believe. teach. practice.

A reflection by BJ Brown.

This Sunday’s readings can be found on the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ website.

A reflection by BJ Brown

This Sunday’s readings can be found on the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ website.

Today’s gospel takes us to the very heart of Mark’s gospel: the section in which Jesus predicts his own approaching passion and death and undertakes the seemingly impossible task of motivating the disciples to follow him. It is a tale, therefore, of opposition, both from the hostile adversaries of Jesus, but also from his own closest supporters.
The first reading has been chosen to give us an insight into today’s gospel. There’s a long biblical tradition about the rejection of the true prophets. The gospel writers saw this long tradition culminating in Jesus’ own experience.
The Wisdom passage offers a chilling description of what motivates the opponents of the true prophets and, most of all, what motivates Jesus’ enemies. The human heart can close itself totally against God’s grace and dedicate itself to crushing the cause of justice in the world. The wicked explicitly target “the just one” of whom Jesus is the prime example.
Our responsorial psalm is the response of the just one to the threats of the wicked. We know that Jesus, as a pious Jew, himself prayed the psalms. We can imagine Jesus praying this psalm in the moments—like those described in today’s gospel—when he was most in need of his Father’s strength and support.
The second reading is a continuation of the Letter of James. In today’s passage, James offers an insightful overview of the horrible conflicts—many of them violent—that constantly plague our world. What is the root cause of such turmoil and chaos, and how can we find a remedy? There is wisdom here that we should all take to heart.
—Walter Modrys SJ

This Sunday’s readings can be found on the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ website.

Today’s first reading is familiar to us. It serves also as the first reading on Passion—or as it’s popularly called, Palm—Sunday in Holy Week. Right after we hold up palms to celebrate Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem, the liturgy dramatically changes mood—from joyful jubilation to the solemn grief of the Passion story. On Palm Sunday, this reading marks that transition from victory celebration to tragic grieving.
But why in the middle of September are we reading a passage from Isaiah that belongs in Holy Week?
The reading is excerpted from the “Suffering Servant Songs,” a set of Old Testament poems from Isaiah about the redemptive power of suffering. The New Testament writers frequently quoted from these Old Testament passages to describe Jesus’ suffering and death. Indeed, they may have adjusted some of their descriptions in Jesus’ passion story to fit the Old Testament passages, just to make sure we get the connection.
Why are we talking now about Jesus’ passion and the Old Testament background? Because in today’s gospel, Mark begins the toughest part of his story: how the disciples had to muster the courage to accompany Jesus on his journey to the cross. Sadly, in Mark’s gospel they never succeed in this struggle to embrace the cross. Mark is very negative in his portrait of the disciples. So Mark’s storyline is rather shocking and hard to take because Mark seems to imply that we are a lot like the disciples—reluctant to follow Jesus.
In the second reading, we continue with the letter of James. Some commentators think this New Testament letter was written to counteract some of the influence of St. Paul—or, more precisely, some of the ways people were misconstruing Paul’s thought. In the shorthand version, the argument is all about the competition between “faith” and “works.” 
Paul sided with faith. Faith in Jesus is more important than the observance of the law, which he termed “works.”
But James sides with works. Works are the actions that put faith into practice, and that’s an essential part of true faith.
Maybe it’s best for us to skip the verbal niceties by admitting that faith and works should go together. True faith motivates our actions to follow Jesus. It’s good for us to hear both Paul and James.
—Walter Modrys SJ

This Sunday’s readings can be found on the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ website.

A reflection by BJ Brown

This Sunday’s readings can be found on the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ website.

