Daily Reflection | Gospel Reading | RVA

Gospel: Mark 4:26-34
Jesus also said, “In the kingdom of God it is like this: a man scatters seed upon the soil. Whether he is asleep or awake, be it day or night, the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. The soil produces of itself; first, the blade; then, the ear; then the full grain in the ear. And when it is ripe for harvesting, they take the sickle for the cutting: the time for the harvest has come.”

Jesus also said, “What is the kingdom of God like? To what shall we compare it? It is like a mustard seed which, when sown, is the smallest of all the seeds scattered upon the soil. But once sown, it grows up and becomes the largest of the plants in the garden; and even grows branches so big, that the birds of the air can take shelter in its shade.”
Jesus used many such stories, in order to proclaim the word to them in a way that they would be able to understand. He would not teach them without parables; but privately, to his disciples, he explained everything.

Reflections
“It is like a mustard seed which, when sown, is the smallest of all the seeds scattered upon the soil.”
We often measure our suc­cess by grand achievements and quantifiable results. But the gospel applies a different standard. As Jesus observes, that measure is better taken from nature: the quiet miracle that transforms seeds into a ripened crop; the mystery that produces from the smallest mustard seed the lar­gest plant in the garden. How do we measure our effectiveness? The results are not in our own control; perhaps another generation will reap. It is given to us to be faithful to our mission, to scatter the seeds. Meanwhile, the power of the gospel operates in secret, whether we are awake or asleep—perhaps to bear fruit in a form we may never foresee or comprehend. Pope Francis has referred to this strategy for change when he speaks of simply setting processes in motion. As he often likes to say, time is more powerful than spaces: “We must not focus on occupying the spaces where power is exercised, but rather on starting long­run historical pro­cesses... God manifests himself in time and is present in the pro­cesses of history... It requires patience, waiting.”

Daily Reflection 2019

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Biblical Texts are taken from Christian Community Bible, Catholic Pastoral Edition (57^th Edition) The New English Translation for the ROMAN MISSAL

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Gospel: Mark 4:21-25
Jesus also said to them, “When the light comes, is it put under a basket or a bed? Surely it is put on a lamp stand. Whatever is hidden will be disclosed, and whatever is kept secret will be brought to light. Listen then, if you have ears!” And he also said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear. In the measure you  give, so shall you receive, and still more will be given to you. For to the one who produces something, more will be given; and from him who does not produce anything, even what he has will be taken away from him.

Reflections
“In the measure you give, so shall you receive.”
The Good News is not some­ thing we are meant to hoard and keep for ourselves. It must bear fruit; it must be shared with the world. A lamp is not meant to be hidden under our bed; it is put on a stand so that it may illuminate our room. By the same token, the gospel is not some precious treasure to be celebrated and  preserved in the church; it exists to be shared and made visible. It is meant to illuminate the world. For that reason mission is essential to the life and purpose of the church. A mission ­driven church is fruitful. On the other hand, a church that is inward ­looking, concerned only with its own preservation and safety, becomes sickly; even what it has will be taken from it. This was the central mes­sage that Pope Francis shared with the conclave where he was elected pope. He described self ­referentiality as the greatest danger facing the church. When Jesus knocks on the door, he said, it is not only to be let into the church—but to be let out, to go out to the margins, to pursue his mission of gathering the lost sheep. We must have the faith to open the doors and let him out! And the courage to follow.

© Copyright Bible Diary 2019

Gospel: Mark 4:1-20
Again, Jesus began to teach by the lake; but such a large crowd gathered about him, that he got into a boat and sat in it on the lake, while the crowd stood on the shore. He taught them many things through parables. In his teaching he said, “Listen! The sower went out to sow. As he sowed, some of the seed fell along a path; and the birds came and ate it up. Some of the seed fell on rocky ground, where it had little soil; it sprang up immediately, because it had no depth; but when the sun rose and burned it, it withered, because it had no roots. Other seed fell among thorn bushes; and the thorns grew and choked it; so it didn’t produce any grain.

But some seed fell on good soil, grew and increased and yielded grain; some seed produced thirty times as much, some sixty, and some one hundred times as much.” And Jesus added, “Listen then, if you have ears.”When the crowd went away, some who were around him with the Twelve asked about the parables. He answered them, “The mystery of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But for those outside, every­thing comes in parables, so, that, the more they see, they don’t perceive; the more they hear, they don’t understand; otherwise they would be converted and pardoned.” Jesus said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How, then, will you understand any of the parables? What the sower is sowing is the word. Those along the path, where the seed fell, are people who hear the word, but as soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them.Other people receive the word like rocky ground. As soon as they hear the word, they accept it with joy. But they have no roots, so it lasts only a little while. No sooner does trouble or persecution come because of the word, than they fall. Others receive the seed, as seed among thorns. After they hear the word, they are caught up in the worries of this life, false hopes of riches and other desires. All these come in and choke the word, so that finally it produces nothing.And there are others who receive the word as good soil. They hear the word, take it to heart and produce: some thirty, some sixty, and some one hundred times as much.”

Reflections
“Don’t you understand this parable?”
Speaking to country people like himself, Jesus often em­ployed stories and images drawn from nature. Surely among his audience there were many who knew from first­hand the work of sowing seeds. They would know that it was a careless farmer who cast his precious seeds on rocky ground, or among thorns, or along a path. By this standard Jesus is a profligate farmer in­ deed—proclaiming his message to all, to the sinner as well as the righteous. What determines our capa­city to receive this message? Ac­cording to Jesus the obstacle is not necessarily a matter of “sin” but lack of “depth”—the lack of a capacity for inwardness. We live on the surface of life, preoc­cupied by daily cares, or fantasies of success, or concerns about the future, and so fail to live in the actual moment in which we are living. Thus, when the message of Good News comes to us we are incapable of receiving it. Soil cannot literally prepare itself for the seed. But we have power over ourselves: to rein in our capacity for distraction, to safeguard space for silence, to be attentive—and so to be ready to respond when the Word of God encounters us.

© Copyright Bible Diary 2019

Gospel: Mark 3:31-35
Then his mother and his brothers came. As they stood outside, they sent someone to call him. The crowd sitting around Jesus told him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside asking for you.” He replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking around at those who sat there, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. Whoever does the will of God is brother and sister and mother to me.”

Reflections
“Who are my mother and my brothers?”
Throughout the Gospels, Je­sus confronts a society divided by an intricate code separating the clean from the unclean, the righteous and the sinner, insider and outsider. He turns that society upside down, breaking down the codes that divide God’s family, restoring the bro­ken and excluded to wholeness and community, inviting those outside to a place of special honor in the feast that God has prepared. This tension is displayed in the contrast between Jesus’ old family—constituted by blood kinship—and his “new family,” constituted by shared disciple­ship. Jesus’ relatives assume that their kinship gives them a par­ticular claim on Jesus: he belongs to them, not to this crowd. His response could upends the tra­ditional code of “family values”: that “blood is thicker than water.” That challenge applies equal­ly to the new Christian family. Do we cling to Jesus, trying to keep him to ourselves, jealous of his love for the crowd? Instead of claiming family privilege on the basis of race or blood we define the family of Jesus on the basis of doctrine. But do we believe that God’s family consists only of Christians? Heed his words: “Whoever does the will of God is my brother, my sister, my mother.”

© Copyright Bible Diary 2019