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Commentary on Mark 10:13-16

The Gospel begins with the line:

People were bringing children to [Jesus] in order that he might touch them…

It is so sad that this act of ‘touching’ has lost any connotation of innocence in our present day.  A compassionate and healing touch is something for which children, the sick and, at times all of us have a great need.

His disciples felt that Jesus, who may have been in the process of teaching, was being bothered by these mothers and tried to drive them away.  More than once we have seen the officiousness of the disciples who were taking to themselves an authority that not been given them.  They still had to learn the lesson that authority serves rather than controls and manipulates. It is a lesson that those in authority in our Church today need also to remember.  And it reflects to some extent the low place that children had in adult society, to be neither seen nor heard.

Mark, who likes to record the feelings of Jesus, says that he was quite “indignant” at his disciples’ behaviour, saying:

Let the children come to me; do not stop them, for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.

“Children” here can be taken in a wider sense to include all those who approach Jesus with a completely open, unprejudiced mind—and also those who have a low status in our society.  Such people are often more ready to hear the message of the Kingdom and to take an active part in it.

So Jesus says:

Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.

Only those with the openness and simplicity of a child will be able to enter the Kingdom.  These words were, no doubt, addressed to all-knowing scribes and Pharisees and their like, and also to the disciples.

Jesus then took the children, put his arms around them, laid his hands on them and blessed them.  Jesus knew the importance of physical touch in communicating with people, in expressing encouragement and affirmation and in bringing healing.

This passage can be linked, in a way, with the recent one on scandal (Mark 9:42-50).  The disciples, perhaps not deliberately, were blocking access to Jesus by those who were most open to his teaching.  As people who are responsible for children, either as parents or teachers or in other roles, we need to be aware of how—by word or action—we can block our children from being exposed to Jesus’ message of Truth and Love.   But we can also be a block to other people who can be influenced and turned away from the Way of Christ by our unchristian way of behaving.

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Commentary on James 5:13-20

Today is our final reading from the end of James’ Letter, which contains practical advice on prayer.

First, our prayer may be to ask God to remove a hardship or perhaps for the strength to go through it.  The negative experiences of our life are not necessarily to be taken as signs of displeasure on God’s part.  On the contrary, they can often contain a grace.  In dealing with them, we grow in inner strength.  A life without challenges is no life.

However, there can also be an inner restlessness or unease which may point to our life’s being in conflict with God’s will for us.  This may call for some discernment until peace returns.  But we need to remember that inner peace and external difficulties are not necessarily incompatible.  Quite often the contrary may be the case.

Second, those who are ‘in good spirits’ should also pray in praise and thanksgiving.  This is worth saying because, very often when things are going well, God can be the very last person we think of.  But, as soon as we face trouble, we immediately think of praying a novena.  Every day and frequently during the day we should count our blessings and thank and praise God from the bottom of our hearts.

Third, James suggests what should be done when a community member falls ill.  The elders of the community should be called in to pray over the sick person.  In the early Church the elders or ‘presbyters’ (presbyteroi) exercised leadership in the community; they also taught and preached.   They were the predecessors of our ‘priests’ who now have this leadership role.  But there were as yet no priests, as we understand the term now, in the early Church.  Or rather, there was only one High Priest, Jesus Christ (see Heb 4:14-16).

The presbyter would also anoint the sick person with oil in the name of the Lord.  Oil was one of the best-known ancient medicines (referred to by Philo, Pliny and the physician Galen).  In Jesus’ parable, the Good Samaritan pours oil on the wounds of the man lying on the road (Luke 10:34).  Some believe that James may be using the term medicinally in this passage.  However, others regard its use here as an aid to faith, an outward sign of the healing to be brought by God in response to a “prayer of faith”:

The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up…

Furthermore, the healing is total, both physical and spiritual:

…anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven.

There is, of course, a close relationship between physical, emotional, mental and spiritual healing – a restoration to wholeness and an end to ‘dis-ease’.

This text provides the New Testament basis for our Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick in which the Christian community gathers in the presence of the sick person who is prayed over, anointed and reconciled with God and the community.  The result is often palpably a genuine healing of the person, in the sense of bringing great peace, even when death inevitably results.

