Photo by Mateus Campos Felipe on Unsplash

Mark 6:53–56 

The sick, weak and suffering pursued Jesus.  Such was their faith that they simply wanted to touch him, believing this would heal them (v. 56).  Jesus came to seek, save and heal the lost, and to restore a fractured and fallen humanity.  He himself said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mark 2:17).

Nowadays, many people struggle with the concept of sin, but the Gospel isn't going to change to accommodate our modern sensibilities.  We have lost the sense of sin and because of this corresponding sense of our need for a Saviour.  This is sad and serious because the very essence of the Gospel is that Christ brings healing and redemption.  Like sheep we have gone astray, and Jesus, the great Shepherd and Physician, has come to rescue and heal us.

Through baptism we are brought from death to life and become a new creation, born of water and the Holy Spirit.  However, we all remain wounded and need God's constant grace to become what he intends us to be: his children.

St Athanasius speaks down through the centuries: “The Lord did not come to make a display. He came to heal and to teach . . . For one who wanted to make a display the thing would have been just to appear and dazzle the beholders.  But for him who came to heal and teach, the way was not merely to dwell here, but to put himself at the disposal of those who needed him, and to be manifested according to how they could bear it, not vitiating the value of the divine appearing by exceeding their capacity to receive it.”

The Spirit helps us grow in two important areas.  The first is self-knowledge: we need God's grace to understand ourselves and to become aware of the aspects of our personalities that God wants to touch with his strength and healing.  The second is the confidence that God has the power to heal us and set us free from anything that hinders our growth as his children.

Lord Jesus Christ, by your cross and resurrection you have set us free. You are the Saviour of the world. 

1 Kings 8:1–7,9–13 • Psalm 131(132):6–10 • Mark 6:53–56

A slightly different account of today's Parable of the Talents appears in Matthew's Gospel (see 25:14-30).  Matthew mentions only three servants, whereas Luke has ten, and there is a substantial difference between the sums of money involved.  Furthermore, in Luke's version the servants are given an equal amount, whereas in Matthew's a differentiation is made.

Luke is explicit about Jesus’s motive in telling his parable.  As verse 11 makes clear, he wants the people to understand that the fact that he is approaching Jerusalem doesn’t mean that the kingdom is is close at hand.  The man of noble birth must go away “into a far country to receive a kingdom and then return” (v. 12).

In the meantime, his servants are given responsibilities that they must fulfil. The servants – in other words, we as disciples – are not to put their feet up (so to speak), relax and rest on their laurels.  Instead, they are to devote their lives to the building up of God's kingdom on earth (see Acts 1:8-11).

The bottom line of the parable is that from those who are given much, much is expected.  The servants who produce a return from what they are given respect their master and understand his importance as king. On the other hand, the servant who fails to provide a return has a faulty or disordered understanding of his master, fearing him and seeing him as  “ . . . a hard man. You take up what you did not lay down, and reap what you did not sow” (v. 21).

We who have been blessed with so many graces must produce much in return. If we cultivate a healthy understanding of who God is, we will produce a rich harvest.  If, however, we have a misguided or wrong understanding of God, and see him as judgemental, harsh, unforgiving, unloving, etc . . ., our return will be small.

Lord God, may I serve you with all of my heart, soul and strength, and produce the fruits of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

2 Maccabees 7:1, 20–31 • Psalm 16(17): 1, 5–8, 15 • Luke 19: 11–28

Mark 4:26–34 • Ordinary Weekday

The parable of the Growing Seed is unique to Mark's Gospel.  Its emphasis, unlike the parable of the Sower, is on the power inherent within the seed, and not the quality of the soil.  The parable invites us to think, pray and ponder on the way the kingdom of God grows in our lives.  In the parable, once sown, the seed sprouts and grows until it is fully grown. Growth occurs regardless of whether the sower is awake or asleep.  This phenomenon is true in nature and is mirrored in the spiritual life because of the gift of grace. The seed is the grace of God sown in our life through the word of God.  Our task, our vocation or call, is to appropriate this grace so that it influences our lives.

The very nature of God's grace is that we have done nothing and could do nothing to deserve or merit it because it is pure favour, utterly free and completely unconditional.  God's grace means that we participate in the life of God.  When we were baptised, we received the life of the Spirit, and this grace is the gratuitous gift that  God makes to us of his own life, which he pours into our soul in order to heal us and sanctity us.  As Paul said, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new  creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come. All this is from God . . ." (2 Cor. 5:17-18).

The power of God's life resides within us, and it is this power at work in our lives, day and night, whether we sleep or rise, which will make us holy.  Spiritual growth and maturity are about becoming more intimate with Christ and living in union with him.  At the end of the day and, indeed, at the end of our lives our holiness and righteousness will be measured less by our actions and more by our love, and this love has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit as a free gift.

“In the evening of this life, I shall appear before you with empty hands, for I do not ask you, Lord, to count my works.  All our justice is blemished in your eyes. I wish, then, to be clothed in your own justice and to receive from your love the eternal possession of yourself.” St Thérèse of Lisieux

Chris

from Bible Alive

Hebrews 10:32–39 • Psalm 36(37):3–6, 23–24, 39–40 • Mark 4:26–34

Isaiah 55:6–9 • Psalm 144(145):2–3, 8–9, 17–18 • Philippians 1:20–24, 27 • Matthew 20:1–16

Can you imagine the furore at any modern workplace if someone who had worked a full day were paid the same as someone who had worked for only the last hour of the day?  With the modern raft of employment legislation and unions, there would probably be a major protest, even a riot. The boss wouldn’t be able to say, as the landowner said to his protesting workers, “I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius?” (v. 13 NIV ). Don’t worry, Jesus told the parable to elicit this very response – indignation, protest and complaint! Sometimes life just isn’t fair, and neither is the gospel message – but that’s the point . . .

