Giving All- One Day At A Time
The Nazareth Page - A gospel meditation for your home
November 10, 2024 – Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time - Mark 12:38-44
REFLECTION QUESTIONS:
Download this simple process to Prepare for Sunday using the Observe, Judge, Act Method
Some of the teachings of Jesus bring comfort. But others might make us feel uncomfortable. When I read today’s gospel, I felt a touch of discomfort. It describes how people deal with their personal economic resources, a matter that seems timeless in its implications.
During the time of Jesus, some of the most vulnerable and needy people were widows. They might be in a situation where they no longer could rely on others for support. They were “on their own.” When a woman married in those days, they left their family of origin, where they usually received support, and became a “member” of her husband’s family.
But if he died leaving her a widow, where does she look for support? It’s uncertain. She may enter poverty, as did the woman in today’s gospel. If she needed help, where could she turn? And if others asked for her help, what could she offer?
Read moreIt’s About the Love
The Nazareth Page- A gospel meditation for your home
November 3, 2024 – Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time. Mark 12:28-34
REFLECTION QUESTIONS:
Download this simple process to Prepare for Sunday using the Observe, Judge, Act Method
Research about religion is now a respected branch of social inquiry and analysis. Being a branch of social science, it often creates helpful flow-charts, graphs and statistical lists that tell us about current religious beliefs and practices. Its findings are often presented in an historical framework so that we can be informed about changes in the state of religion in the today’s world. Being trained as a sociologist and theologian, I have an abiding interest in this field of study.
Today’s gospel, however, might cause us to wonder whether such analyses actually help us get to “the heart of the matter,” to borrow a phrase from the esteemed novelist, Graham Greene, who often sought to describe religious vitality in the real world.
Read more
See and Be Seen
The Nazareth Page - A gospel meditation for your home
October 27, 2024 – Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Mark 10: 46-52
REFLECTION QUESTIONS:
Download this simple process to Prepare for Sunday using the Observe, Judge, Act Method
Before commenting on today’s gospel about Jesus curing a blind person named Bartimaeus, I want to share a favorite memory of mine of a papal visit to America by St. John Paul II. It was 1987 and the city visited was San Antonio. I was present there because I was asked to address a meeting discussing the role of the family in the social ministry of the church. But the event I recall most was an interview I saw on television with an elderly Hispanic grandmother that took place soon after the pope’s popemobile passed by her on the side of the road.
The interviewed asked her why she had stood in the hot Texas sun for hours just to catch a brief glimpse of the pope riding by. He suggested that she would see more of the pope on television at home and likely be more comfortable too. She immediately responded that she knew that, but she was not there to see the pope, but, using her own words, “I must be here so that the pope can see me!”
Read more
Status in the Kingdom
The Nazareth Page - A gospel meditation for your home
October 20, 2024 – Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Mark 10:35-45
REFLECTION QUESTIONS:
Download this simple process to Prepare for Sunday using the Observe, Judge, Act Method
We now label as saints the faithful apostles that followed Jesus. But like most saints, they had moments that they didn’t act in a virtuous way. Even in what might be called “sinful” ways. Like the time recorded in today’s gospel when two of them, James and John (sometimes called “the sons of thunder”) asked Jesus to put them on either side of him in whatever high places of honor were to be created in the Kingdom of God. Mark does not mention the look on the face of Jesus when he heard their request.
But he did give them clear guidance on what he would require for gaining “status” in God’s world. For instance, instead of taking a position at the front of the line, they should move to the very back. Instead of giving orders to everyone else, they should be receptive to take orders from all. Instead of receiving abundance from others, they should give of their abundance to others. Instead of seeking high places of honor, they should seek the lowest. Mark does not mention the look of their faces when they heard what Jesus taught.
Read more
Losing the Heavy Load
The Nazareth Page - A gospel meditation for your home
October 13, 2024 – Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Mark 10:17-30
REFLECTION QUESTIONS:
Download this simple process to Prepare for Sunday using the Observe, Judge, Act Method
It’s helpful to know some of the biblical background (history, customs and culture) when reading the Bible, especially that which was present during the lifetime of Jesus. Take today’s gospel about the camel and the eye of the needle. I recall the difficulty that I had in understanding it as a youngster. I knew what camels were because my parents loved taking us to a nearby zoo. I knew about the eye of a needle because my mom taught me how to sew buttons on shirts.
Trying to imagine a camel going through such a small opening seemed not only impossible, but a strange way of describing something. It made no sense. That is, until I learned more about how in the time of Jesus pack camels struggled to pass through a narrow opening in the wall surrounding Jerusalem called the “needle.”
