David. Living under the domination of the mighty Roman Empire was not their idea of a good time.
Thus, the power and importance of the words Jesus said when he told his disciples that “the kingdom of God is at hand.” This was clearly Good News to those who believed him. A new season of hope, expectation and possibility had dawned with his arrival. And after his resurrection he again reminded his followers that this “season” will remain until the end it time. Good times are ours.
Read moreOur Unique Role in God’s Plan
The Nazareth Page - A gospel meditation for your home
January 14, 2024 – Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, John 1:35-42
REFLECTION QUESTIONS:
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People seem to be paying more attention to naming their children these days. It seems to me that they are trying to use names to identify something special about each child. In today’s gospel Jesus changes the name of one of his disciples from Simon to Peter. Jesus wanted him to play a special role in his life as a follower of Jesus. In that sense, the name change was an indicator of a new role, a new life for Peter.
I like the fact that parents today are expressing more creativity in naming their children. That wasn’t always so. When I was in grammar school, my two best friends were both named Dave. We were called by some “the three Daves.” The founder of Wendy’s and I share the same first and last name. (I have tried to get a discount on a Frosty, but this has not worked so far.)
Back to Peter. His role involved him playing a very important leadership role in the life of the church.
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