Tuesday of 6th Week in Ordinary Time

 

Use Your Eyes and Ears!

James calls blessed those who resist the test of temptations. But temptations do not come from God but from the concupiscence within ourselves. From God comes all good gifts.

The theme of yesterday is continued in today’s reading. We should not ask for extraordinary signs but learn to see God’s presence and saving action in the events of life. The apostles have seen the signs Jesus worked among them. We too, should open our eyes and ears to the good things God does among us.

 

First Reading: James 1:12-18 

Anyone who meets a testing challenge head-on and manages to stick it out is mighty fortunate. For such persons loyally in love with God, the reward is life and more life.

Don’t let anyone under pressure to give in to evil say, “God is trying to trip me up.” God is impervious to evil, and puts evil in no one’s way. The temptation to give in to evil comes from us and only us. We have no one to blame but the leering, seducing flare-up of our own lust. Lust gets pregnant, and has a baby: sin! Sin grows up to adulthood, and becomes a real killer.

So, my very dear friends, don’t get thrown off course. Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light. There is nothing deceitful in God, nothing two-faced, nothing fickle. He brought us to life using the true Word, showing us off as the crown of all his creatures

 

Gospel: Mark 8:14-21 

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.”

Meanwhile, the disciples were finding fault with each other because they had forgotten to bring bread. Jesus overheard and said, “Why are you fussing because you forgot bread? Don’t you see the point of all this? Don’t you get it at all? Remember the five loaves I broke for the five thousand? How many baskets of leftovers did you pick up?”

They said, “Twelve.”

 “And the seven loaves for the four thousand—how many bags full of leftovers did you get?”

“Seven.”

 He said, “Do you still not get it?”

 

Prayer

Lord our God,
when we do not see clearly in life,
when suffering comes our way,
we tend to blame you or people.
Help us to realize clearly
how much of the evil around us
comes from within ourselves,
from our greed for riches and power,
from our self-complacency and selfishness.
Speak to us your word of forgiveness
and change us from a silent majority of evil
into solidarity of love,
by the grace of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. 

 

Reflection:

Beware of the yeast of the political power centres

Today’s Gospel brings up a warning against the yeast of the Pharisees and Herodians. Mark was writing his text of the Gospel for the Catechumens in Rome. He wanted to communicate a specific message to those who were receiving baptism and coming into Faith: The Good News of Jesus spreads and multiplies. But not everything that multiplies is good news! In the previous chapters Mark portrayed the Pharisees as hypocrites and power-mongers.

In every miracle story of Jesus, there were some opposing voices from the religious leaders. They opposed forgiveness of God. Observation of Sabbath was imposed as a burden on people; they sought recognition in public places. They were jealous of the extraordinary powers and popularity that Jesus was gaining. Jealousy, hypocrisy, and all the evil tendencies, work like yeast, and contaminate the society.

Mark’s sense of the leaven of Herod had been masterfully outlined in his dramatisation of the execution of John the Baptist. Herod wanted political security at any cost and could not accept criticism. He valued personal “honour” more than the life of another. To look good was more important than to do good and doing good was irrelevant. He could feast and make merry while his subjects were exploited beyond endurance.
Mark’s reference to the one loaf of bread with the disciples, on the boat out on the waters was significant. The boat was perhaps a symbol of Mark’s community on mission. Within the community of disciples there was to be only one loaf, the leaven of God – that is Jesus. It was spectacularly more than enough for everyone, Jew and Gentile.
Later in the narrative, Jesus would take a loaf in his hands and invite his disciples to eat it, declaring it to be his body broken for all. In Jesus’ mind Eucharist would be the celebration of the all-inclusive vision of God, of God’s universal offer of forgiveness and of life to the full. The Eucharistic bread would allow no place for the leaven of Pharisees or of Herod. The new wave of the pandemic is forcing the closure of churches, depriving the faithful of access to sacraments. In these moments of trials, pay attention to the warning in today’s Gospel: Let’s not be deceived by the leaven of the modern-day herodians – political power centres that keeps the faithful away from the life of the Church.
Mark recorded Jesus’ profound sadness that even the disciples had not understood the mind of Jesus. Yet Jesus did not withdraw from his mission. He continued to work with his hard-hearted disciples. In spite of all their limitations, he loved them, had hope in them. Let us be united around the life-giving Word and the bread on board – the Word of God and the Eucharist in the Church.

 

Video available on Youtube : Beware of the yeast of the political power centres