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Commentary on Mark 12:1-12

This will be our last week of readings from Mark’s Gospel. We are now in chapter 12 and fast approaching the climax of Jesus’ life and mission. This chapter is marked by a growing conflict between Jesus and the religious and political leaders of his own people. The chapter begins today with a parable (or, more accurately, allegory) directed towards that leadership. Its meaning was very clear to those who heard it.

It tells the story of a man who planted a vineyard, fitted it out with all that was necessary and then let it out to tenants to cultivate. It is clear that the owner is God, the vineyard is Israel and the tenants the people of Israel. The words of Jesus echo very closely a similar image in a poem by the prophet Isaiah:

I will sing for my beloved
my love song concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard
on a very fertile hill.

In Isaiah’s image the vines only produce sour grapes.

In Jesus’ story there are evidently good harvests. The problem arises when the owner sends his servants to collect what belongs to him of the harvests. One after the other, the servants are driven away, beaten up or even killed. It is a clear reference to the way that God’s people treated the many prophets which God had sent to them.

In exasperation, the owner decides to send his only son, expecting that they will at least respect him. But no. The tenants argue that by killing the only heir, the vineyard will inevitably become their property. When the son (Jesus) arrives, they seize him, kill him and throw him out of the vineyard (a reference to Jesus being crucified outside the walls of Jerusalem).

Jesus then says:

What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. Have you not read this scripture:

‘The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
this was the Lord’s doing,
and it is amazing in our eyes’?”

Jesus is rejected by the leaders and by many (but not all) of his own people. The Gentiles will be invited to take their place and will be more than happy to fill it.

The words Jesus quoted from Psalm 118 can apply either to himself or the Gentiles. Jesus, the rejected and crucified one, becomes the cornerstone. Or, the despised Gentiles become the recipients of God’s love and grace and the cornerstone of the new Christian communities.

Clearly, this story did nothing to endear Jesus to the leaders. They would have (as foretold by the story they had just heard) seized him, but they were afraid of the crowd (also Jews) who stood in awe of Jesus, his words and works.

This is one of those stories where we can be tempted to sit in judgement on those who rejected Jesus. But we are not reading it today for that purpose. Rather we are being asked whether we are listening to the word of God as it comes to us in the various people that God sends into our lives. How much better are we than the scribes and Pharisees? How often do we rationalise ourselves out of doing what God clearly wants us to do? What welcome do we give to God’s messengers? Do we even recognise them when they come? Maybe today – right now – would be a good time to listen more carefully than we normally do.

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Commentary on Mark 11:27-33

Jesus has now come to Jerusalem.  It is the last phase of his public life.  Hostility is building up against him.  In today’s reading, while walking in the Temple area, he is confronted by a group of Jewish leaders, chief priests, scribes and elders.  These are the people who formed the supreme council which will later condemn him to death. They ask:

By what authority are you doing these things? Who gave you this authority to do them?

The implication is that he is not doing it on their authority, which they regard as supreme.  In his usual manner, Jesus counters with another question.  He asks them if the work of John the Baptist was of human or divine origin.

They immediately realise that answering Jesus’ question raises a serious dilemma. If they were to say John’s baptism was from God, then it could be asked why they did not take part in it (as large numbers of the ordinary people did – and as Jesus himself did).  The Gospel had described the leaders as simply coming to observe John as outsiders and judges.

On the other hand, if they were to say they considered John’s baptism as merely a human thing, then it would offend all those people who had the highest respect for John and saw in him a prophet of God.

Weakly Jesus’ questioners reply: “We do not know.”  A strange and not very convincing reply from the spiritual leaders of the people! Jesus then refuses to answer the question they asked him.

But Jesus’ case was similar to that of John.  The people, who had heard Jesus speak (“Never has anyone spoken like this!”) and saw his cures (“God has visited his people”), had no doubts whatever about the source of Jesus’ authority:

They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. (Mark 1:22)

The leaders’ own question was a clear indication of their prejudice and wilful blindness in the face of overwhelming evidence.

We too, of course, can have a similar blindness.  We can refuse to see the presence and activity of God in situations where we do not want to see it – in people where we do not want to see it.  But God can use any person, any experience, good or bad, pleasant or unpleasant, to communicate with us. We pray:

Help me, Lord, to seek and find and respond to you in every experience of my life.

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Commentary on Mark 11:11-26

We are now entering the final part of Mark’s gospel. Jesus is now in Jerusalem and in the final days of his ministry.

Today we have the strange incident of the fig tree. Jesus was leaving Bethany for nearby Jerusalem and was hungry. He went up to a fig tree looking for fruit to eat even though it was not the time of year for figs. Jesus then cursed the tree:

Never again shall anyone eat of your fruit!

Why curse a tree for not having what it could not have at that time?

In the evening on their way back to Bethany, the disciples saw the fig tree that Jesus had cursed all withered.

This story is generally understood as a kind of parable. The fig tree without fruit represents those people among the Jews who rejected Jesus. When he came to them looking for faith in his message, he found nothing. In a sense, they had closed their minds and withered up.