The past custom of “calling for the priest” when the sick person is in extremis and even unconscious is no longer the mind of the Church. The celebration of the Sacrament should be suggested as soon as a person is known to be unwell and, whenever possible, still fully conscious. It was always intended to be seen as a sacrament of healing and not a prelude to imminent death. It can be given in any situation where there is illness and/or danger of death. For example, the Sacrament can be given before a major operation in hospital, or with elderly people who may otherwise be in good health. Indeed, in recent times and in many parishes, the Sacrament is offered after a Mass or during a special celebration, to anyone who feels they need healing of any sort – mind, body, or spirit – with no questions asked. In any of these offerings, it is certainly desirable to have as many people present as possible because the purpose of the Sacrament is to show the solidarity and support of the community to those in need.

James further encourages all Christians to confess their sins to each other and pray for each other for their spiritual healing.  Such mutual openness in a community can only have beneficial results for healing any divisions which may occur.  At this stage in the church’s life, we have not yet arrived at what we now call the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  But what is described here is something to be encouraged.  The practice of the Sacrament in ‘private Confession’ can be very individualistic and legalistic.  With the introduction of Penitential Services, as well as the promotion of prayer and Bible sharing groups, we are moving in this direction again.

As an example of the power of prayer, James gives the example of the prophet Elijah, “a human like us”, who persevered in prayers which were heard.  He first prayed for a drought (as a punishment) and later prayed for the rains to return.  Both prayers were answered (see 1 Kings 17:1 and 18:41-46).

In his last words, James commends the person who brings back a member of the community who has wandered away.  The wanderer may be either a professing Christian, whose faith is not genuine (see Heb 6:4-8; 2 Pet 2:20-21), or a sinning Christian, who needs to be restored.  Such a person who is brought back from his wandering will be saved from death and his sins will be forgiven.

In our days, this is surely something that many of us could try to do.  Few of us can be unaware of such lost sheep, including members of our own family, friends or colleagues at work.

In bringing them back, however, we may have to be careful to steer them in a direction where they will find a church community answering to their real needs.  It is a beautiful thing to bring a person back to the active practice of their Christian faith.  But one has to admit, especially where the young are concerned, that quite a few leave because their church has simply not been providing them with a stimulating and challenging environment for the living of a Christian life.

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Commentary on Mark 10:1-12

Jesus is approached by some Pharisees and they ask him if it is lawful for a man to divorce his wife. We are told they asked him this question in order to put him to the test.  It is another example of their efforts to find Jesus on the wrong side of the Mosaic law.

As frequently happens, Jesus responds to their question with his own to them:

What did Moses command you?

They reply that Moses allowed a man to make out a writ of dismissal and so divorce his wife.  They are quoting from the Book of Deuteronomy which says:

Suppose a man enters into marriage with a woman but she does not please him because he finds something objectionable about her, so he writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house; she then leaves his house and goes off to become another man’s wife. Then suppose the second man dislikes her, writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house (or the second man who married her dies): her first husband, who sent her away, is not permitted to take her again to be his wife after she has been defiled, for that would be abhorrent to the Lord, and you shall not bring guilt on the land that the Lord your God is giving you as a possession. (Deut 24:1-4)

Jesus clearly is not happy with this teaching and says Moses allowed divorce to accommodate the moral weakness of the people (that is, primarily the men!).  He challenges this stand with words from the creation story in Genesis (1:27; 2:24):

…God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.

After marriage, then, he says that there are not two separate people, but one body.  And from that Jesus concludes:

Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.

When they were back in the ‘house’ (that house again, the place where Jesus’ disciples are gathered about him—the Church), Jesus’ disciples expressed their misgivings about what they had just heard.  But Jesus went even further: a man who divorces his wife and marries another is guilty of adultery and a woman who divorces her husband and marries another is also guilty of adultery.  He does not recognise divorce. One gets the impression that this teaching of Jesus came as something of a shock to them.

In a sound and enduring marriage the words of Jesus are realised. One meets people who have been married for decades and are as deeply in love with each other, in fact more so, than on the day of their wedding. One has only to see bereaved spouses to realise the terrible void that is left when a partner of many years dies.  They feel as if a part of themselves had been torn from them.  It can take years for life to come back to some kind of normalcy.

However, in our own day divorce has become a very common phenomenon.  In some societies, the divorce rate is almost half of all marriages and in most societies all over the world it is increasing.  Marriages between Catholics are also seriously affected.  Obviously it is a very complex question and cannot be dealt with here.