The gospel message is shocking and scandalous.  How? Because in the gospel we encounter the lavish, generous and wanton giving of God’s grace to all men and women.  If we haven’t touched something of the “scandal of grace”, we haven’t understood the “gospel of grace”.

Jesus caused quite a stir through his association with so-called public sinners, including tax  collectors, prostitutes and others on the margins of society. The Pharisees were indignant and horrified because they reasoned that God loves the righteous and despises the unrighteous.  

But Jesus revealed that God’s love shines on the righteous and the unrighteous, the good, the bad and everyone in between. Jesus was sent by the Father to save the sinner, the poor, the outcast – those far from God, those who would never set foot in a synagogue or indeed a church!  Where sin, darkness, evil and death abound, guess what? God’s love and mercy super-abound!

This holier-than-thou attitude was particularly devastating in its effect in Ireland in the last century when unmarried women who fell pregnant were treated abysmally by their families and church authorities.  Considered fallen women and unfit mothers, they were sent to institutions run by religious sisters, where many of them were treated brutally and harshly.  Many were separated from their children and never saw them again.  What priests and religious sisters failed to understand is that we are all ‘fallen’ – we are all beggars before God’s mercy.  

Jesus heralded a revolution of love and grace, and we are freedom fighters, activists and soldiers of this revolution.

Father I rejoice in the gospel of your scandalous and shocking grace, and give you thanks and praise for the gift of salvation, the light of your mercy and your healing love.

Ecclesiasticus 27:30–28:7 • Psalm 102(103):1–4, 9–12 • Romans 14:7–9 • Matthew 18:21–35

C.S. Lewis was right on the button when he said, “Everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive.”   We pray at every Mass: ‘Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.”  Yet, when sinned against by a brother or sister, husband or wife, friend or foe, how ready are we to forgive? And how do we forgive? Reluctantly and resentfully, or readily, from the heart?

When Peter asked Jesus how often he should forgive, proposing the generous offer of ‘as many as seven times’, he was really trying to set a limit – to see how few times he could forgive and get away with it!  Jesus responded with a number which was not really a number! “Seventy-seven times” (or “seventy times seven”) signified a countless number.  Again we turn to CS. Lewis, who explained: “We forgive, we mortify our resentment; a week later some chain of thought carries us back to the original offence and we discover the old resentment blazing away as if nothing had been done about it at all. We need to forgive our brother seventy times seven not only for 490 offences but for one offence.”

As often as the sense of grievance rises hot and strong within us, Jesus challenges us to forgive.  And this forgiving is not so much about forgetting as about remembering without bitterness or acrimony in our hearts.  Jesus speaks in the context of relationships within the church family.  The closer a relationship, the more frequently and more heavily we tend to tread on one another’s toes. Our deepest hurts are not usually inflicted by our worst enemy, but by our nearest and dearest, those close to us — our friends / relatives / work colleagues.

The servant in Jesus’s parable owed 10,000 talents – this figure combines the largest Greek numeral with the largest unit of currency.  Here is not merely a daunting debt, but one that could never be repaid.  God offers us unlimited grace and inexhaustible forgiveness beyond measure, beyond our wildest dreams.  But hands clenched in unforgiving anger can neither appropriate nor appreciate this gift.  Forgiveness extended to a brother or sister is inextricably linked with the forgiveness received from our Heavenly Father.  Jesus modelled unconditional and unlimited forgiveness as he hung on the cross, not only forgiving, but also pleading for the Father’s forgiveness for those who put him there.

Heavenly Father, show me that to err is only too human, but to forgive is truly to imitate the divine.

Chris

Ezekiel 34:1–11 • Psalm 22(23) • Matthew 20:1–16

We do not earn salvation by our good deeds; rather we are saved by reliance on God’s grace.

In the Old Testament the Hebrew words hen and hesed are used to describe this generosity of God. Hen is the quality of benevolence of one who is highly placed turning to help one in need; hesed is steadfast love and spontaneous, faithful goodness in a relationship.  These words were later translated as ‘grace’.

God revealed himself to Moses as ‘The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love...’ (Exod. 34:6).  The Jews gradually came to understand and rely on this gracious love of God: his goodness in choosing them from all other people to be his own, his gift of the land of Canaan – their whole history was proof to them. The prophets came to realise that the deepest demonstration of God’s grace was his promise of interior renewal, the gift of a new heart and the forgiveness of sins that he would accomplish by the Messiah.

Paul constantly preached the truth that we are saved not by our own righteousness but through faith in Jesus. ‘But God, who is rich in mercy, . . . even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ . . . For by grace you have been saved through faith . . . not because of works, lest any man should boast’ (Eph. 2:4–5, 8–9).

This attitude of rejoicing in the unmerited grace of God is in contrast with the jealousy and resentment of the workers in Jesus’s parable who have laboured throughout the day: though they have earned a just wage, they demand a share in the generosity of their employer (God) as a right. They forget the initial gratitude they had in finding employment.

Jesus is warning us not to fall into this self—righteous trap, thinking our own moral efforts are more important than God’s grace. As we remind ourselves of how much God has done for us, our hearts will begin to fill with gratitude. Then we shall not care so much who is last or first, or how long we have been working, because we shall know the Father’s faithful love for us.

‘Every day I will bless thee, and praise thy name for ever.’  (P5. 145:2)