If you were one of those first followers of Jesus, you’d realize pretty quickly that Jesus astonishes and amazes people. What astonishes and amazes us today? The amount of money Bill Gates or Warren Buffet has? How much time gets devoted to deflategate? The amount of snow that can fall per hour in New England? Despite the flippancy of my suggestions, it’s a serious question that deserves some serious reflection. One way to enter into that reflection is to spend some quiet time imagining being present as a tentative follower to observe the Gospel of Mark’s first story of the public ministry of Jesus, in the passage we hear this Sunday. I find it pretty interesting that Jesus didn’t set about trying to prove anything, or even really to convince or coerce people. He simply let them encounter him, which offered a challenge that left them asking, “What does this mean?” So what was that encounter like?

Jesus has entered the synagogue, the sacred space of the people. While that has obvious religious meaning, it also means that he is treading into the intimate areas of peoples’ lives that they hold sacred, the things that we carefully guard and resist letting others challenge or influence. Sometimes these are commitments, sometimes prejudices or biases, sometimes things we value or cherish. Sometimes they are lifegiving, and sometimes they are things we have never questioned that have a hold on us.

In this sacred space, Jesus takes a role that invites those present to size him up. Any man with knowledge of the scriptures could be invited to comment on the readings. Mark doesn’t tell us anything about the content of Jesus’s teaching, so we can’t know anything about it at this point. So we have to ask what we do know. Mark has previously given us the insider knowledge that Jesus is the Son of God. We know he has a strong and intimate connection with God. He spends time in prayer. He is filled with God’s spirit. Knowing only this much, we know that like his Father, he is filled with love for the poor, the marginalized, the suffering and the searching.

I imagine that what was astonishing for the people when they heard Jesus is that a “nobody” who is hanging out with a bunch of fishermen isn’t just offering opinions about which traditional biblical interpretation is best, like the scribes--the people educated and employed to do this for them. What they notice about him is that he speaks with authority, as if he was the author of the scriptures and knew the real meaning. As if this wasn’t enough controversy, in the midst of this experience a heckler yells out, interrupting the service, “a man with an unclean spirit.” He is no match for Jesus, who is in complete control, and “all were amazed.”

I suppose that could describe any one of us when confronted with the authority of God’s love for us. Although this is an extreme and dramatic case, it is intended to make the point clear. Mark’s Gospel is asking us to consider the experience of being challenged to let God’s love, God’s spirit of life, enter our sacred spaces and drive away our unclean spirits, our demons, and to set us free to ask, “what does this mean” for us?

There’s a directness and honesty in relationship with Jesus that affects people in different ways--people are challenged, people are healed, people are taught. Some are frightened, some are amazed, some feel threatened. How does witnessing Jesus’s ministry make you feel? How do you want Christ to affect you?

…what I want in my life is to be willing to be dazzled—to cast aside the weight of facts and maybe even to float a little above this difficult world. I want to believe that I am looking into the white fire of a great mystery. -Mary Oliver, “The Ponds”

~Fr. Thom

Take your next step: Read this Sunday's Gospel and imagine being present as a tentative follower in Mark's first story of Jesus's public ministry. How does witnessing Jesus’s ministry make you feel? 

The very first words Jesus speaks in the Gospel of Mark are these: “This is the time of fulfillment.” Isn’t fulfillment what we’re all looking for? Most of us know what it’s like not to have fulfillment—the feelings of restlessness and emptiness; the sense of unspecified longing and wondering what it all means; the feeling that we are not living the life we were supposed to live and that maybe it’s too late. To be fulfilled, on the other hand, is to know a sense of peace and contentment in being exactly who we are, a sense that what we have is all we really need. In commerce, “fulfillment” means delivering what the customer ordered, but ironically, this world often tries to sell us a fulfillment it can’t possibly deliver. 

The only way we can find fulfillment is in God, because that’s how we were made. Other things might make us happy for a little while, or even a longer while. But true and lasting fulfillment can only be found in achieving the purpose for which we were made, which is to be in relationship with God. Saint Augustine, addressing God directly, put it this way: “Our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” Centuries later, Blaise Pascal wrote that each of us has an “infinite abyss” in our lives that can only be filled by God. These themes emerge in contemporary language in the idea that each of us has a God-shaped hole in our hearts. In specifically Christian terms, that hole in our hearts can only be filled through relationship with Christ, through whom God enters our lives and makes us new.

This is why Jesus begins his public ministry by announcing the time of fulfillment—in him, fulfillment is now possible for all of us. But what does this actually mean? It’s clear that it takes more than just knowing that Christ exists to find fulfillment. Most of us have known about Christ since before we can remember, and yet we don’t all always feel fulfilled. Right after Jesus announces the time of fulfillment, he goes to Simon, Andrew, James, and John and says: “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of people.” In inviting them to come after him, Christ promises them that they will find fulfillment in becoming disciples and making other disciples. So if we want to find fulfillment, it’s not enough to know who Jesus is—we have to really know him, follow him, and join him in making disciples.

If we do not yet have that kind of relationship with Christ, that prospect may sound rather daunting and impossible. It might help for us to consider that we are actually in a very similar place to Simon and the others, and that what God made possible for them, God can also make possible for us. Simon and company were simply going about their business when Jesus, kind of out of nowhere and rather inconveniently, appeared and said, “Come after me.” There is no indication that any of them had ever laid eyes on Jesus before he tells them to drop everything and become his disciples. But amazingly enough, they do! They follow Jesus without knowing him, without even really knowing anything about him or what he might ask of them. 

Maybe at some level they recognized that everything else in this life is fleeting, and that so much of what we spend our time and money and energy on is false. Maybe what attracted them to Jesus was some sense of possibility that in him—in knowing him, in coming to know themselves better by knowing him, in helping others come to know him—they might at last find real fulfillment. In any event, something about Jesus attracted them. Something in them wanted to say yes to his crazy invitation, and God’s grace raced to meet that yes, supplying all the courage they needed to make the bold and life-changing decision to drop their nets.

