The Nazareth Page - A gospel meditation for your home

October 20, 2024 – Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Mark 10:35-45

REFLECTION QUESTIONS:
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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.

The Nazareth Page - A gospel meditation for your home

October 13, 2024 – Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Mark 10:17-30

REFLECTION QUESTIONS:
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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.”

The Nazareth Page - A gospel meditation for your home

October 6, 2024 – Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time -Mark 10:2-16

REFLECTION QUESTIONS:
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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.

The Nazareth Page -A gospel meditation for your home

September 29, 2024 – Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Mark 9:38-48

REFLECTION QUESTIONS:
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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.

The Nazareth Page - A gospel meditation for your home

September 22, 2024 – Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Mark 9:30-37

REFLECTION QUESTIONS:
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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.

The Nazareth Page -A gospel meditation for your home

September 15, 2024 – Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Mark 8:27-35

REFLECTION QUESTIONS:
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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?

The Nazareth Page- A gospel meditation for your home

September 8, 2024 – Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Mark 7:31-37

 REFLECTION QUESTIONS:
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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.

The Nazareth Page - A gospel meditation for your home. 

September 1, 2024 – Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Mark 7:1-23

REFLECTION QUESTIONS:
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Before I turned fifty, I really didn’t think much about my heart. Or its condition. I was active and exercised regularly. I even did some running. Played basketball and tennis. Even climbed to the summit of Pikes Peak on my fiftieth birthday.

Yet in the midst of a routine physical exam during my fifties I was asked if I ever had a heart test, the one when you trotted on a treadmill until exhaustion and then had your heart examined with a machine that recorded heart activity. As the technicians recorded my responses, I was able to see on the machine my own heart beating away. I was surprised by the surge of my amazement I felt at that moment. I heard myself saying something like it’s nice to meet you, heart. You are really wondrous. And awesome.

The Nazareth Page - A gospel meditation for your home

August 25, 2024 – Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time

John 6:60-69

REFLECTION QUESTIONS:
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When I open my eyes each morning, I wonder about what choices I will face that day. That’s because I believe that we all have been endowed with the gift of freedom. Each day is like a blank piece of paper, or an empty screen, awaiting our decisions, our choices our unpredictable acts.

This matter of choice is not, however, something obvious. There have been many seemingly wise people who advocate what’s called “determinism.” Simply stated, this means that freedom is an illusion. Everything that we do, everything that happens to us, some believe, is determined by our genes, our impulses, our environment or forces totally outside our control. We are nothing more than sophisticated machines. Freedom is an illusion.

Yet a careful reading of today’s gospel suggests that Jesus fully values and believes in human freedom. For instance, we can freely choose whether to believe in God and follow the example and teachings of Jesus, or not. It’s up to us.

The Nazareth Page - A gospel meditation for your home

August 18, 2024 – Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

John 6:51-58

REFLECTION QUESTIONS:
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We continue to reflect on gospels drawn from the sixth chapter of John’s Gospel, readings that describe the close connection between Jesus himself and us. And we are invited to find ways through which we can connect with God. We know that God is always connected with us as the source of our existence and our day-to-day lives, inviting us to find God’s presence through awareness and prayer.

A primary way our human lives are sustained is through taking in food. And Jesus calls himself food in the form of a unique bread that sustains our spiritual lives. He recalled the manna, a bread-like food, that God provided for the Israelites on their journey to the Promised Land.  Jesus offers as nourishment to us in what we call the Eucharist.

This connection between consuming bread and sustaining life was a reality his listeners could easily grasp. But this new connection Jesus described was something different. Christians recall his Last Supper when he changed bread into himself. And he said to those assembled to continue to do the same “in memory of him.”