Monday of 6th Week in Ordinary Time

 

STS. CYRIL, Monk & METHODIUS,  Bishop, Missionaries    

The liturgy celebrates today two great missionaries from the Eastern Church, the monk Cyril and his brother, Methodius, bishop. Born in Thessalonica in Greece, they evangelized the Bulgarians, Moravians and Bohemians in the 9th Century. They created the Slavonic (Slavic) alphabet – called “Cyrillic” – translated the scriptures and prepared liturgies in Slavonic. On account of this inculturation of the liturgy, they met with much opposition, but Rome approved what they had done.

                         

First Reading: James 1:1-11 

 I, James, am a slave of God and the Master Jesus, writing to the twelve tribes scattered to Kingdom Come: Hello!

Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.

If you don’t know what you’re doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You’ll get his help, and won’t be condescended to when you ask for it. Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought. People who “worry their prayers” are like wind-whipped waves. Don’t think you’re going to get anything from the Master that way, adrift at sea, keeping all your options open.

When down-and-outers get a break, cheer! And when the arrogant rich are brought down to size, cheer! Prosperity is as short-lived as a wildflower, so don’t ever count on it. You know that as soon as the sun rises, pouring down its scorching heat, the flower withers. Its petals wilt and, before you know it, that beautiful face is a barren stem. Well, that’s a picture of the “prosperous life.” At the very moment everyone is looking on in admiration, it fades away to nothing.

 

Gospel: Mark 8:11-15 

When they arrived, the Pharisees came out and started in on him, badgering him to prove himself, pushing him up against the wall. Provoked, he said, “Why does this generation clamor for miraculous guarantees? If I have anything to say about it, you’ll not get so much as a hint of a guarantee.”

He then left them, got back in the boat, and headed for the other side. But the disciples forgot to pack a lunch. Except for a single loaf of bread, there wasn’t a crumb in the boat. Jesus warned, “Be very careful. Keep a sharp eye out for the contaminating yeast of Pharisees and the followers of Herod.”

 

Prayer

Lord our God,
you inspired your missionaries
Saints Cyril and Methodius
to be inventive and adaptive
in proclaiming your good news to people.
Make all Christians aware, we pray you,
that your Son Jesus Christ
should be recognizable in us
and help us to renew ourselves again and again
that we may bear the true face of Christ,
who is your Son and our Lord for ever. Amen.

 

Reflection:

 

Miracles all around, but recognising none!

Mark presents a moment of frustration in the life of Jesus. He is frustrated at the stiff-necked attitude of the religious leaders and takes a deep sigh. Wisdom of the elders tell us that a sigh or deep breath is an excellent way of stress-relief. Today’s gospel teaches the value of patience especially in moments of frustrations and stress. The Lord raises the question: “Why does this generation seek a sign?”. They knew that Jesus had the power to perform miracles. Mark is clear about the intentions of the religious leaders – “Hoping to embarrass him.”
The Pharisees wanted a show, a miracle. Ultimately it is the same temptation that the devil offers Jesus in the desert, asking him to do something —The devil would ask Jesus to turn the stones into bread, so that he could satisfy his hunger or to Jump down from the pinnacle of the temple to make a spectacular show of his might so that people would instantly believe him. If our understanding of the temptations of Jesus as just those three in the desert, we are mistaken.
The forty days of Jesus in the desert is a representation of the entire time, the Lord spent in this world, where temptations were a constant reality. The confrontation with the pharisees in today’s gospel is just one of such instances. As in the temptation story, here the Pharisees take up the role of the devil and ask for a sign from heaven. Jesus does not care to give an answer to the devil in the desert, and that is exactly what he does here in his response to the Pharisees. “No sign will be given to this generation!”
In asking Jesus for a sign, however, the Pharisees confuse God’s way of acting with the way of a magician. Pope Francis explains that “God does not act as a magician. God’s way is the way of patience”. “Every time we go to the Sacrament of Reconciliation, we sing a hymn to God’s patience. The Lord carries us on his shoulders, with great patience”.
In the previous chapters, Mark had narrated numerous miracles of Jesus – the healing of Peter’s mother in-law, and then the multitudes, the leper, the deaf and dump, the blind, feeding the multitudes – miracles were aplenty. But the pharisees failed to see them. Are we searching for spectacular signs in the sky or in our neighbourhood so that our faith could be strengthened? In fact, the mighty hand of God is at work with in us and all around us, yet we fail to see them.

 

Video available on Youtube : Miracles all around, but recognising none!