15B24.    Amos 7:12-15.  Amos answered, “The Lord took me from following the flock, and said to me, Go, prophesy to my people Israel.”  God actively directs and shepherds his people through us who choose to belong to him and his Will.

Mark 6:7-13.  “Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over unclean spirits.”  Jesus empowered his Apostles to drive out demons and cure the sick.  In turn they were to receive what they needed for their physical needs from the people they aided and welcomed them.  “So they went off and preached repentance.”  By driving out demons and sickness, the apostles were encouraging the recipients to repent from their sins so to be spiritually healthy.   God was using those who chose to belong to him and his Will to direct and shepherd his people to heaven.

Ephesians 1:3-14.   God “chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him. In love he destined us for adoption to himself through Jesus Christ.”  God from all eternity chose us to be holy in his image and likeness as his adopted daughters and sons.  As people who belong to God’s Will, he has chosen us to do the work he wishes us to do.  We, who “have believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, which is the first installment of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s possession, to the praise of his glory.”

15B21.     Amos 7:12-15.   Amaziah, priest of Bethel, rejects Amos as a prophet.  Nevertheless, Amos declares that, even though he was only a humble shepherd, the Lord said to him, “Go, prophesy to my people Israel.”  Likewise, Jesus and his followers found that, though chosen by God, they too would be rejected by some.

Mark 6:7-13.  In last Sunday’s gospel Jesus had brought his disciples to his own hometown of Nazareth but was rejected by the people who knew him in the days before he started his public ministry, when he was still just a carpenter.  In this Sunday’s gospel Jesus sent out his Apostles “two by two and gave them authority over unclean spirits.”  They were to bring almost nothing for their personal physical needs but be dependent on the accommodating hospitality of those who welcomed them.  For those who rejected them, Jesus told them to “shake the dust off your feet in testimony against them.”  They “preached repentance,” “drove out many demons,” and “anointed with oil many, who were sick, and cured them.”  For using the spiritual power that Jesus gave the Apostles, they were to be justly compensated, “for the laborer deserves his payment.”  (Luke 10:7b)   Those who reject the spiritual grace that God gives in his paternal care will be without any resources whatever after death.

Ephesians 1:3-14.  God the Father chose us “to be holy and without blemish,” that is God chose us to be saints by living our lives in Christ and not as people buried in the ways and spirit of this world.  We were chosen from all eternity to be saints “so that we might exist for the praise of his glory.”  In baptism we “were sealed with the promise of the Holy Spirit, which is the first installment of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s possession, to the praise of his glory.”  May our lives be living acts of praise and worship of the God who has lavished us with the riches of his infinite love!   Accepting God’s love daily we are rich because of his infinite care for us.

15B18.   Amos 7:12-15.   Amos tells Amaziah, priest of Bethel, that he had a way to earn bread as a shepherd and a dresser of sycamores.  The reason why he is a prophet was not to earn bread, but that God himself called him to be a prophet.

Mark 6:7-13.  As God had sent out Amos, Jesus sends out the Twelve, representing his founding the new Israel, to preach repentance to bring the people into his new People of God.  He sends them out with the spiritual authority over unclean spirits but with little material resources.  Those who accept the invitation to follow Christ are to supply for the material needs of the Apostles; those, who do not, will have testimony given against them.

Ephesians 1:3-14.  This text is incredibly rich.  We have been blessed because God the Father has chosen us in Christ, “before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him.  In love he destined us for adoption to himself through Jesus Christ, in accord with  the favor of his will, for the praise of the glory of his grace that he granted us in the beloved” Christ.  To be the sons and daughters of the Father, God’s People, we have been called to be holy as he is holy so that we may live with him who is our Father in our new family home, heaven.  To become holy as he is holy is the work of the Spirit in us through the grace that our Father has lavished on us.  In accepting his redemption of us, we gain our inheritance to become “God’s possession, to the praise of his glory,” God’s holy People made new in Christ.” Life on the way to heaven is a daily experience of growing in our friendship with God by cooperating with the Spirit.  Every day is a wondrous joy because more and more Christ becomes our life, helping us to live a little more of heaven even while we are here on earth.

14B24.    Ezekiel 2:2-5.   The Lord spoke to his newly appointed prophet Ezekiel of the Israelites: “Hard of face and obstinate of heart are they to whom I am sending you.”  Nonetheless, the Lord continued: “They shall know that a prophet has been among them.”

Mark 6:1-6a.  Jesus returned to Nazareth where he grew us and lived until he left to begin his ministry.  After having left on his ministry on his return to his hometown, he appeared to the local people to have changed radically and no longer seemed to be the same person they grew up with.  The gospel passage says, “And they took offense at him,” which I think means that they refused to accept Jesus in his new role as Messiah.  As a result, Jesus “was not able to perform any mighty deed there,” since the objective of his miracles was develop their faith in him.  They refused to put any faith in him.  Jesus said in John 10:38, “If I perform them, even if you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may realize [and understand] that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” We are given the number of years we live on this earth as an opportunity to deepen and mature our faith and life in Jesus as our Savior.

