XVII Sunday of the Year

HELP PEOPLE… HELP THEMSELVES

2 Kings 4:42-44; Ephesians 4:1-6; John 6:1-15

Readings for the XVII Sunday of the Year

We have many and conflicting requests for help. For instance, you are working on a critical task and someone needs help. You return after a hard day at work and your child has a project/ needs a drop/ is unwell.

Jesus experienced something similar.

Today’s gospel opens with him going to the other side of the Sea of Galilee after John’s beheading to avoid danger or to grieve over his loss. He cannot be by himself: the crowds follow him; he is faced with an unexpected demand, an intrusion on his privacy. 

We usually counter such situations in one of two ways: ignore these calls that conflict with my plans/ needs or (if I’m someone who cannot say “no”) always put aside my plans and respond though I cannot/ do not want to respond. Neither response is appropriate; neither is the one that Jesus made. 

Jesus had compassion on the people and satisfied their hunger. But it is important to recall two points. 

First, Jesus did not wave a magic wand to produce food. He asked the disciples to provide for the crowds and worked with the “five barley loaves and two fish” which they gave him. He drew on their resources!

Second, he “withdrew again to the mountain alone” because he did not want to make the people dependent.

Sometimes compassion is helping people by giving them resources and oneself. More often, compassion is helping people find their own resources and themselves.  

An anecdote to end! A girl was watching chicks hatch. A dozen chicks were huddled under the mother hen; one egg was unhatched. She could see a little yellow body pulsing and struggling through the cracks in the shell. The kid picked up the egg and peeled the shell. The chick gasped and stopped breathing.

The little girl ran to her mum with tears in her eyes and told her what had happened. Her mum explained that each chick must struggle to break through its shell; it becomes strong through that struggle. She concluded: “There are some things that you cannot do for others; they have to do these themselves.”

Will I, sometimes, reach out to meet people’s needs, and at other moments “withdraw” so that they become independent? Will I discern when to help people and when to help them help themselves?

XVI Sunday of the Year

HE HAD COMPASSION ON THEM

Jeremiah 23:1-6; Ephesians 2:13-18; Mark 6:30-34

Readings for the XVI Sunday of the Year

The oncologist walked through the parking lot with just one thought: the dire diagnosis he had handed Jim. Advanced pancreatic cancer. He noticed an elderly gentleman handing tools to someone under his stalled car. That someone was Jim! Doc yelled: “Jim, what are you doing?” Jim crawled out, dusted off his pants, and said: Doc, my cancer didn’t tell me to stop helping others.” He waved at the man to start the car. The engine roared to life. The man thanked Jim and drove off. Jim got into his car and took off as well. 

His pain did not stop Jim from seeing another’s predicament and reaching out to help. 

We have heard about similar stories of compassion. Perhaps we have experienced such compassion. 

The greatest story of compassion is about God’s compassionate love for his people, of his constant and caring presence with his people through shepherd judges and kings. 

However, as the first reading portrays, some shepherds showed no concern for the needs of their people. God’s response is swift: he will be their shepherd and raise new shepherds for them. 

The model of these new shepherds is Jesus, who is filled with compassion for people. In today’s Gospel text, Jesus manifests his compassion twice. 

He has compassion on his disciples, who return weary after their missionary travels, but are interrupted by the “many who were coming and going” so that “they had no time to eat”. Jesus takes them to a lonely place. But there is no “lonely place”! The people see where the boat was headed and get there first! 

These are the “poor of the land” considered ignorant, labelled sinners, and treated as outcasts by the pharisees and scribes. Jesus has compassion on them. His tiredness does not stop him from seeing and responding to the people’s need. and he tends the flock by teaching them. By not sending the people away, Jesus gives his disciples a profound teaching and an illustration of the tender love of God for his people.

The Lord invites us to have this caring and compassionate love. 

To whom and how am I going to be caring and compassionate in the week ahead? How do I handle “interruptions” to my moments of rest/ leisure/ work?