This meaning is reinforced by another event which is sandwiched into the middle of the fig tree story. This is a common device used by Mark and it is called ‘inclusion’, when one passage is enclosed within another. Another example is the story of the woman with the haemorrhage, which is included within the story of the raising of Jairus’ daughter.

After cursing the fig tree Jesus went to the Temple in Jerusalem and began driving out all those who were trading in the Temple court. He accused them of turning God’s house of prayer into a market place. It was an example of people who had reduced their religious faith to mere commercialism. Religious ritual had been turned into an opportunity for making money. The meaning of the Temple as the symbol of God’s presence among his people was being lost. And there was also the failure to see the presence and power of God working through Jesus himself. The fig tree was adorned with beautiful leaves but there was no fruit.

And so at the end Jesus urges his disciples to develop real faith, a real trust and insight into God’s presence in their lives. To those with true faith, Jesus says, just anything is possible. It is an essential condition for prayer. And prayer must include a willingness to forgive and be reconciled with those who cause us difficulties so that we may find forgiveness and reconciliation from God for our own faults and failings in his service.

Let us pray today for that kind of faith. A faith that produces much fruit.

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Commentary on Mark 10:46-52

Read superficially, this is simply another pleasant story about Jesus healing a blind man. However, as we shall see, there is much more here than meets the eye, and there is a lot to discuss. Although Mark’s Gospel is the one which gives most details when telling a story – leading people to speak of his using the memories of an eyewitness (perhaps Peter) – there is a lot more symbolism in his stories than at first seems apparent.

First of all, this story is strategically placed. It comes at the end of a long portion of the Gospel beginning with the healing of a man who is deaf (Mark 7:31-37). This section includes the high point at the middle of the Gospel where the disciples recognise Jesus as Messiah and Lord, and also the three predictions of his passion, death and resurrection and the accompanying teachings. In between are several other episodes and teachings. Through it all, we see the disciples stumbling along in various degrees of misunderstanding as they accompany their Master.

Today’s story brings all this to an end and, in a way, can be seen as a summing up of all that has gone before. Immediately after this, the final phase of the Gospel begins with Jesus in Jerusalem for the last time.

We find Jesus and his disciples in Jericho, which lies just north of Jerusalem. They are journeying south on their way from Galilee. We saw yesterday how alarmed they were about Jesus’ determination to head for a place so full of danger for him (and them). As Jesus was leaving the city, accompanied by his disciples and a large crowd of people, there was “a blind beggar” called Bar Timaeus (son of Timaeus) sitting beside the road. Already we have a sentence full of symbolism here, some of which we will discuss further on.

Jesus is not just leaving the city*, he is on the first stage of the final and climactic period of his mission on earth. He is heading for Jerusalem. Although he is surrounded by a large number of people, most of them are with him only physically, but not in spirit, as we shall soon see.

When the blind man hears all the commotion he naturally wants to know what is going on and is told that Jesus of Nazareth is passing by. Immediately on hearing this he calls out,

Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me!

It is a form of what we now call the “Jesus Prayer”. A prayer we need to make constantly; a prayer we can only make sincerely when we are truly aware and accepting of our dependence on Jesus’ help and guidance, when we fully acknowledge the distance that exists between what we are and what Jesus is calling us to be.

In making such a prayer, the blind man is opening himself up to all that Jesus can and wants to give him. However, the surrounding crowd, smug in their (physical) closeness to Jesus and contemptuous of an irritating beggar, try to silence him. How often people have given up their approach to Jesus because of discouragements they have met! How often have we, perhaps, been a source of discouragement or scandal to people who were hesitatingly looking for Jesus and the meaningful life he can open up for us?

This man, however, is not discouraged. The more he is scolded by the crowd, the louder he shouts. Jesus has told us to ask, not once, but many times. This the man does. Then Jesus stops…if the man had not called, Jesus might not have stopped. He would simply have continued on his journey. Jesus constantly passes through our lives. Every single day. How often have we failed to recognise his presence? How often have we failed to call him? And perhaps he has passed on and out of our day.

Jesus tells those around him:

Call him here.

Notice that Jesus does not call the man himself. He tells others to call him. Again that is something that is the norm in our lives.

If we believe that Jesus has appeared to us in a vision and directly called us, either we are ready for canonisation or, more likely, for a care home! No, it is through others that we are constantly being called. In fact, we might reflect today on the huge number of people who have directly or indirectly brought Christ into our lives. It is because of them that we are what we are now. Without them, we would not know Jesus or the Gospel or the Church.

Notice, too, the fickleness of the crowd. Those who were just now scolding the man are now urging him to approach Jesus.

Take heart; get up, he is calling you.

How many people need to hear those words! And how often they never do! Yes, there is no need ever to be afraid of Jesus, our Good Shepherd. And he is calling everyone of us, in some way or other. But perhaps many have never heard the call, because Jesus expected me to do the calling. But I was too absorbed in myself to do so.