There are two comments to be made about this Gospel passage. First, Jesus is attacking a situation where men, when they got tired of their spouse and found someone more interesting, simply wrote a piece of paper and unilaterally dumped the first wife, leaving her high and dry.  Jesus rightly deplores such a situation.  His final remark indicates something new for his time (and often not yet accepted in our own): equal rights and equal responsibilities for both partners. He is very clear that women are not commodities to be picked up and dropped off at will.

Second, divorce as we experience it in our society today often involves a genuine breakdown in the marriage relationship which neither partner wishes and which is a cause of deep pain and suffering to both sides.  It may be due to some element of immaturity at the time of marriage, or the partners growing apart as they develop as persons.  Whatever the reason, this situation is quite different from the one about which Jesus is speaking.  One feels that Jesus would be most sympathetic to the painful breakdowns of marriage which happen today and, as Christians, we too should try to empathise with people in such a situation.

Most people enter into marriage with good will and with the intention of having an enduring, lifelong relationship.  It is a hope sometimes not realised.  At the same time, we also have in our society today a pluralistic approach to the concept of marriage from merely seeing it as two people living together ‘as long as it feels good’ to those who believe in marriage as a permanent relationship ‘in good times and bad’—and everything else in between.

We need to remember that the Church accepts that marriages can break down and that, for various reasons, the couple may need to have their separation made legal by a divorce settlement in court.  What the Church forbids is remarriage within the Church absent a formal tribunal annulment declaration.  Many Catholics do remarry in a civil ceremony and we need to deal with such people with great sympathy and understanding if they express a sincere desire to remain active members of the Christian community.

The ideal that Jesus proposes remains, but a changing society may need a different approach to marriage where the emphasis is more on the relationship and less on the legal contract.  A truly pastoral Church will help people live the Gospel in such a changing sociological situation.  As always, the solution will lie in answering the question: In this situation, what is the loving thing to do as far as all are concerned?

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Commentary on James 5:9-12

As we come towards the end of the letter, James now has some more encouraging words for his readers. First, he tells them they should stop grumbling against each other and show more tolerance and patience.  The community should not be divided.  It is a sign of a lack of love among them.  And, as we were warned yesterday, the time of reckoning may be closer than we think. James says:

See, the Judge is standing at the doors!

This means Jesus, who will come to take us to himself.  The New Testament insistence on imminence arises from the teaching that the ‘last days’ began with the Incarnation and the appearance of Jesus among us.  We have been living in the ‘last days’ ever since.

The next great event in redemptive history is Christ’s second coming.  The New Testament does not say when it will take place, but its certainty is never questioned, and believers are consistently admonished to watch for it.  It is in this sense that James speaks of Christ’s return as ‘imminent’.  And, of course, the exact time we do not know either and it will be different for each one.  And that is precisely why we need to be ready at all times.

Instead of grumbling against the hardships they have to undergo, James suggests his readers might take as models some of the prophets of the Old Testament, who often suffered many trials in their work for God.  Or they might imitate the quiet perseverance of Job, who never once uttered a word of complaint as he saw his family and possessions disappear before his eyes:

…the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord. (Job 1:21)*

Lastly, as Jesus did in another context, he cautions them against indiscriminate swearing.  First, because it can involve disrespect to God (especially if what is being sworn about is not true).  “By heaven or by earth” were substitutes for the original form of an oath, to circumvent its binding force and to avoid pronouncing the holy name of God.  James’ words are very close to Christ’s in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5:33-37).  James is not condemning the taking of solemn oaths, such as God’s before Abraham (Heb 6:13) or Jesus’ before Caiaphas (Matt 26:63-64) or Paul’s (Rom 1:9; 9:1) or a man’s before the Lord (Exod 22:11).  Rather, he is condemning the flippant use of God’s name or a sacred object to guarantee the truth of what is spoken.

On the contrary, he tells the community:

…let your “Yes” be yes and your “No” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.

Rather than being known for disrespectful or trivial use of God’s name, Christians should be recognizable by their integrity and transparency. They are people of their word.  So it should not be necessary to convince others of the truth of what they are saying by resorting to swearing oaths. It is a quality every one of us should be known for in our relations with those around us.
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*This is one of only two places in the New Testament where Job is mentioned. The other is 1 Cor 3:19, where Job 5:13 is quoted.

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Commentary on Mark 9:41-50

Today’s Gospel speaks of ‘scandal’.  It is a much used word in our media today and not always with the same meaning that we find in the Gospel.  In our time it tends to refer to behaviour which we do not expect from certain individuals or classes of people.  We read about it and we say, “How terrible!  How wicked!”  In the Gospel, however, ‘scandals’ are stumbling blocks which impede one’s journey along Christ’s Way. If a head of state behaves inappropriately with someone in his or her office, that may be scandalous in the media sense, but it is not likely to affect the living out of one’s own Christian faith.

