The Mark reading features two unconnected – or not obviously connected – incidents/teachings. Actually, the whole chapter seems to be an assembly of some of the things Jesus did and taught in the week just before his execution.
Although, given that I’m touched first of all by the pompous ways of the scribes, especially in contrast to the meekness and humility of the widow, Mark may well have placed these two segments beside each other intentionally.
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But I feel rather to pick up on something from the Psalm reading … [more follows: click on title]
Category Archives: Reflections
Just Love
You can’t legislate for love, we know, but here God through Jesus (in this reading) does command us to love. A royal decree you might say. Discovering the difference between what God can and does achieve and what our laws and the sheer might of the world cannot achieve, is one of the great wonders of being human and of being a person of faith. Discovering …. [more to follow – click Title]
Everywhere Present, Specifically Here
I recall when praying beside the 3000-year-old foundations of Solomon’s Temple, in 1982, placing a prayer for world peace in a crevice there. The so-called ‘wailing wall’ has attracted pilgrims from the nations ever since the Temple was destroyed by Rome in 70AD ….
Everything is Possible
So many times in the gospels we hear Jesus questioned by people who are trying to trick him into giving himself away. In today’s reading I’m pretty sure the man asking the question of Jesus is sincere – he genuinely wants to know what he must do to have eternal life, to book his seat in heaven.
His approach is respectful and he is attentive to the answers Jesus gives him. On the surface it appears to be an honest exchange. But when Jesus looked at him he knew that there was something that the man was not acknowledging in his quest for eternal life. And, as we hear, the man did not get the answers he wanted ….
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