“Get up!” they tell the man. Yes, he is being told to rise, the same verb that describes the rising of Jesus from the dead. He is not just being told to get on his feet, but to enter a whole new way of living. He throws off his cloak, which presumably was all he was wearing, and comes to Jesus. He comes to Jesus encumbered with absolutely nothing. It is also reminiscent of the disciples leaving their boats, their nets and their family to follow Jesus. It is reminiscent of the early Christians stripping themselves of all their clothes, symbolic of their sinful past, as they go down into the baptismal pool. When we approach Jesus, we need to divest ourselves of everything, get rid of everything we tend to cling to (see the story of the ‘rich’ man earlier this week).

Jesus now asks him:

What do you want me to do for you?

Isn’t this a wonderful thing to hear from Jesus? But he is asking the very same question of us every day. We often tend to ask what Jesus wants us to do for him, but he is also asking us what he can do for us. And when he asks you that question today – and he will ask today – what answer are you going to give him? What you say is going to reveal a great deal about you and your priorities in life.

In a sense, of course, Jesus does not need to know the answer to your question, but you do. And the answer comes from the asking. And have you noticed any changes in the way you would answer the question over the years? And what would today’s answer be? By the way, did we not hear Jesus asking the same question before? Yes indeed. In yesterday’s Gospel when James and John came asking for a favour, Jesus asked them,

What is it you want me to do for you?

Compare now the two answers. The disciples asked for a privilege, for positions of status and authority and power, to be one up over others. What did the blind man ask for?

My teacher, let me see again.

Of course, in our present context he is not just asking for physical sight. He is looking for something much more important; he is looking for in-sight, the ability to see into the meaning of life and its direction and its ultimate values.

In answer to the question that Jesus is asking us, we could hardly make a better response:

…let me see again.

When we truly see with our inner eye, it changes our whole way of looking at the world, and our behaviour changes accordingly. We cannot ask for anything more crucial in life. Perhaps we feel all along that we have been able to see both literally and figuratively. But today we are asking to see again, to have a deeper vision that goes much further into the ultimate meaning of our lives.

Jesuit Father Tony de Mello speaks of this in one of his books. He calls it “Awareness, being wide awake and living with your eyes open”. No wonder Jesus responds generously to the man’s request:

Go, your faith has made you well.

“Made well”, that is, he is restored to complete wholeness. Only a person with perfect (in)sight (in the sense we have discussed) is truly whole. Only such a person knows where to go and how to get there.

And what happens then? The beggar receives the sight he asked for (“Ask, and you shall receive”) and what does he do? He does the only thing that a person with true vision can do – he follows Jesus on the road, that Road, that Way to Jerusalem and all that it means. He becomes unconditionally a disciple.

Going back now to the beginning of the story we were told that Bar Timaeus, “a blind beggar” was sitting by the road. This description is one that fits every person who discovers Jesus. We are, without Jesus, blind; we cannot see clearly although we may be very clever and highly educated. But, if we cannot see what Jesus sees, we are sightless…blind.

And we are beggars. We can only truly come to Christ when we realise that, whatever intellectual, social or material endowments we may have, we are basically poor. That was the problem of the rich man who came to Jesus. In his monetary wealth, he was not aware of his radical poverty. In our present life, we have nothing that is really ours.

Thirdly, the man was sitting beside the road, not on it. And this indeed is the lot of everyone who sits beside the road, to be blind and a beggar in need. The road, as we have said, in the Gospel story is a symbol of the Way that is Christ. It is where there is Truth and Life. And so at the end of the story, the man having made his compact with Jesus, is now able to see, is no longer a beggar, and is accompanying Jesus on the road that is his Way.

This story has meanings going far beyond a mere miracle story. It is a beautiful summing up of how Jesus’ disciples learnt to see and walk with him along the Way. It is a Gospel in miniature, a vignette of the spiritually deprived person discovering where Truth and Life are and committing himself or herself to it totally.

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*Luke mentions the same visit but describes Jesus entering Jericho. Here he has his encounter with the Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector (see verses beginning with Luke 19:1).

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Commentary on Mark 10:17-30

Today we have the story of a rich man, that is, a man who believed he was rich—someone who believed that in his material wealth was his happiness. He was a well-meaning man who asks Jesus:

Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

Jesus replies:

You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness. You shall not defraud. Honor your father and mother.’

He lists only those commandments which involve our relations with others, omitting those relating directly to God. Says the man in response:

Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.

He was indeed a good man insofar as he did respect his parents and he did not do any of the sinful things mentioned.

Jesus looked at the man with a real love.  This is not a love of affection or attraction.  It is the love of agape, a love which desires the best possible thing for the other.  This man was good, but Jesus wanted him to be even better.  So he said to him:

You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.

On hearing this, the man’s face clouded over. He walked slowly away full of sadness because he was very rich.  Jesus had asked him for the one thing he could not give up; he had asked for the one thing which the man believed showed he was specially blessed by God.  The man had not expected this.