The Way of Christ is expressed in love and compassion and, wherever that happens, the action is noted and rewarded.  So anyone who gives a disciple even a drink of water, precisely because that person is known to be a follower of Christ, will not go unrewarded.  That ‘anyone’ is to be taken with full literalness.  It could be a person of a completely different religion or of none.  And one would hope that we would do exactly the same in return.

On the other hand, anyone who corrupts the beliefs of a simple believer is only fit for a fate worse than death.  And that applies most of all to fellow believers who, by their actions, can be an obstacle to a person following Christ or coming to know Christ.

But even within ourselves, there can be things in our lives which can block our living out of the Gospel message.  A wandering hand may steal, may hurt, may sexually abuse; it would be better to be without a hand than to allow it to do such things.  A wandering foot may bring us to places where we are corrupted or cause corruption to others.  It would be better to be crippled than to be involved in such things. A wandering eye can result in our treating other people, however beautiful and attractive, as mere objects of desire and may lead to worse things. We can read stories or visit websites which may lead us to thoughts and actions harmful both to ourselves and others—there are many possibilities. Blindness would be a lesser evil.

Obviously, Jesus is not urging us to carry out such amputations literally.  His point is to warn us of the many things which can be stumbling blocks in our Christian lives.  Perhaps we could reflect a little today and try to enumerate the things that get between us and our following of Jesus.

Jesus says in today’s Gospel:

…everyone will be salted with fire…

To be salted is to be purified and kept from corruption.  This can refer either to penalties by which a sinner is punished and at the same time preserved, or to the purifying trials through which we are made more faithful followers.  This is the kind of ‘amputation’ that can apply to those who have caused scandal.

This purification can happen through the trials which the Christian is likely to face in the faithful living out of the Gospel. But if the salt itself loses its taste, what can be used to give taste back to it? Rather:

Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.

Good “salt”, that which ‘seasons’ us, seems to be the inner essence of the message of Jesus.  It is certainly the key to peace in our own hearts and in our relationships with those around us.  And if that salt is within us, we are not likely to be a stumbling block to others looking for Christ and his Way.

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Commentary on James 5:1-6

James continues his attack on the greedy and the arrogant.  This time it is a warning against those who are already rich.  Their very wealth will turn against them in condemnation.  Those being attacked are not necessarily Christians, as there were not many rich among them in the early Church.  James warns these people to repent and weep for their coming misery.  The passage in general is similar to Old Testament declarations of judgement against unbelieving nations in books which are for the most part addressed to God’s people.

The wealth of the rich, like their clothes, will rot.  Their beautiful clothes (an ancient symbol of wealth) will become moth-eaten and even their gold and silver corrode.  And that corrosion will be a testimony against them.  Wealth is not meant for storing but for sharing with the needy: “I was in need but – with all your wealth – you did nothing to help me.”  If material wealth is all they have to show for their lives, they are in trouble.

Rather sarcastically James tells the rich:

You have laid up treasure during the last days.

On the judgement day their selfish misuse of the goods that came their way will testify against them.  In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus had said:

…store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. (Matt 6:20)

But the real sin of the rich is not just that they store wealth for themselves, but that they have become wealthy at the expense of others who were deprived of their most basic needs.  They underpaid the workers who produced the goods which made their masters so wealthy. Says James in mockery:

You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have nourished your hearts in a day of slaughter.

The wicked rich are like cattle that continue to fatten themselves on the very day they are to be slaughtered, totally unaware of coming destruction.  Again, Jesus has spoken of this in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, the beggar at the foot of his groaning table.  “I did nothing!” the rich man might have cried in protest at this punishment. To which the answer would be: “Exactly!”

To be rich in the Bible usually means having great possessions while those around are in great need. Such wealth can never be justified. It is a gross injustice and cries out to God for redress.

In our world today, individuals, societies and even whole nations enjoy obscene levels of wealth and affluence when hundreds of millions live without the basics of food, water, clothing, shelter and the simplest of medical care.

James says:

You have condemned and murdered the righteous one, who does not resist you.

The author does not have in mind any specific crime in his readers’ communities, but rather echoes the Old Testament theme of the harsh oppression of the righteous poor. The same is so true today.  While the rich go to their playgrounds, so many of the world’s poor scramble for a living with not a word of protest.