2 Corinthians 12:7-10.  Paul wrote, “I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and constraints, for the sake of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”  For God to be the God of the lives that we live daily, we must live out of his dwelling within us, as the one who enables us to do the good we do.  It is only out of his resources and not our own that we are the people we ought to be.  Jesus said in John 15:5b, “Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing.”

14B21.     Amos 7:12-15.   Amaziah, priest of Bethel, rejects Amos as a prophet.  Nevertheless, Amos declares that, even though he was only a humble shepherd, the Lord said to him, “Go, prophesy to my people Israel.”  Likewise, Jesus and his followers found that, though chosen by God, they too would be rejected by some.

Mark 6:7-13.  In last Sunday’s gospel Jesus had brought his disciples to his own hometown of Nazareth but was rejected by the people who knew him in the days before he started his public ministry, when he was still just a carpenter.  In this Sunday’s gospel Jesus sent out his Apostles “two by two and gave them authority over unclean spirits.”  They were to bring almost nothing for their personal physical needs but be dependent on the accommodating hospitality of those who welcomed them.  For those who rejected them, Jesus told them to “shake the dust off your feet in testimony against them.”  They “preached repentance,” “drove out many demons,” and “anointed with oil many, who were sick, and cured them.”  For using the spiritual power that Jesus gave the Apostles, they were to be justly compensated, “for the laborer deserves his payment.”  (Luke 10:7b)   Those who reject the spiritual grace that God gives in his paternal care will be without any resources whatever after death.

Ephesians 1:3-14.  God the Father chose us “to be holy and without blemish,” that is God chose us to be saints by living our lives in Christ and not as people buried in the ways and spirit of this world.  We were chosen from all eternity to be saints “so that we might exist for the praise of his glory.”  In baptism we “were sealed with the promise of the Holy Spirit, which is the first installment of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s possession, to the praise of his glory.”  May our lives be living acts of praise and worship of the God who has lavished us with the riches of his infinite love!   Accepting God’s love daily we are rich because of his infinite care for us.

14B18.   Ezekiel 2:2-5.   God sends his spokesman to his people who do not want to be God’s People but rather want to belong to themselves and not to God.  God says, at least, they will know that Ezekiel is a prophet sent to them by God.

Mark 1-6a. Jesus “came to his native place.”  He preached in the synagogue to the people who knew him from birth.  “Many who heard him were astonished.  They said, ‘Where did this man get all this?’”  “’Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?’  And they took offense at him.”  As Catholics we understand that using the terminology ‘brothers and sisters’ does not mean that they are the children of Mary but rather that they are the cousins of Jesus and so members of Jesus’ extended family.  Also, I understand that they “took offense at him” to mean that all those who knew him from birth or for many years before his public ministry thought that they really knew this fellow Jesus and that now Jesus was falsely trying to come off as someone totally different than the person that they had known all those past years.  However, he was proving himself to be someone who had come of age to be the person he was really meant to be all along.  Now he was manifesting the divine call he had received by the authority he was showing in his words and miracles.  The people in Jesus’ native place, his hometown, were too locked into a previous conception they had of the person of Jesus.  They were being too human and nature bound and not allowing the spiritual (Holy Spirit) to change them.  “So he was not able to perform any mighty deed there, apart from curing a few sick people.”  The object of the miracles of curing people was to build on their faith in him and help increase their spiritual life.  Jesus had no basis to work miracles since they refused to have any faith in him.  “He was amazed at their lack of faith.”

2 Corinthians 12:7-10.   “Because of the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given me, an angel of Satan, to beat me to keep me from being too elated.  Three times I begged the Lord about this, that it might leave me, but he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.’”  The notes that I read claim that Paul was afflicted, not by a physical or spiritual problem but, by person whom he found to be particularly challenging.  Paul had been gifted with quite many visions and ecstasies but, since he was not in heaven dead to this world, he still needed to live in the dirt of this earth.  Paul continues, “Therefore, I am content with weaknesses, insult, hardships, persecutions, and constraints, for the sake of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”  Paul is content because he knows that hardships endured with Christ on the cross lead to the joy of the resurrection. If we in our own right feel strong without God, that means that we have filled up ourselves with our own selves, leaving no room for God to be in us.  Feeling strong on our own right means that we have deceived ourselves into thinking that we can do for ourselves what only God can do for us.   Coming to the recognition and acceptance that only God can give us the strength we need to prosper spiritually against the difficulties of this world is the first step toward holiness. Jesus in John 15:5 said: “I am the vine, you are the branches.  Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing.”

13B24.   Wisdom 1:13-15; 2:23-24.   Our God is love and his love is the only source of any true goodness.  At its very root it is only from and through our God comes goodness.  What is evil is made to seem to appear good so to be attractive but is not genuinely good, since it is not from God.

Mark 5:21-43.    When in fact and deed we genuinely live dependent on God, actually drawing on God as the source of the life we live, then we have made real that we are a true daughter or son of God.  Jesus addressed the woman, who put her faith in Jesus if she just touched his clothes, as “daughter.”  She was drawing from the spiritual life of Jesus and not from the forces of the earthly life of this world that had abandoned her to her bodily affliction.  After the synagogue official had learned that his daughter had died, Jesus said to him, “Do not be afraid; just have faith.”  When Jesus said to mourners outside the synagogue official’s house, “the child is not dead but asleep,” “they ridiculed him” because they had no faith in Jesus.  Despite the faithlessness of the mourners, the little girl did rise and eat because of God’s loving goodness.