After he had gone Jesus looked at his disciples and said:

How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!

Now it was his disciples’ turn to be alarmed and shocked. The whole tradition of their society believed that wealth was a clear sign of God’s blessings; poverty was a curse from God. Jesus removes any misunderstanding on their part:

It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.

In other words, quite impossible.  This was really too much for them.  They ask each other:

Then who can be saved?

If those who have done well in this life cannot be saved, what hope can there be for the ‘losers’?  It would take them time to learn the truth of Jesus’ words.  And it is a lesson that many of us Christians still have to learn.

And we might ask, why is it so difficult for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God?  Is there something wrong with being rich?  The answer depends on what meaning we give to ‘rich’ and to ‘Kingdom of God’.

A person at a lower middle class level in Europe or the United States may be extremely wealthy with the same resources if living in some African or Asian countries.  Similarly a ‘rich’ peasant in a remote village may live a life that is primitive compared to a family on welfare in Europe.

When Jesus uses the word ‘rich’ he means a person who has more—a lot more—than those around him, and especially when many of those around him do not have enough for their basic needs.  For a person to cling to their material goods in such a situation, to enjoy a relatively luxurious standard of living while those around are deficient in food and housing is in contradiction to everything that Jesus and the Kingdom stand for.

And we need to emphasise that the ‘Kingdom of God’ here is not referring to a future life in ‘heaven’.  Jesus is not saying that a rich person cannot go to heaven.  He is concerned with how the rich person is living now.  The Kingdom is a situation, a set of relationships where truth and integrity, love and compassion and justice and the sharing of goods prevail—where people take care of each other.

The man in the story said that he kept the commandments.  One should notice that, except for one, all are expressed negatively. The man could observe several of them by doing nothing!  Jesus was asking him to do something very positive, namely, to share his prosperity with his brothers and sisters in need. That he was not prepared to do.  As such, he was not ready for the kingdom.  He could not be a follower of Jesus—nor can anyone else who is in a similar situation.

We might also add that the teaching applies not only to individuals, but to communities and even nations.  There are countries in the world today enjoying very high levels of prosperity with all kinds of consumer luxuries available, while a very large proportion of the rest of the world lives mired in poverty, hunger, disease.  It is one of the major scandals of our day.  This is not a Kingdom situation and much of it is caused not by an uncaring God, or natural causes, but by human beings who just refuse to share their surplus wealth.  As someone has said, the really rich are those whose needs are the least.

A final reflection—we may feel that, in our society, we personally could by no stretch of the imagination be called rich and so the story does not apply to us. But we can cling to other things besides money.  I might profitably ask myself today if there is anything at all in my life which I would find it very difficult to give up if God asked it of me.  It might be a relationship, it might be a job or position, it might be good health.

To be a disciple Jesus means that he is asking me to follow him unconditionally, without any strings, ready to let go of anything and everything (although he may not actually ask me to do so).  It is the readiness that counts.  The man in the story did not even seem to have that.

Can a Catholic be a millionaire or a billionaire?  What do you think?  What do you think Jesus’ would say?

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Commentary on Acts 2:1-11; 1 Corinthians 12:3-7,12-13 or Romans 8:8-17; John 20:19-23

Today’s great and joyful feast of Pentecost rounds off the tremendous mysteries that we have been commemorating since Holy Week—the Passion, the Death, the Resurrection, and the Ascension of Jesus culminates in the sending of the Spirit of the Father and the Son on his disciples. As has been said previously, we are not dealing here merely with separate historical incidents, but with one reality—the extraordinary intervention of God into our lives by what we can only call the ‘mystery’ of Christ. And today’s feast indicates that it is an ongoing reality, which still touches our lives every single day.

Two models, one reality
What we said, too, of the Ascension last week applies with equal force to the meaning of Pentecost. In other words, we would be making a mistake to read the Scripture texts too literally; otherwise we will run into unnecessary conflicts. As with the Ascension, our traditional catechisms tends to identify Pentecost only with the version in the Acts (the First Reading of today’s Mass). But in today’s Gospel, which takes place on Easter Sunday, Jesus, before his Ascension, gives his Spirit to his disciples and the mission which follows from that. The two accounts are two different ways of describing the same reality. Actual time and place are not important.

A new creation
Let us go to the Gospel first. It is “the first day of the week”—that is, the Sunday after Good Friday, the day of the Resurrection—or Easter Sunday. Jesus’ disciples are cowering in fear behind locked doors. As colleagues of Jesus they are afraid they may have to face arrest or even worse. Suddenly, there is Jesus among them. He gives them the usual Jewish greeting ‘Shalom’, but here it is filled with meaning. “Peace with you” can be taken as a wish (‘Peace be with you’) or more truly (‘Peace is with you’). In the presence of Jesus we experience a kind of peace which only he can give.

It is no wonder that the disciples, who just now were terrified, are filled with joy. There are two qualities that always accompany the presence of Jesus in our lives—peace and joy.