It might be worth our while to ask where we fit into all of this and whether our consciences are clear with the way in which we acquire and use the goods of this world that come under our control.

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Commentary on James 4:13-17

‘Man proposes but God disposes.’  Linked with yesterday’s warnings about what can happen to us when we are driven by hedonism and greed is another about our combined arrogance, short-sightedness and presumption about the future.

The passage speaks of the great uncertainties of life, our complete dependence on God, and the necessity of submitting totally to God’s will. All of these help one know and do what is right.  To disregard this is to live in pride and arrogance, and failure to do what is right is a sin.

James speaks to those who sit down to make great plans of how they are going to make a killing in business and walk off with large profits.  Whole lives can be built on such dreams.  But he pulls us up short:

Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring.

He reminds us of the fragility of life:

For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

It happens every day – young lives, full of promise, wiped out in the blink of an eye.

Concentrating our energies on a future built on the acquisition of wealth, fame and success is a total waste of time.  One way or the other, it all ends in a puff of smoke, a collection of bones in a cemetery.  We can seem to have everything and it can be gone in minutes. Jesus has a striking parable about that (Luke 12:13-21).

What James suggests instead of arrogant ambition is that we say:

If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that.

We are totally in his hands and we do not know what the next hour or the next minute will bring, let alone the next day or the next year.

The truly wise person is the one who concentrates on the here and now, who finds God in the present moment and responds to him there.  Our future is built on what we do and are right now.  And God is to be sought never in the past or the future, but only in the present. God’s will is to be found in the realities – not the daydreams – of our daily lives.

This is not to exclude all forms of planning in our lives.  Not to plan in certain areas would be quite irresponsible.  But all our planning must be in conformity with the Christian vision of life and totally contingent on developments beyond our control. We may plan for the future but, in seeking and finding God, we come back to the here and now.

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Commentary on Mark 9:14-29

As Jesus comes down the mountain of the Transfiguration with Peter, James and John, they find the rest of the disciples surrounded by a large crowd. They are in a deep argument with some scribes, the experts on the Jewish law. Jesus wants to know what they are arguing about.

A man comes forward and describes some terrible symptoms his son is experiencing. He had asked Jesus’ disciples to exorcise this demon, but they were not able to do so. Reading the passage with contemporary eyes, it is possible for us to see the boy’s symptoms as perhaps some kind of epileptic seizure. It is understandable that people in those days would see in it some kind of evil possession. A person having epilepsy may seem to behave in very bizarre ways and even to be in the control of some external power.

Jesus exclaims:

You faithless generation, how much longer must I be with you? How much longer must I put up with you?

He asks that the boy be brought to him. Immediately the boy has another attack, lying writhing on the ground, foaming at the mouth—all typical symptoms of a seizure.

The father says the boy has been like that since birth and then he makes a heart-rending plea:

…if you are able to do anything, help us! Have compassion on us!

Jesus’ response is immediate:

If you are able! All things can be done for the one who believes.

Jesus does not just help people who ask. They must have a firm trust and confidence in God. We were told earlier that in Nazareth Jesus was able to do very little healing because the people there had no faith or trust in him.

The man comes back with a magnificent response:

I believe; help my unbelief!

That is the paradox of faith. It is something that we must have in order to come under the power of God, and yet it is also something he has to give us first.

This was enough for Jesus. He immediately drove out the force that was afflicting the boy. It involved one more last attack, leaving him lying on the ground “like a corpse” so that the onlookers thought he was dead. Someone with a seizure disorder can certainly look like that at the end of an attack.

Then Jesus took the boy by the hand and lifted him up:

…and he was able to stand.

As often happens in the Gospel, healing and a restoration to wholeness means standing up, sharing in the resurrection, the new life, of Jesus.

Afterwards, when Jesus’ disciples were alone with him, they asked why they could not heal the boy. Jesus tells them that this kind of problem:

…can come out only through prayer.

Did that mean that they had been trying to heal the boy by their own efforts? Were they beginning to think that the power that had been given them was their own? Had they failed to realise they were just channels of God’s healing power? Jesus spent long hours in prayer before and after his teaching and healing works. We cannot expect to do otherwise.

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Commentary on James 3:13-18 Read Monday of week 7 of Ordinary Time – First Reading »

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Commentary on Mark 9:2-13 Read Saturday of Week 6 of Ordinary Time – Gospel »