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There is a battle going on in the lives of each of us, a battle going on for the lives of each of us, a battle between good and evil. At the end of that battle in the next life we will either hear Jesus say, “you are mine” or hear Satan say, “you are mine.” Through his cross Jesus has won the battle but it is up to us now to accept his grace and live as those redeemed by Jesus. There are manifestations of grace and manifestations of evil all around us, but we can take the side of Jesus in the battle for our lives by overcoming sin and temptation.

If you were to plan out the ideal future for yourself, what would it look like? Imagine if you were not constrained by budget or resources. Imagine if you could pick to do anything you wanted, to go anywhere you wanted, and enjoy any activity that you wanted. Imagine the greatest experience you could possibly have. What would that be? Most people would immediately think about indulging in the greatest pleasures imaginable. A life of the most luxurious accommodations, the best food, the most beautiful scenery and the most relaxing and enjoyable time possible. But would that truly be the “ideal future for yourself?” Will that bring you to greatness?

Many Jewish scholars struggle with this passage from Isaiah in our first reading because it clearly points to Jesus. Although they have offered other contenders such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, or even the Jewish people as the ‘suffering servant’. After all, throughout their history, Jews have been despised and rejected. However, none of the contenders appear to fit the substitutionary roles the suffering servant plays. None of those contenders can heal us by their wounds and restore us to God. Again, the reference is to a single person. This passage also leaves the Old Testament readers with no excuse. Jesus made it obvious that he was the suffering servant. Even if people never read the New Testament, they can see from the example Jesus gave that no one matches the Suffering Servant quite as well as he does. 

Today’s Scripture also invites us to open our ears to hear the word of God and to allow the Holy Spirit to loosen our tongues to convey the Good News of God’s love and salvation to others. The first reading (Is 35:4-7), reminds us that God’s eyes are constantly focused on the helpless. God especially cares for “the frightened, the blind, the deaf, the lame, the mute,” and He encourages the powerless to “be strong and fearless.”

 “Buckle up your seat belts.  It’s the Law.”  As Americans we unconsciously “buckle up” because we do not want to get a traffic ticket. So often the determination of our actions is based on whether we will be punished, not on what is right or wrong. “Drive as if your children lived here” make us think of speed in a different way. The sign is inviting us to go a notch higher than the law and have concern for the lives of children.

Every person who studies the history of world or religions is familiar with edicts and covenants. Even in our personal lives, we look back often to promises we made and contracts we signed. For the Old Testament scholar, Joshua 24 is highly important in the history of Israelite traditions. It preserves remnants of an ancient liturgy for the renewal of the covenant at Shechem. Joshua reminds the people of what God has done for them in rescuing them from slavery in Egypt, providing for their survival in the desert and giving them victory over their enemies. God has been their Deliverer, Provider and Protector. This is the God that Joshua calls Lord and with Whom he wants to be covenanted.

The Feast of the Assumption is one of the most important feasts of our Lady.  We Catholics believe in the Assumption of the Virgin Mary into Heaven. We believe that when her earthly life was finished, Mary was taken up, body and soul, into Heavenly glory, where the Lord exalted her as Queen of Heaven. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, # 966). It was on November 1, 1950, that, through the Apostolic Constitution Munificentimus Deus, Pope Pius XII officially declared the Assumption as a Dogma of Catholic Faith.  The Assumption is the feast of Mary’s total liberation from death and decay, the consequences of original sin.  It is also the remembrance of the day when the Church gave official recognition to the centuries-old belief of Christians about the Assumption of their Heavenly Mother. 

Conflict with temporal powers was a common experience of the prophets of the Old Testament. King Ahab of Israel married a pagan queen, Jezebel, who imported pagan worship into Israel. The prophet Elijah challenged 450 of the pagan god Baal’s prophets, defeated them in a public sacrifice-contest and killed all of them.  The furious Queen Jezebel sent soldiers to kill the prophet. Today’s first reading expresses Elijah’s discouragement and frustration as he fled for his life.  Reaching the rock bottom of his life he prays for death. God heard His prophet’s prayer and sent an angel to feed him and strengthen him in his flight.  The miraculous food provided by God sustained him through a 40-day pilgrimage to Horeb (Mount Sinai), where Elijah would be commissioned again as God’s prophet to carry on the struggle and to anoint his successor.

Today’s Gospel presents an introduction to Jesus’ famous discourse on the Holy Eucharist in the form of a dialogue between Jesus and the Jews who had gone around the Lake and come to Capernaum searching for him. The people were looking for a repeat performance of their miraculous feeding. In answer to their question, “Rabbi, when did You get here?” Jesus told them that they were only looking for another free meal and that such meals would not satisfy them, saying, “Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for Eternal Life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on Him, the Father, God, has sent His seal.”

This Sunday we begin a five-week focus on the 6th chapter of the Gospel of John, the chapter on the Bread of Life. At the outset we must remember that in the Gospel of John, we do not have an account of the Last Supper institution of the Eucharist. Instead, he elaborates the washing of the feet in the context of a meal. But Chapter 6 contains a treatise on the Eucharist which clarifies to us beyond doubt the mind of Christ. In Christian tradition, John’s gospel has always been referred to as the fourth gospel, meaning it was composed after the other three, Mathew, Mark and Luke. Polycarp, a second-century Christian martyr who knew John personally, told Irenaeus that John had written the book during the apostle’s time serving the church in Ephesus. These factors suggest that John wrote the book between AD 85 and AD 95.