Passing the baton
Now comes the mission:

As the Father has sent me, so I send you.

The baton is being passed. They have a job to do and it is exactly what Jesus himself came to do—to establish the Kingdom on earth.

Jesus now breathes on them. In Greek the word (pneuma) for ‘breath’ and ‘spirit’ are the same. The breathing recalls God breathing life into the dust and bringing the first human being into existence. Here too there is a kind of creation, as the disciples are re-created into the ‘new person’ that Paul will speak about in his letters, a person filled with the Spirit of Jesus and mandated to continue his work.

Agents of unity and peace
And how is that work expressed?

If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.

This is their job—to be agents of reconciliation—reconciliation of people everywhere with their God, and reconciliation with each other as brothers and sisters, children of one common Father. Reconciliation means the healing of wounds, of all forms of division. This is the work of the Kingdom. It is what we are called to do. We use this text for the institution of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, but while the meaning of the words includes this, it goes much further than just referring to a Sacrament.

A mind-blowing experience
Let us now turn to the second Spirit-experience as it is described in Luke’s account in Acts (today’s First Reading). This is sometimes called the Exodus account, for it reminds us of the great event commemorating the liberation of the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt. Here, too, there are significant elements:

• There is the powerful wind, which, of course, is the Spirit and which, in John’s Gospel, is translated as ‘breath’.
• There is the fire—the “tongues as of fire” that came to rest over each one in the place. This, as in the Exodus narrative, indicates God’s power and presence. We think of the burning bush from which God spoke to Moses and gave him his mission to his people. It reminds us of the pillar of fire, which, by night, accompanied and guided the Jews on their wanderings through the desert. They knew they were not alone.

Extraordinary change
And what an extraordinary result this experience had on the disciples! These men, huddled fearfully behind locked doors are almost blown from the room. No longer afraid, they have an almost uncontrollable urge to share what they have experienced, to share their knowledge, but even more, their experience of Jesus. Threats of prison or torture in no way intimidate them.

A message for all
Together with this, they are given a power to communicate. Their message is heard and understood by all—the linguistic barriers of Babel have collapsed. This is less a miracle of instantaneous language-learning than a way of saying that the message of Jesus is for all and can be understood by all. And this is so because, deep down, the message of God through Jesus speaks to the deepest desires of each one’s heart. As St Augustine phrased so beautifully:

Our hearts can find no rest until they rest in you.

There is no longer a Chosen People. Or to put it another way, now all are God’s people and all are called. The responses, of course, will be uneven because we are invited, not conscripted, into the Kingdom.

Effects of the Spirit
What are the effects of the Spirit in our lives? That is expressed very well in one of the Second Reading choices from the First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians.

First, Paul says we cannot even call Jesus “Lord” unless we have his Spirit.

…no one speaking by the Spirit of God…can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit.

To call Jesus “Lord” is not just uttering a pious phrase; it implies a real faith in who Jesus is and the proof of that will be in the way we live our lives.

Special gifts for each one
Second, the Spirit is the source of the special gifts (or ‘charisms’) which each member of the community receives. The Source of the gifts is one—the Spirit of God—and that is what unites together all those who receive them into one community. But there is a huge variety of gifts. It is important to note that the gifts are not given as a personal grace for oneself. They are rather special abilities by which each one serves the needs of the community. We have all to work together—using our gifts—to build up the community to which we belong.

We are many in number, but through the working of the Spirit, we become like one body, in fact, we are the Body of Christ. Just as one body has many limbs and organs working together as a harmonious unit, so we as the Body of Christ each make our distinct contribution to the life and work of the community:

For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

The way to freedom
The Spirit is a way of true freedom and liberation; his is not a way of slavery, compulsion, addiction, greed or fear. Through the Spirit there is a close, warm, confident relationship with God. In the alternate First Reading from the Letter to the Romans, Saint Paul says:

For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba![Papa] Father!” it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs: heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ…

We are in the fullest sense children of God—living images of our Father. The Spirit makes us co-heirs with Christ to:

…suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

The suffering does not arise from restrictions on our freedom, but because, in our total commitment to truth, love, genuine freedom and human dignity, we are prepared to pay any price, even, if necessary, the surrender of life itself. We could not be truly happy otherwise.

Gifts to be shared
We radiate that Spirit and by our word and example invite others to share it. The gifts of the Spirit are not for ourselves, they are to be shared. After the coming of the Holy Spirit, as we have seen, the disciples did not stay in that room luxuriating in what they had been given. They burst out to tell the world how much God loves everyone and how he wants everyone to experience that love. How he wants people liberated from the destructive constraints of the flesh to an unlimited blossoming in the Spirit.

Boo

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Commentary on John 17:1-11

Today we move on to the great chapter 17 of John.  Jesus is still with his disciples at the Last Supper and this is the final part of his discourse.  It consists of a long prayer, sometimes called the High Priestly prayer of Jesus.

The prayer can be said to be in three parts:

• Jesus prays for his own mission;
• he prays for his immediate disciples, who are with him as he prays;
• he prays for all those who in later times will become his disciples.

