Love

But I say this to you: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you; in this way you will be sons of your Father in heaven.
Mt5:44,45

Jesus raises the bar on what it means to be a follower of him. Pray for my persecutors, love my enemies. This is the test of an authentic Christian.

My human nature wants to curse my persecutors and hate my enemies. The world would welcome and applaud me as one of its own. I am called to something greater, something divine. 

Easy to achieve? Jesus never says that. He just does it and then turns, beckons me and says, "Come, follow me". 

Lord, with you all things are possible. I place my trust in you.

Stretcher Bearer

It is not those who are well who need the doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the virtuous, but sinners to repentance.
Lk.5:31,32

In calling Matthew the tax collector and then attending a party of tax collectors and sinners, given in his honour, Jesus unequivocally announces who he came for. The sick, the sinner, the bottom of the heap. 

Jesus clearly attracted broken people, the social outcasts. In the last two thousand years the Church has lost that charismatic appeal. I know in my pre-christian days, the Church was the last place I felt drawn to in my brokenness. "They'd just make me feel worse!" 

People are aching for the healing that only Jesus can give. I love Pope Francis' vision of the Church as a hospital in the field of battle. I want to be a stretcher bearer in that sort of Church. 

Jesus, help me be an agent not of judgement but of compassion that people may be drawn to you, the great physician. 

Die to Live

If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross every day and follow me.
Lk.9:23

Jesus reveals what it takes to live as a disciple... death.

Death as Jesus talks about it isn't the final end of the story. It is a door to new life. That has certainly been my experience. The death of my old man gave birth to a new man, a baby full of new life. 

In A Christmas Carol, I love how Scrooge declared on waking from his terror with the Spirits of Christmas, "I don’t know anything. I’m quite a baby. Never mind. I don’t care. I’d rather be a baby.” That Christmas Day was the first day of his new life.

Jesus says this death needs to happen daily. Today, again, can be the first day of my life!

Jesus, today I die so I may live. Oh what joy!

Good Yeast

Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod.
Mk.8:15

Jesus warns of the negative influences that can have a bad effect on how we live. Bad yeast... bad loaf.

When I think of "bad yeast" in my life I remember the 60s and 70s era in which I was raised. The "do what you like" culture of sex, drugs and rock n roll took its toll on me and others with whom I lived.  

However, there was good yeast among the bad. I remember a wonderful Catholic lady who sat on the back step and patiently listened to the unbelievable babblings of an unbelievable teenager. She later became my mother-in-law. Her witness continues to influence me.

Jesus, help me be good yeast to those I meet today, especially the young. 

Compassion

Jesus called his disciples to him and said to them, "I feel sorry for all these people".
Mk.8:1,2

After teaching a great crowd for three days, Jesus is moved by compassion for them to perform a miracle. He feeds them all from seven loaves and a few fish.

Compassion: The sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others. It's a great motivator for acts of love and acts of love can result in miracles. 

Lord, stir within me compassion for those I meet today.
Saint Scholastica, please pray for me.

Create in Me a Pure Heart

For it is from within, from men’s hearts, that evil intentions emerge.
Mk.7:21

Jesus makes the point that religious observance without purity of heart is deceitful hypocrisy. Jesus is more concerned with my inner health than my outer observances.

Jesus consistently refers to the state of the heart. Is it clean or unclean, pure or impure? He zeros in on the truth that good or evil actions start from good or evil thoughts and thoughts are generated from the state of my heart. 

Healthy heart, healthy thoughts, healthy actions. 

Lord, create in me a pure heart. Put a steadfast spirit within me.

His Healing Touch

They laid down the sick in the open spaces, begging him to let them touch even the fringe of his cloak. And all those who touched him were cured.
Mk.6:56

Jesus' fame had gone before him and now crowds of sick are being healed, simply by a touch.

In this Gospel account, the invitation to touch comes from Jesus while the initiative to touch comes from the toucher. In my own experience of a wonderful healing, I had to invite Jesus in, touch him, to receive the healing. 

Jesus heals through relationships, either directly with the person in need of healing or through "friends of friends". Our God is a personal God who wants to touch our lives.

Jesus, I touch you anew this morning. Heal me so I may bring others to your healing touch.
Saint Agatha, please pray for me.

Guilt-free Rest

Then he said to them, ‘You must come away to some lonely place all by yourselves and rest for a while’.
Mk.6:31

The apostles have returned from their mission trip full of news on what they had done. Jesus senses what they really need... rest.

Jesus endorses rest. Hardly a surprise as so did his Father on the seventh day of creation, but still, what a relief. 

I've just returned from a six day retreat. On day one the Spirit led me to the 23rd Psalm. My initial reaction was, "Why? I've heard and read this so many times". Then, I was led to the second verse, "He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters." 

It struck me that the Lord doesn't invite me to lie down, he makes me. Subsequently, I spent many hours lying down on a verdant lawn adjacent to a pond with a gentle fountain. I hadn't realised how much I needed that.

Guilt-free rest. We all need it.

Thank you Lord for green pastures and still waters. 

Presented

The parents of Jesus took him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord.
Lk.2:22

Jesus is presented to God. God says, "Great, now this is what he will do... be a light to the nations and a deliverer of my people." 

Although today is the Feast of the Presentation I can't help being drawn to my own presentation, my baptism. I was one year old when baptised in a Presbyterian church. Even though I drifted away to atheism, that indelible mark was upon me.  I believe my baptism saved me from mortal sin even during my unbelieving years. 

I love to picture my mother and father carrying me, presenting me, to God saying, "This is our beloved son in whom we are well pleased". God then says, "Me too!"

Thank you Lord for receiving me even while you knew I would deny you. 

Saints Simeon and Anna, please pray for me.

Marching Orders

So they set off to preach repentance; and they cast out many devils, and anointed many sick people with oil and cured them.
Mk.6:13

Jesus commissions the apostles for their first mission trip. They are to do what he did. Preach. Cast out. Heal.

This remains the marching orders for the Church today. To call myself a member of the Church, I need to be preaching, casting out and healing. The world is still aching to hear the Good News, be freed from demons and be healed of its diseases. 

Grab your staff and let's go!

Jesus, I have received without cost. Help me now give.