Today’s Gospel passage presents the sympathetic and merciful heart of Jesus who lovingly invites the apostles to a desolate place for some rest. This passage is transitional in Mark. It brings to a close the first mission of the twelve (6:7 - 13) which we reflected on last week and is a prelude to the story of the feeding of the five thousand (6:34 - 44). Jesus had sent his apostles on their first healing, teaching, and preaching mission to prepare the people they visited for the Coming of the Promised One, Jesus. When they returned, they were no doubt exhilarated by the experience. The ordinary people that they were, experienced extra-ordinary miracles worked in the name of Jesus. Nonetheless, they were hungry, exhausted, and in need of rest, both physical and spiritual. In fact, Jesus was eager to hear about their missionary adventures as they proudly shared their experiences. But Jesus, too, needed a break from the crowds who were constantly pressing in, demanding attention and healing. Hence, he led the Apostles by boat to a “deserted place” on the other side of the Lake intending to give them all a period of rest and sharing.

Last Sunday’s gospel reported to us the rejection of Jesus by His own townspeople. Today, we are given a profile of those who believed in Him. From among His followers, Jesus chooses the Twelve, His band of intimate friends. The Twelve together with the other disciples are Jesus’ true family and community.

Yahweh warns Ezekiel that he is being sent to obstinate and rebellious Israelites in exile in Babylon. Hence, as God’s prophet, he will have to face rejection and persecution for giving God’s message. The reading gives us the warning that, as Christians we also may face indifference, hostility, contempt, scorn, weakness, hardship, persecution, insults, and rejection. In the second reading, St. Paul gives us the same warning from his own experience that not only the prophets, but the apostles and missionaries as well, will have to encounter hardships and rejection in their preaching mission. Paul confesses that God gave him a share in Christ’s suffering a chronic illness which caused physical suffering and shame — a “thorn in the flesh,” — so that he might rely solely on God’s grace in all his work and might glory in the power of the strengthening God Who alone sustained him. Paul invites us to rise above our own weaknesses and disabilities, cooperate with the grace of God and preach the word of God by word and example as the apostle did.

In today’s Gospel we have what is often called a “Markan sandwich”. One story is sandwiched between the beginning and end of another. Both are stories of women. One story is contained within another. Both are stories about women who are ‘dead’ in their own way. It is interesting to note that all the synoptic gospels have these two stories put together and narrate them in remarkably similar words (Mt 9:18-25; Mk 5:22-43; Lk 8:41-56). The two women represent two different age groups: the younger one has died before time, at the onset of adolescence, and the cause of her death is unknown; the older woman is socially dead. Jesus raises both to life – new life. These miracles were worked by Jesus as rewards for the trusting Faith of a synagogue ruler and of a woman with a hemorrhage.

FAITH IN A STORM The Sea of Galilee is a lake, more than six hundred feet below sea level. It is a lake thirteen miles long from north to south and eight miles broad from east to west at its widest. It’s also known as Lake Gennesaret or Lake Kinneret. But Mark calls it a sea, to suggest images of chaotic power, of sea monsters, of evil. The sea is a place of mystery, of powerful forces hidden below the surface. It is something to be feared, a mysterious depth that no one but God can control.

Many of the stories of Jesus called ‘parables’ centered around the theme of KINGDOM. What is this ‘kingdom’? First of all, it is not a place. The Greek word basileia (basileia) is an abstract word which means ‘kingship’ or ‘reign’ rather than ‘kingdom’, which in English suggests a territory or place. ‘Kingship’ or ‘reign’ on the contrary suggest power. To belong to the kingdom or kingship of God, then, is to put oneself fully, consciously and deliberately under the power of God, to experience that power and be empowered by it. That power is above all the power of love. It is a creating, enfolding or embracing power, an encouraging power, a power that lifts up and enables us to be what we are called to be. It is not a coercive power which achieves its ends by threats, still less by violence .

Today’s celebration of Corpus Christ, the Body of Christ, is the feast of the very center and heart of our church, the center and heart of our faith, and the center and heart of our parish, the center and heart of the lives of each of us, Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.

Today we celebrate the greatest mystery of our Christian faith, the Holy Trinity. This celebration reminds us that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are working together. They are never separated, though, each one of them is a distinct divine person. There is unity of essence and relation within the three divine persons.

There is an immense call for unity around the world especially as we are being ravaged by the pandemic. Many countries have to make hard choices between safety, health and compassion as regards to the movement of persons. Stories and movies give us great inspiration about unity which is the underlying message of this week’s Gospel. In the novel, The Three Musketeers, by Alexandre Dumas, the title characters chose as their motto, “One for all and all for one!” Successes and failures are shared equally among team members. Other phrases speak to the same theme: “United we stand, divided we fall!” or “And if a house is divided against itself, it cannot stand” (Mark 3:25). Or for those of you who were fans of Jack Shepherd in the television series LOST, “If we cannot live together, we are going to die alone.” All of these phrases speak of the value of being unified. As unique, gifted, creative, beautiful, complicated, sinful, human and competent people, we know that we can be so much more when we come together.

There is an immense call for unity around the world especially as we are being ravaged by the pandemic. Many countries have to make hard choices between safety, health and compassion as regards to the movement of persons. Stories and movies give us great inspiration about unity which is the underlying message of this week’s Gospel. In the novel, The Three Musketeers, by Alexandre Dumas, the title characters chose as their motto, “One for all and all for one!” Successes and failures are shared equally among team members. Other phrases speak to the same theme: “United we stand, divided we fall!” or “And if a house is divided against itself, it cannot stand” (Mark 3:25). Or for those of you who were fans of Jack Shepherd in the television series LOST, “If we cannot live together, we are going to die alone.” All of these phrases speak of the value of being unified. As unique, gifted, creative, beautiful, complicated, sinful, human and competent people, we know that we can be so much more when we come together.