Jesus begins by praying for the success of his mission.  He prays that, through his passion, death and resurrection, he may find glory.  In John’s gospel, Jesus’ glory begins with his passion and the high moment is the moment of his dying on the cross which is also the moment of resurrection and union with the Father.  This glory is not for himself, but to lead people to glorify God, of whom Jesus is the Revealer and Mediator.

In turn, he prays that all he does may lead to people everywhere sharing in the life of God. And what is that life?  It is stated here in one of the key sayings of Jesus reported in the Gospel: 

And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

To know God and to know Jesus is to acknowledge their unique place as the source and end of all we have and are.  To know the Father and Jesus is to have as full as possible an understanding of Jesus’ message and to have assimilated it into one’s whole life. It is not just a knowledge of recognition, but a mutual identification of vision and values.  As the Jerusalem Bible comments:

“In biblical language, ‘knowledge’ is not merely the conclusion of an intellectual process, but the fruit of an ‘experience’, a personal contact.  When it matures, it is love.”

It is to be aware of that, to accept that fully as the secret of life, not just in the world to come, but here and now.  Everything else—and it really means everything—is secondary to this.  To put anything else, however lofty, in first place is to go astray.

Jesus has given glory to the Father by all that he has said and done.  He now prays again that glory will be given to him, because by giving glory to him we give glory to his Father also.  In fact, it is through Jesus, through our total identification with him, that we give glory to God.

Jesus now prays for his disciples: “those whom you gave me”.  Although it was Jesus who chose them, ultimately they are the gift of the Father to help Jesus continue his work on earth.  Jesus thanks God that they have recognised that he comes from the Father and that they have accepted his teaching.  And because they belong to Jesus, they also belong to the Father and through them Jesus will receive glory.

Finally, they have been chosen from the world and yet will remain in the world, though not sharing in its values.  In fact, they will give glory to Jesus precisely by challenging the values of that world and leading it to the ‘eternal life’ which they have discovered through Jesus and which they have already begun to enjoy.

We thank Jesus for his disciples. We thank them for handing on to us the secret of life. We thank them for the giving of themselves, many through a martyr’s death, to share that secret with us.  We recognise that they, like us, had many weaknesses, but Jesus still worked through them, and through them the world came to know Jesus.

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Commentary on Acts 20:17-27

In today’s reading, we are still with Paul on his Third Missionary Journey.  A great number of exciting events happens during the latter part of the journey most of which, unfortunately, is omitted in our liturgy readings.

Paul spent two or three years in Ephesus altogether.  Yesterday, we saw him vigorously preaching to the Jews in the synagogue over a period of three months.  Eventually, however, the usual opposition arose from a number of Jews who refused to accept his message.  So Paul withdrew from the synagogue and went instead to continue his preaching in a public hall.  This continued for two years so that the Word was heard not only in Ephesus, but through all the surrounding Roman province of Asia.  Paul also revealed extraordinary healing powers so that even a piece of cloth which had been in contact with his skin would heal diseases and drive out evil spirits.

Following this, there is an incident involving wandering Jewish exorcists who tried to use the name of Jesus to drive out evil spirits, but were themselves attacked by an evil spirit who shouted:

Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are you? (Acts 19:15)

This is followed by the even more exciting riot by the silversmiths of Ephesus (see Acts 19:21-41).  They made their money by selling silver images of Artemis, the goddess of the great temple.  They saw Paul and his disparaging remarks about man-made idols as a serious threat to their business.  Paul wanted to confront them, but his companions would not let him; he would almost certainly have been harmed.  The whole affray was eventually brought to a peaceful conclusion by the city clerk who said the complainers on the one hand were exaggerating the effects of Paul’s preaching and, in any case, they could go to the courts if they had legitimate complaints.

After this, Paul crossed over to Macedonia (Thessalonica and Philippi) meeting the Christians there and then moved south to Greece, where he stayed for about three months.  He surely would have spent much of that time in Corinth. He then returned to Macedonia and took ship from Philippi for Troas (Troy).  It was here that, while Paul was preaching in the upper room of a house, there were many lamps lighting, which would have made the place very warm, and:

A young man named Eutychus, who was sitting in the window, began to sink off into a deep sleep while Paul talked still longer. Overcome by sleep, he fell to the ground three floors below and was picked up dead. But Paul went down and bending over him took him in his arms and said, “Do not be alarmed, for his life is in him.” (Acts 20:9-12)

He was restored to life—a consoling story for all preachers!

From Troas, Paul moved southwards to Assos, which was quite near, and then by ship to Miletus, which lay south of Ephesus on present-day Turkey’s west coast.  It is here that today’s reading begins. Paul called for the elders (presbyteroi) or leaders of the church in Ephesus to come to him. When they arrived, he gave them final instructions and said farewell to them.