The biblical Book of Deuteronomy revolves around a single dramatic picture: Moses standing up before the whole people of Israel solemnly assembled before him to present to them the Law of God. They are in the desert, having escaped from slavery in Egypt, and their long journey to the Promised Land is finally coming to an end. Their future is opening up to a glorious new life of freedom and prosperity.
But it is a dangerous time, too. Opportunities can be transformed into temptations. Gratitude can degenerate into self-indulgence. And a guaranteed victory can lead to over-confidence and a betrayal of the Covenant. God knows they do not need a stricter law—that’s a mistranslation of the Hebrew word. They need what the Bible calls TORAH, better translated as teaching. They need instruction on how to live in the new land, what values to embrace, how to ward off the pitfalls and contradictions that can lead them astray. They need the wisdom that only God can provide and that Moses as the great prophet of Israel will impart.
The gospels tend to associate Jesus with the Old Testament figure of Moses. For us, Jesus, too, is a lawgiver, but in a special way, like Moses. To impart God’s law, Jesus had first to correct the misguided notion of law that was so prevalent in his day and such an obstacle to his ministry.
Today’s gospel recounts a typical legal dispute in Jesus’ ministry. Understand that the argument is not about hygiene or modern sanitary practices. It’s all about religious ritual observances—as Mark explains to his Gentile readers. An obvious question emerges from the incident: Why doesn’t Jesus simply conform to the requirement instead of making such a fuss?
Regarding the second reading, beginning today and for the next four weeks or so the second reading will be taken from the Letter of James. This New Testament book focuses on one main idea, introduced in the passage selected for today. There’s a popular saying that captures this meaning: “Walk the walk.” Or as James put it two thousand years ago: “Be doers of the word and not hearers only.” The Letter of James applies that lesson specifically to social justice: Help the poor. Don’t just talk about it. It’s a challenging message that we will hear today and during the coming Sundays.
—Walter Modrys SJ

This Sunday’s readings can be found on the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ website.

A reflection on the ending of the sixth chapter of John’s gospel by BJ Brown.

This Sunday’s readings can be found on the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ website.

A reflection on Mary’s Assumption, “body and soul into heaven” by BJ Brown.

This Sunday’s readings can be found on the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ website.

Elijah was one of the great prophets of Israel. He challenged king Ahab for betraying the covenant and worshiping pagan gods. Ahab, driven on by his wife, Queen Jezebel, wants to retaliate against Elijah for his opposition. As the story picks up in our first reading, Elijah is running for his life with King Ahab in hot pursuit. Finally, Elijah falls down exhausted, in the desert. He’s ready to give up and just wants to die. But the angel of the Lord intervenes, gives Elijah some food so he can continue his journey. Elijah will make his way to the holy mountain where Moses received the stones of the covenant. There Elijah, too, will meet the Lord.
In the gospel, Jesus is preaching in the desert, having fed the crowd who followed him. Jesus speaks about the special food that he will give which is far more precious than the food God formerly gave to satisfy people’s hunger—food even more special than the manna that the ancient Jews received to support their journey to the promised land. For “This is the living bread,” Jesus tells them, which of course we identify with the Eucharist at Mass.
Our second reading reminds us that the gifts of the Holy Spirit can overcome all our sins and limitations. Empowered with those graces we are challenged to be “imitators of God”—a truly startling phrase that should remind us of the miracle God’s grace can work within us.
—Walter Modrys SJ

This Sunday’s readings can be found on the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ website.

We are making our way through the sixth chapter of John’s gospel. This chapter begins with the story of the multiplication of the loaves and the fishes, which we read as last Sunday’s gospel. As you may recall, immediately after working the sign, Jesus withdrew from the crowd to avoid their misguided reaction to what he had done to feed them. As John says, Jesus “withdrew again to the mountain alone.”
Later that evening, the disciples embarked in a boat to cross the lake. Interestingly, almost every time the story of the multiplication is told in the gospels—and it is told six times in the gospels—some incident is recorded of the disciples getting in trouble on the lake. In John, Jesus simply appears to them walking on the lake just as they are about to land on the opposite shore.
Today’s gospel picks up the story with the events of the next day, when Jesus tries to explain to the unruly crowd how they should understand what they had just witnessed the day before.
John’s gospel story is filled with Old Testament allusions which Jesus uses to explain the sign of the multiplication of loaves, so that the people can understand. 
In this regard, to help us bring a proper perspective to the gospel, our first reading from the book of Exodus is perfectly chosen. It tells us how the Lord long ago provided manna for the people of Israel in the desert, just as in the gospel story Jesus himself is offering bread from heaven.
The psalm refrain serves to bring both readings together by pointing to their common theme: “The Lord gave them bread from heaven.”
The second reading repeats a favorite theme of St. Paul, putting aside the old self and taking on the new. This is what transpires in baptism and then repeatedly in our lives if we are open to the grace of conversion, the call to follow Christ that is always new in our hearts.
—Walter Modrys SJ

This Sunday’s readings can be found on the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ website.