~Rachel

Take Your Next Step: Set aside ten minutes sometime this week to reflect on these questions: What is it about Christ that attracts you? How might you find fulfillment in coming to know Christ more deeply? Where might you need God’s help to make a bold decision?

“What are you looking for?” This is a pivotal question in the reading taken from the Gospel of John for the second Sunday in Ordinary Time. Knowing what we are looking for determines where we look and what it is worth to us to even bother looking. After all, you would not look in a lake for an owl or in a violent demonstration for an experience of peace.

So, what are you looking for? Peace, balance, wholeness, holiness, resilience, meaning, a sense of purpose or direction, security, a relationship that makes a difference? All of the above are byproducts of a relationship that makes a difference, of the relationship that makes the greatest and most fundamental difference in our lives.

For the past year and a half, you have been hearing us speak of the importance of developing a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. This cannot be emphasized too much. Faith grows and deepens in the fertile environment of a deep and abiding friendship with God. Belief, hope, trust, and love spread their roots into every facet of our lives when we come to know God through frequent and persistent prayer.  

It is important to recall that relationship requires two people to be open to the gift of connection, the union and the development of bonds between them. In this we are extremely blessed, because God loved us first and will continue to love us no matter what. Spurred on by the awareness that we are truly loved by God, it becomes easier to trust our desire to come to know, love, and imitate Christ and to recognize God’s activity in our lives.  

How might you do this? Take time at the end of each day to reflect on that day. When did you experience a moment of delight, of unexpected peace, of long-awaited insight into how to deal with a problem? Consider the source of the delight, peace, or insight. Did you create those feelings or awarenesses? More often than not, you will find yourself acknowledging that they are pure gifts and so conclude they came from God. In such a moment of awareness, a prayer of thanksgiving is an appropriate response.

Reading and reflecting on the Gospels is critical to coming to know Christ better and to know what Christ asks of you.  The scriptures for the Second Sunday in Ordinary time are rich for our consideration. In them, we hear: “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.” “Behold.” “What are you looking for?” “Where are you staying?” “Come and see.” Each of these words or phrases invites us to consider their meaning for us at this moment in time. For instance: What is God wanting to say to you? What does God want you to behold; not just see, but behold? When we hear Jesus invite us to come and see, what exactly is he holding up for us to notice?

So, after all is said and done, “What are you looking for?” Are you looking for the relationship that makes the greatest and most fundamental difference in your life? Christ has been looking for that relationship with you from the start. He awaits your next step. Are you ready to take it? You will not regret it. Come and see.

~Sr. Kathleen

Take Your Next Step: Spend a few minutes at the end of each day this week asking God to open your eyes and heart to the ways in which God was present and active in your life that day. Tell God about your desire to know God more fully and to love God more deeply.

During the summer before my last year of seminary, one of my classmates from the Fall River Diocese invited a few of us to spend a week at his parish assignment on Nantucket. I love swimming, and I love the ocean, so I was very eager to go. The south shore beaches there make you feel like you are really out in the middle of the vast ocean and easily lead to pondering infinite mysteries. While swimming one day out there, I remembered my high school swim coach trying to convince me to fill a hole in our roster by swimming backstroke. I resisted because I never felt I could go “all out” in backstroke to reach my full potential. I was afraid, not being able to see where I was going, and thought I would miscount my strokes and crash into the wall or get tangled in the lane lines. Those same fears were present that day as I thought about the life-changing year ahead and how I had no idea what it would be like to be ordained, where I would be assigned, or if I was even on the right path.
 
As I let myself be immersed in the moment of beauty, awe, mystery, and fear, floating on my back in the vast ocean, I began to swim the backstroke, tentatively at first, and then, realizing that I was in a practically limitless body of water with no obstacles in my path, I began to swim “all out.” I felt the most amazing sense of being invited to trust God more deeply, buoyed by the joy of letting go and hearing, or rather, feeling God speak to me, saying, “you are my beloved son.” Although I had no idea where I was going, I knew that I was having an experience that was teaching me that I didn’t need to know. I felt a renewal of my baptism and the companionship of Jesus, who had shared a similar experience and really wanted to help me embrace my life journey with his example and comforting presence to guide me.
 
As we immerse ourselves in this next stretch of time in the Church year, we will be given the opportunity to reflect on how people come to know Jesus. Pope Francis has invited all of us to come to know Jesus in a new way, to have “a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least an openness to letting him encounter [us].” For five weeks we will explore together what this means and the steps we can take to make ourselves more open to an encounter with Jesus Christ--an encounter that has the potential to change our lives.
 
This is a great time to recall the gift of our baptism: God’s invitation to know and follow his Beloved Son. Most of us do not recall the baptism that happened when we were infants. We tend to think of baptism only as a ritual lasting a few moments. Actually, baptism is an ongoing immersion in the identity and mystery of Jesus, deepening and bearing fruit over a lifetime. It’s a great time to ask ourselves why we spend our lives chasing after things that fail to satisfy us, when the only thing that will truly satisfy us is Christ. We were created for union with God, and God willed that this union should come about through Christ. I am so grateful for a moment in the ocean that taught me to trust more deeply in God’s desire to help me go “all out” to reach my full potential in union with his Beloved Son.
 
~Fr. Thom
 
Take Your Next Step: What fears hold you back from going “all out”? What causes you to question taking another step in learning about Jesus and deepening your relationship with him? How do you spend your life on things that don’t really satisfy? What will you do this week to immerse yourself more deeply in the gift of your own baptism: God’s invitation to know and follow his Beloved Son?