The importance of the leadership of elders is evident throughout Paul’s ministry.  He appointed elders in each church on his first missionary journey and addressed the holders of this office later in Philippi, where they are called episkopoi, literally ‘overseers’ (Phil 1:1)—a word which would give us the term ‘bishop’. An ‘overseer’ seems to have been a presbyter with some executive authority in the community.  In the letters to Timothy and Titus are listed the qualifications to become a presbyter (1 Tim 3; Tit 1).

Now, Paul is calling the Ephesian elders to meet with him on what is, for him, a very solemn and sad occasion.  It is the third great discourse given by Paul in Acts.  Today and tomorrow we will read his words.  In summary, it is the last testament of a pastor leaving his flock for what he believes is the last time.

Many of the details of this third discourse are found in his letters and its tone is that of the Pastoral Letters (1 and 2 Timothy and Titus).  After referring to his mission in Asia, he speaks of this occasion as a final parting and seems to hint at his death.  His last advice to the elders of Ephesus (and through them to all the pastors in every church) is vigilance, selflessness, charity.   In all of this Paul appeals to his own example: the discourse therefore draws a faithful portrait of the Apostle himself.

His words form one of the most touching passages in the New Testament.  Paul was a tough man in many respects, but he was also a very emotional one and this comes out very clearly in this moving discourse.

In summary he tells the elders:

• Since the time he came to the region, his life has been an open book for all to read.  He has nothing to hide
• He has served the Lord faithfully with tears and trials arising from the opposition from some of his fellow Jews
• He has given testimony to both Jews and Gentiles about repentance (metanoia) before God and faith in the Lord Jesus.  Being a follower of Jesus involves both total commitment in trust and a re-ordering of one’s life in accordance with the Gospel vision.
• He describes himself as already “a captive to the Spirit”.  This can mean that he already anticipates his arrest or that he is being driven to Jerusalem by the Spirit of God, in spite of people’s pleas that he not go.
• He is not sure what is going to happen to him but the Spirit has warned him of imprisonment and coming hardships.
• But these warnings do not depress him.  His life is not important to him.  What is important is that he complete the mission entrusted to him:

…if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the good news of God’s grace.

That is all that matters to him.  As he tells the Philippians, compared to the sharing of the Gospel with others, life and death are secondary.  All he ever wanted was to love and serve his Lord, Jesus Christ and to spread the Good News about him (see Phil 1:18-24 and also 1 Cor 9:23-27; Gal 2:19-20 for similar statements).

Paul concludes today’s passage by saying that he does not think that they will ever meet again in this world, but his conscience is clear as far as the efforts he made to share the Gospel with them.  At this time, Paul was intending to return to Jerusalem and then to visit Spain.  Although it was his conviction that he would never see Ephesus again, there is evidence that he did return after his imprisonment in Rome. Tomorrow we will continue the second part of this moving farewell.

In the meantime, we could perhaps look back on our own lives and ask what has been our commitment to Jesus and his Gospel, and what have we done to share it with others.  Do we have any regrets about things we have done or not done?  Is my life an open book?  Do I regret now pain or sufferings, physical or emotional, which I experienced in doing what I believed was right and just?  If I had my life to live again, what changes would I make?  In the light of that, what changes can I make now?

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Commentary on Acts 16:1-10

Today we find ourselves on the second missionary journey of Paul. Just in case we think that quarrels and divisions in our church are something that only happened later in the Church’s history, we need to see how this second journey got under way.

Some time after the first journey, Paul suggested to Barnabas that they should go back and visit the places they had evangelised. However, Barnabas wanted to take John Mark (his cousin, also called Mark) along with them. However, Paul disagreed because he said that Mark had abandoned them early on at Pamphylia on the First Journey and he did not want him along this time.

Their disagreement was so strong that they decided to go their separate ways. Barnabas took Mark and they went off to his native Cyprus. Paul, however, with the blessing of the Antioch community, instead took Silas as his companion. They began by going through Syria and Cilicia, visiting the churches Paul had been to on his first journey.

It is at that point that our reading begins today. We find Paul back in places where he had proclaimed the Gospel before—Derbe and Lystra. As Paul is approaching this time from the east, the order of the towns is reversed.

It was in Lystra that Paul met Timothy, whom he invited to join him in his work. Timothy was to become one of his closest and most loyal companions, and there are two letters of the New Testament dedicated to him. His mother was a Jew, but his father was a gentile Greek and because of that he had never been circumcised (we saw how that could have been an issue during the meeting in Jerusalem). Since Paul addressed him as a young man some 15 years later (see 1 Tim 4:12), he must have been only in his teens at this time.

On the basis of the decision that had been made in Jerusalem, there was now no need for Timothy to be circumcised. But Paul, sensitive to the strong feelings of the Jews to whom they would be preaching, had him circumcised. In general, Paul opposed circumcision for converts from paganism, but because Timothy had a Jewish mother, he was an Israelite according to Jewish law. Conversely, in the case of Titus, Paul refused circumcision because it was being demanded by some people as a condition for salvation. All of this is an indication of how flexible Paul could be on non-essentials and it should not be seen as mere compromising with unreasonable people.