XV Sunday of the Year

CALLED AND SENT

Amos 7:12-15; Ephesians 1:3-14; Mark 6:7-13

Readings for the XV Sunday of the Year

She begins her program with a Bach symphony. She next plays an Irish air, then a Bob Dylan folk song, and finally a jazz improvisation. The venue: a hospice. The audience: one, a 70-year-old woman with terminal cancer. Through her music she provides a measure of peace for those walking their last steps in this world.

She was a “little” Carmelite nun! She was not qualified (in her words: “I am only tenth pass.”). But people from every walk of life – bishops, priests, religious, laity – and every religion came to seek guidance. She was one of the best spiritual directors I have met.

With their “walking sticks” – a guitar and a listening ear – these two unnamed apostles reach out to the needy. They make us realize that we don’t need much to be apostles of compassion and healing.

 

This is emphasis of today’s liturgy. 

The first reading is about the prophetic ministry of Amos, a sheep-breeder from Tekoa, Judah. God sends him to Israel, where he denounces social injustice and religious laxity. He goes to a foreign land and pulls them up for their laxity! He is not a prophet. God’s word: “Go prophesy” is his only qualification. 

The Gospel is about the mission of the Twelve. They are unqualified for the mission: no social position, no education in scripture/ theology. Plus they had Jesus’ instructions: “no resources”! What do they carry with them? A walking stick, authority from Jesus, his message, and trust in him. 

All of us, by our baptism, are called and chosen. St Paul emphasises that in the second reading. We are called and chosen and given the mission to proclaim the good news, to reach out to the sick and the downtrodden. 

We do not have to be qualified “professionals” to proclaim the good news, to reach out to God’s people. We have the sole qualification we need: BDC… Baptised Disciples of Christ!

Do I believe that God has called me and given me the mission to be his messenger to the people in my life? How am I going to proclaim his message in the week ahead? What is the “the walking stick” I will use to reach out to people?

XIV Sunday of the Year

REJECTED

Ezekiel 2:2-5; 2 Corinthians 12:7-10; Mark 6:1-6

Readings for the XIV Sunday of the Year

In 1960, religious persecution broke out in Sudan. Paride Taban fled to Uganda. There he studied for the priesthood and was ordained. When the Sudan situation stablized, Fr Taban returned and was assigned a parish in Palotaka. His parishioners always had white priests before who gave them clothing and medicine. Fr Taban was like them—black, poor… with nothing material to give them. His people would not accept this poor black man as a priest.

The story of Fr Taban is an example of the rejection every prophet encounters. Prophets in Hebrew history and in Christianity have met with resistance and hostility. 

We have an example in the prophet Ezekiel in the First Reading. God calls him to proclaim his message to his people and warns him that he will face resistance. God challenges Ezekiel to be a prophet regardless of the people’s response.

The Second Reading is an excerpt from a section called the “letter in tears.” Paul’s beloved Corinthians have betrayed him by shifting allegiance to the “super-apostles” who have seduced them with their eloquent speech. All that Paul has is a “thorn in the flesh”.

In the Gospel, Jesus’ townsfolk are astonished at his wisdom and at the reports about his miracles. But they know he is the carpenter, the son of Mary and Joseph; they have grown up with him. They see the outward person, but they do not listen to his words. Their prejudice and familiarity make them blind. They reject him.

We are not different from the Israelites, the Corinthians, and the Nazarenes. God constantly speaks to us through people we know. We do not recognize his voice because the message is unpalatable, because the messenger has weaknesses, because the messenger is someone we dislike or know very well. 

The Word of God challenges us on two fronts. 

It challenges us to receive God’s Word irrespective of the messenger’s status/ power/ origin. 

It reminds us that we, because of our baptism, are prophets. We may be afraid and feel incompetent; God will work through our fear and incompetence. 

Will I discover and listen to the prophetic voice of God in ordinary and simple people? Or am I impressed by showy rhetoric but impervious to the grace that comes through weakness?

How will I, a simple and ordinary person, be his prophet?