Read moreAll God’s Beloved Children
The Nazareth Page - A gospel meditation for your home
October 6, 2024 – Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time -Mark 10:2-16
REFLECTION QUESTIONS:
Download this simple process to Prepare for Sunday using the Observe, Judge, Act Method
Most biblical scholars say that Mark’s Gospel was the first written account about the life of Jesus. It is also the shortest gospel. This suggests that it likely includes some of the most important insights about the personal views and values of Jesus. Today we read about how Jesus related to children, a pressing issue in his time, and, I must add, in our own.
In the time of Jesus’s public life, the value of children was seemingly ambiguous. In today’s gospel narrative, we learn of a time when children were brought by their parents to be close to Jesus, while his own disciples told these parents that Jesus was not interested.
They had the attitude that Jesus was only concerned with important matters, and that children were not one of them. And observing how his disciples reacted to those who might have been viewed as “pushy” parents, Jesus immediately corrected his disciples. And in no uncertain terms!
He responded that children were in fact very important in God’s eyes. They were models of faith and trust in God. Jesus embraced and blessed them and welcomed them to come close to him.
Read more
Whatsoever Else You Might Do
The Nazareth Page -A gospel meditation for your home
September 29, 2024 – Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Mark 9:38-48
REFLECTION QUESTIONS:
Download this simple process to Prepare for Sunday using the Observe, Judge, Act Method
In early adulthood, I was a seminarian in a religious community. I was immersed in many formal religious customs and activities that mostly ended when I left that highly structured life. But some of what I experienced then stayed with me. In that community (Holy Cross) before each meal a prayer was recited drawn from a bible verse from Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians. It went something like this: “Whether you eat or drink, or whatsoever else you might do, do all for the glory of God.” Then we all picked up our forks and began eating.
What mostly stayed with me was the phrase, “whatsoever else you might do.” I interpreted that as applying to everything else. Anything and everything I did that day, that night, that season, that year, or during my whole life. It was an all-inclusive principle.
Read moreJesus reorders things
The Nazareth Page - A gospel meditation for your home
September 22, 2024 – Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Mark 9:30-37
REFLECTION QUESTIONS:
Download this simple process to Prepare for Sunday using the Observe, Judge, Act Method
Hardly anything is more important in the minds of many than the issue of social positioning. And while our country is officially based on the principle that all are created equal, it’s not difficult to wonder how we are all thought about as equal. Or to wonder if we are all treated by our country or our church as equal.
Recently the Catholic Church in the United States celebrated a Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis. I did not attend partly because my age and the state of my body warns me against travel and mixing in large crowds. But I did notice from pictures of the event that parades or processions were mostly organized according to one’s position or rank in the church. Bishops first, priests next, then seminarian and so forth. This was a reasonable arrangement, but after reading today’s gospel I wondered if there might not have been another ordering of participants. Perhaps putting children first.
Read more
The “Hard Sayings” of Jesus
The Nazareth Page -A gospel meditation for your home
September 15, 2024 – Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Mark 8:27-35
REFLECTION QUESTIONS:
Download this simple process to Prepare for Sunday using the Observe, Judge, Act Method
The previous Sunday we learned that Jesus did not value achieving for himself widespread popularity as it was commonly understood in his day. First of all, despite a few Hollywood attempts to describe him, I doubt that he would be distinguished from others to any degree. A careful reading of the gospels often places him as part of the crowd, an ordinary person, although in his final days he seemed to have attracted increased recognition. Yet we are always left to wonder what he was really like. Fortunately, we have clues in the gospels.
Part of his agenda, I believe, was to give examples of how we all can best live in accord with God’s intent in creating each of us. Clearly, he is presented to us in the gospels as a kind and benevolent person, or more precisely, as the example of how best to live. So, while he was certainly not one to show off or to play to the crowd, we can reasonably wonder what it was about him that eventually brought others under the power of his example. What was unique and important about him for us today as we reflect on how he lived?
Read moreThe Messianic Secret
The Nazareth Page- A gospel meditation for your home
September 8, 2024 – Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Mark 7:31-37
REFLECTION QUESTIONS:
Download this simple process to Prepare for Sunday using the Observe, Judge, Act Metho
We are now living in a time of what seems like excessive self-promotion. Millions of dollars are being spent on media devoted to displaying the virtues of political candidates and the vices of their opponents. It’s hard not to feel that this is all “too much.” Further, I have read that what’s called “name recognition” is very important when citizens vote in November. Thus, along highways and byways, in front yards and open fields, we see an abundance of signs with no more information about candidates that their name.
With this background, we might be surprised by the message of today’s gospel where Jesus seems not only unconcerned about what people know about him, but he even tells his followers not to tell anyone about the good he is doing.
Read more