In today’s Gospel, we hear Jesus again predict his passion, death, and Resurrection to his disciples. The setting here is important. Jesus and his disciples are preparing to journey through Galilee, a Jewish territory in which Jesus has already encountered problems with the Pharisees.

Perhaps this is why Mark indicates that Jesus was trying to journey in secret. In predicting his passion, Jesus is acknowledging the danger they will face and is trying to preparing his disciples for it. Yet Mark tells us that the disciples did not understand what Jesus was saying and were afraid to ask what he meant. Such hesitation on the part of the disciples is not characteristic behavior. Peter had no fear about rebuking Jesus in last week’s Gospel. Perhaps this is an indication that the disciples were aware that a new situation was emerging.

Mark paints a vivid picture in today’s Gospel. Having arrived at Capernaum, Jesus and his disciples enter a house. In this private place, Jesus asks his disciples about the argument they had while they were journeying. Again, the disciples are uncharacteristically silent and afraid to answer. They have been found out. Jesus then summons the Twelve, whom Mark identified earlier in his Gospel as those chosen by Jesus to preach and to drive out demons. To this select group of disciples, Jesus teaches that those who would be first in God’s kingdom must be servants of all.

Jesus then calls forward a child and teaches the Twelve that to receive a child in Jesus’ name is to receive both Jesus and the One who sent him. We might easily fail to understand the significance of this action. In first-century Palestine, children were without status or power, possessing no legal rights. In this action, Jesus is teaching his disciples and us that when we serve the least ones among us, we serve Jesus himself. Who are the people without power or status in our society that Jesus is calling us to serve? Do we do so willingly? Jesus teaches that God’s judgment of us will be based on this criterion alone.

God the Father, who upholds our lives, allow us to receive your loving guidance. May we see ourselves in the people we find hardest to love. May we be drawn to serve when we are tempted to judge or selfishly take the place of another. May we offer the first seats and gratefully receive what is leftover. Amen.

Taken from Loyola Press. – Sunday Connection
CCCB – Reflection
Roman Catholic Diocese of Calgary

When we walk with Christ, we learn how to lay down our lives for the Kingdom.

One of the key markers of our faith is whether or not we are living out what we believe. Some Christians cling to a false hope that professing faith in Jesus with their lips is enough.

The readings renew for us the twofold reality that, “Faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.”

Jesus rebukes Peter for opposing the path of life, a path that Jesus knew included rejection, suffering, and death. The way to eternal life is to give ourselves away in love for others, just like Jesus did.

So, where do I resist following the path Jesus walked?

Am I more committed to work and money than I am to living out the gospel?

Am I participating in the work of healing, justice, sharing hope and mercy?

Jesus, give us the courage to take up your cross and follow you. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, make us your followers in word and action. Protect us from the lie that our belief in you exempts us from the work of building your Kingdom. Amen

Taken from the CCCB Reflection
Roman Catholic Diocese of Calgary

Jesus heals a deaf and mute man today who immediately speaks plainly. Before the Baptism of adults and after that for babies and children, the Church imitates Jesus with the Ephphatha Rite [EF-fah-thah]. In opening the ears and mouth, we pray for the grace to hear the word of God and to profess it every day.

Reflection:

1. To what right behavior do I turn a deaf ear, a closed mouth?
2. What needs opening so I may hear the word of God?
3. What needs opening so I may speak truth?
   
   #CatholicYYC#SundayMass(Source: Diocese of Springfield)

God’s life flows through our weakness and correction.

The prophet Ezekiel was sent to speak correction to the chosen people of Israel. The prophetic message is a
plea to persevere in charity and justice, correcting those ways we have fallen short, harmed, or missed
opportunities to love God and our neighbour.

We fail to receive correction if we do not first listen, fix our eyes on the Lord and plead for mercy. The readings remind us that we must continually examine our lives, assessing moments where we have failed and rejected the correction from those we trust. In recent days, the renewed awareness towards the need for more healing and reconciliation with Indigenous people is an important call to continue listening, learning, and orienting our failings towards charity and justice.

St Paul reminds us that God’s “power is made perfect in weakness.”

God, through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, continue to offer us correction so that your grace might change and transform us in our weakness and repentance. Give us humility to listen when others reveal how we have failed and courage to love ourselves as you love us in weakness, Amen.

Taken from CCCB Reflection
Roman Catholic Diocese of Calgary

God does not delight in or cause death but raises the dying to new life.

The healing work of Jesus can give us a false sense that faithfulness means we will not experience suffering,
illness, or painful death. This is not true.

God’s healing and resurrecting work brings consolation, community, courage and perseverance to trial, destruction, and death. The promise of life is not that we will be spared from death but that God will transform death into life. We are held by a God who raises us out of every pit, every struggle by the end. If the rising has not arrived, it is because the story is not over yet.

There is a time for grieving and being broken by the pain of the world’s suffering. It takes holy and inspired courage in faith to walk through intergenerational trauma, poverty, abuse, violence, tragic death, and addiction, among other challenges and hold onto hope. Jesus himself weeps for the death of Lazarus before raising him.

Together in our families and communities, we walk through each day of our life story, never letting go of the hope and the trust we hold in the Resurrected Christ.

Christ Jesus, bring hope and healing to the suffering. Give us wisdom and courage to face addiction, illness, trauma, suffering, and death with resurrection faith. Give us restlessness that will only relent when we join in your healing work. And give us unwavering hope that the Kingdom can come into our suffering to make us whole. Amen

CCCB Reflection
Roman Catholic Diocese of Calgary