2 Corinthians 8:7, 9, 13-15.   Jesus “though he was rich, for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.”  Jesus was in a certain sense infinitely rich when he was in heaven but became poor when he chose to live as an infant totally dependent on his mother.  Following his example when we have an abundance, we should be willing share from our abundance with those who are in need.

13B21.    Wisdom 1:13-15; 2:23-24.    “God did not make death.”  For God formed man to be imperishable; the image of his own nature he made him.”  In Genesis God the Creator made only good things.  God is the source of all goodness, then and now.  When we live in God, the source of all goodness, our lives are filled with endless blessings.

Mark 5:21-43.  There follows two stories of two females who needed Jesus to supply their needs: one, an adult who suffered for twelve years without any source of relief; another, a twelve year old girl who needed to be brought back from what seemed to be an apparent death.  Both were helpless.  Jesus said to the synagogue official and, in a sense to us, “Do not be afraid; just have faith.”  It was the woman’s faith that released the curing power from Jesus without Jesus knowing exactly what had happened.   The synagogue official was willing to put his faith in Jesus despite the apparent death of his daughter and the negativity of the mourners.  God is ready to supply for our needs but we must have faith.

2 Corinthians 8:7, 9, 13-15. Paul tells the Corinthians that they have excelled in every way but there was yet another way in which they should excel.  Paul calls upon the Corinthians to supply monetarily for the needs of the impoverished Christians in Jerusalem.    Just as Jesus, in a gracious act, left the richness of living in heaven to embrace the poverty of living in this world as a human being, so should the Corinthians be willing to share some of their abundance to help those who have almost nothing.  As God supplies for our needs, we ought to be willing to help others in need.

13B18.   Wisdom 1:13-15; 2:23-24.   “God did not make death nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living.”  God did not create death but only life.  Death entered the world through the sinful disobedience of Adam and Eve (Romans 5:12).  “God formed man to be imperishable; the image of his own nature he made him.”  He made us to be his sons and daughters in his image and likeness (Genesis 1:27), living forever happily with him.

Mark 5:21-43.  Jairus pleads, “My daughter is at the point of death.  Please, come lay your hands on her that she may get well and live.”  Despite the report that the daughter has died, Jesus says, “Do not be afraid; just have faith.”  Jesus goes and tells her to arise and she does.  Jesus gives her physical health as a sign to all that he wishes to give us the health that is eternal, called holiness.  He is the God that robs death of its power to be the eternal termination of life.  Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:52b:  “For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”  Paul continues in 1 Corinthians 15:54c-55: “Death is swallowed up in victory.  Where, O death is your victory? Where, O death is your sting?”

The woman afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years says to herself, “If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured.”  “She felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction.  Jesus, aware at once that power had gone out from him, turned around in the crowd and asked, ‘Who has touched my clothes?’”  Although he was jostled about in the crowd and many people were rubbing up against him, none had done so with the faith to be cured at that moment.  Her faith had released the curative energy from Jesus without Jesus even knowing who had done it.  The power of faith is that we hand ourselves to the power of God.  The God who created us to be loved by him and to live in his love forever is the God who will give only good things to those who wish to live in his love.  In Matthew 7:11 Jesus says, “If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him.”

2 Corinthians 5:21-43.  Apparently, expecting Jesus to return soon after his ascension into heaven to end the world and take all who believed in him to heaven, the Christians in Jerusalem sold all they had, shared the proceeds with one another and waited for the Second Coming of the Lord.  When the Lord did not come, they were living in abysmal poverty.  In this Sundays’ second reading, Paul makes an appeal to the Corinthians to support the Christians in Jerusalem.  Basically Paul is saying be generous as Jesus was generous, giving his life for us.  You who have much should give to those who have nothing so that both of you should have something.  This message blends in with the other two readings in that God is the generous giver who gives good things to those in need, even health to the sick and life to the dead.  Live in the goodness of God!

12B24.   Job 38:1, 8-11.  Our God is the almighty, all-powerful G awesome God.  Look into the minutest atom or out to the farthest points of the unknown universe.  There is the magnificence of our all-wondrous God!

Mark 4:35-41.   The squall was so violent that the waves were already breaking over the boat and already filling it up.  Jesus was so deeply asleep that it was not the storm but the disciples who had to awaken him.  Jesus rebuked the violence of the wind, overpowering the sea, “Quiet! Be still!” “The wind ceased and there was great calm.”  In a turnabout, Jesus put raging nature to sleep with the supernatural.  What else could his disciples say but, “Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?” We say to glory of God in the Mass: “We praise you, we bless you, we adore you, we glorify you, we give you thanks for your great glory.”

2 Corinthians 5:14-17.  The Holy Spirit imbues us with the love of Christ that in turn impels us to become a new creation.  Jesus died that we might live infinitely more than an earthly life of the flesh but a life in which Christ is our life.