Paul himself was a totally free person, but he was very aware that other people were not so liberated. As he says elsewhere:

…whenever I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Cor 12:10)

Here he tolerates the weakness of some people. Circumcision was not necessary for baptism, but if it made some people happy and furthered the growth of the Kingdom, then have at it. As Paul would say elsewhere, being circumcised or not makes no difference whatever.

At the same time, we are told today that Paul was disseminating the decisions made at Jerusalem about circumcision and the status of Christian gentiles to all those he met. And the churches in these places were growing in faith and numbers. It was a very encouraging situation.

After visiting these places of the First Journey, Paul now began to tread new ground, visiting new places in Asia Minor (Turkey today). However, when he and his companions tried to go into the Roman province of Asia, they met some unspecified obstacles on the way which were seen as the guiding hand of the Spirit indicating that they should go in a different direction. Asia at this time was a Roman province in what is western Turkey today, and included the districts of Mysia, Lydia, Caria.

After leaving Iconium, it seems they had originally intended going west to Ephesus (on the west coast of Turkey), but instead the Spirit intervened and Paul and his companions turned first north, then in a north-westerly direction. They found themselves going through the territories of Phrygia and Galatia (to the west and north of where they had been). Phrygia formerly had been Hellenistic territory, but more recently had been divided between the Roman provinces of Asia and Galatia. Iconium and Antioch, where Paul had been during his First Journey, were in the Galatian part of Phrygia.

They found themselves headed for the Galatian countryside. Here, where illness kept Paul for a time as we know from the letter to the Galatians (4:13-15), he preached the Gospel and later would return to visit the disciples he had evangelised there (Acts 18:23).

When they then tried to enter Bythinia, a province lying along the shores of the Black Sea, through Mysia, they were again blocked by unspecified obstacles (perhaps landslides, floods, earthquakes, civil unrest or the like—it is unclear).

Eventually they found themselves at Troas, which is just at the entrance to the Dardanelles. Troas was located just 16 km (10 miles) from ancient Troy. Alexandria Troas (to give it its full name) was a Roman colony and an important seaport between Macedonia and Greece to the west and Asia Minor. Paul would return there following his work in Ephesus on his Third Journey (see 2 Cor 2:12). At some point—on this journey or on the Third—a church was established there. We know that Paul ministered to believers in Troas when he returned from his Third Journey on his way to Jerusalem (Acts 20:5-12).

It was in Troas that Paul had a vision of a man from Macedonia, a Roman province since 148 BC, calling him to come over and help them. Paul immediately decided to respond to this call.

Macedonia was a province in what is now northern Greece. It was the place where Alexander the Great was king. Alexander’s father was King Philip, after whom the city of Philippi, to whose Christians Paul wrote one of his famous letters, was called. (Also note that Caesarea Philippi, where Peter confessed Jesus as Messiah, was also partly named after this Philip.)

Paul accepted the challenge and prepared to cross the Dardanelles. Christianity was coming to Greece, the hub of Mediterranean culture at that time, and from there to Rome and the world. Incidentally, it is at this point, too, that Luke begins to write in the first person plural. This seems to indicate that he was a member of Paul’s mission from then on.

Probably, without anyone being aware of it at the time, what seemed a minor change of route actually represented a major step in the development and expansion of the young Church, with ramifications which would affect not only the Church itself but the whole of European history for centuries to come.

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Commentary on Mark 8:22-26

We are approaching a high point in Mark’s Gospel.  And it is preceded by today’s strategically placed story.  At first glance it looks like a simple healing story of a blind man but, as in most of Mark’s miracles, there is a deeply symbolic meaning inside.

People bring a blind man to Jesus so that Jesus could apply his healing touch (how much of our touching is healing—or are we afraid of physical touch?).  Jesus takes the man aside away from the crowds.  He puts spittle on the man’s eyes and asks:

Can you see anything?

The man, who is beginning now to see, says he can see people:

…but they look like trees, walking.

Jesus lays his hands on the man’s eyes again and now:

…his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.

Jesus tells him to go directly home, not through the village. He wants no misplaced sensationalism about who he is.  The truth of that is going to be revealed very soon.

The story is clearly linked with other events that have just been taking place. We have seen the blindness of the Pharisees unable to recognise the power of God in the words and works of Jesus.  We can see the blindness of his own disciples when he asked them in the boat:

Do you still not perceive or understand? Do you have eyes and fail to see? Do you have ears and fail to hear? (Mark 8:17-18)

This story, coming where it is, is a parable about the gradual opening of the disciples’ eyes as it begins to dawn on them just who Jesus is. We will see in tomorrow’s Gospel a giant step in their seeing and understanding, while at the same time being aware that they still have a long way to go.

Our understanding of Jesus is also a gradual process and it never ends. Many seem to settle into a complacent level of understanding beyond which they never go.  As a result, their spiritual growth is blocked, and also their ability to have a growing faith enrich their lives.