Prophet even in Birth

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 1:57-66, 80.

When the time arrived for Elizabeth to have her child

she gave birth to a son.

Her neighbors and relatives heard

that the Lord had shown his great mercy toward her,

and they rejoiced with her.

When they came on the eighth day to circumcise the child,

they were going to call him Zechariah after his father,

but his mother said in reply,

"No. He will be called John."

But they answered her,

"There is no one among your relatives who has this name."

So they made signs, asking his father what he wished him to be called.

He asked for a tablet and wrote, "John is his name,"

and all were amazed.

Immediately his mouth was opened, his tongue freed,

and he spoke blessing God.

Then fear came upon all their neighbors,

and all these matters were discussed

throughout the hill country of Judea.

All who heard these things took them to heart, saying,

"What, then, will this child be?"

For surely the hand of the Lord was with him.

The child grew and became strong in spirit, 

and he was in the desert until the day

of his manifestation to Israel.

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Reflection

Prophets are a special breed of characters in the Bible. They are the human messengers of God to His people. Today, we celebrate the birth of St. John the Baptist. Luke’s Gospel portrays Mary as related to Elizabeth making Jesus and John “cousins” in the wide sense of the word. But our Gospel today does not dwell on their familial connection but on something that transcends bonds of blood.

John the Baptist is the herald of the Messiah, making him a prophet of the Incarnation of God. Luke wrote his Gospel drawing from Old Testament prophecies. The circumstances of his birth, the naming, and the anticipation of the child, all point to the role that John will take before Jesus begins His public ministry. What is beautiful about this story is the stress on blessing and hope.

If John were a blessing to his aged parents, he was to announce the great blessing that is to come for Israel. This blessing was brought about by Divine interventions seen in the marvels surrounding his birth but finds its climax in the pouring forth of God’s spirit on the child. He “grew and became strong in the spirit”. Like the dawn announcing the rising of the sun, the birth of John the Baptist was the prelude to joyful announcement of Jesus’ birth. Even in his birth, John points to Jesus, the Messiah, the God Incarnate, in whom the fullness of God’s Spirit dwells.

The Mystery of the Kingdom

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 4:26-34.

Jesus said to the crowds:
“This is how it is with the kingdom of God;
it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land
and would sleep and rise night and day
and through it all the seed would sprout and grow,
he knows not how.
Of its own accord the land yields fruit,
first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.
And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once,
for the harvest has come.”

He said,
“To what shall we compare the kingdom of God,
or what parable can we use for it?
It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground,
is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth.
But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants
and puts forth large branches,
so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade.”
With many such parables
he spoke the word to them as they were able to understand it.
Without parables he did not speak to them,
but to his own disciples he explained everything in private.

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Reflection

The Kingdom of God is one of most misunderstood and less preached themes of our Christian faith. However, it is one of the central themes of Jesus ministry while he was on earth. All of the Gospels touch on the topic because Jesus Himself dwelt on the topic in his preaching. This Sunday, we hear Jesus speak of it in parables.

Parables and comparisons are the only way to convey a reality that escapes full human understanding. That is exactly the point of the Gospel. The Kingdom of God is a reality that encompasses but in itself is not encompassed by a single human being. It is a mystery that is rooted, grows, and is nourished in the internal life of a person. How the human person is invited into the Kingdom, how he enters it, and what happens as he grows in it, is completely unbeknownst to the outside. Each human person can sense it in himself but cannot fully understand it nor fully explain it.

Jesus today explains that this Kingdom though not understood fully does exist because God scatters the seed of the Kingdom in all human hearts. We cannot explain the experience to each other fully because each experience of it is unique to each individual. The Kingdom after all is about a loving relationship with God. As in a relationship, it not defined but lived and experienced. It grows because God nurtures it in each individual. God is the Divine Gardener, we are the soil.

This means our relationship with God is God’s work in us. It is He who plants, waters, and nourishes. All the soil has to do is to be open, to cooperate to grace and allow the seed to spring up, grow, and contribute to the life-giving atmosphere of God’s garden. This means the human heart has to be docile, to listen, and to obey. If the soil hardens it stifles the seed but if it responds to the initiatives of the Gardener, it allows for something that is internal to manifest itself externally.

This is exactly Christian life. We always begin with a loving relationship with God and allow Him to work in us. Responding to His grace, we grow and mature in His love. Over the years, we come to full maturity and bear fruit and offer harvest to the God who invested so much love in us.

Jesus’ Family

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 14:12-16, 22-26.

Jesus came home with his disciples.
Again the crowd gathered,
making it impossible for them even to eat.
When his relatives heard of this they set out to seize him,
for they said, "He is out of his mind."
The scribes who had come from Jerusalem said,
"He is possessed by Beelzebul,"
and "By the prince of demons he drives out demons."
Summoning them, he began to speak to them in parables,
"How can Satan drive out Satan?
If a kingdom is divided against itself,
that kingdom cannot stand.
And if a house is divided against itself,
that house will not be able to stand.
And if Satan has risen up against himself
and is divided, he cannot stand;
that is the end of him

But no one can enter a strong man's house to plunder his property
unless he first ties up the strong man.
Then he can plunder the house.
Amen, I say to you,
all sins and all blasphemies that people utter will be
forgiven them.
But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit
will never have forgiveness,
but is guilty of an everlasting sin."
For they had said, "He has an unclean spirit."

His mother and his brothers arrived.
Standing outside they sent word to him and called him.
A crowd seated around him told him,
"Your mother and your brothers and your sisters
are outside asking for you."
But he said to them in reply,
"Who are my mother and my brothers?"
And looking around at those seated in the circle he said,
"Here are my mother and my brothers.
For whoever does the will of God
is my brother and sister and mother."

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Reflection

What is the best visible expression of true Christian faith? It is community!

Jesus, true to His claim, is the Shepherd who came to gather the lost sheep of humanity. Where there were 12 people who were from different backgrounds, He formed a group of Apostles. Where there were public sinners, the misfits, the deformed, and the poor, He touched, healed, and gathered around Him. Jesus was busy building a community of people, healing the wounds of brokenness within men and among men.

Sin and the devil causes fractures within us and among us but for those who are called to follow Jesus, we are bound by the love of the Spirit. To sin against the Holy Spirit means to go against the call of communion; and there is no forgiveness in that in the sense that one cannot include someone who wants to exclude himself!

But the call to community in Jesus is also a challenge. It is a community not bound by blood nor association. It is a community bound by faith and obedience to God. God is the source of all unity. Anyone who wishes to be faithful to God will naturally find this unity in Jesus who showed us how to follow God’s will. Because in Jesus, doing the will of God means taking God as Father and taking upon oneself the obligations of being a beloved child of God, making one a brother, a sister, and a mother to Jesus and siblings to each other. In this communion, we see that God’s will is expressed in the person of Jesus, in what Jesus does, and in the life of the community, which is the Church today.