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Rev Kev - 22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time

30/8/2018

Jesus calls for a complete integrity of life.
We resume reading from Mark at the place where Jesus is disputing with the Scribes and the Pharisees.
When Mark is writing [70AD] there would have been tension between the Christian community and the local Synagogue. Most of Mark's readers were not Jews and would have difficulty with Jewish customs, especially after Peter's vision. [Acts 10:1-43]
His list of sins reminds us of Galatians (5:22-26)
When self-indulgence is at work the results are obvious: fornication, gross indecency and sexual irresponsibility, idolatry and sorcery, feuds and wrangling, jealousy, bad temper and quarrels; disagreements, factions, envy, drunkenness, orgies and similar things.
What the Spirit brings is very different: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness and self-control. There is no law against anything like that.

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Rev Kev - 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time

23/8/2018

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Then Jesus told the twelve, "What about you, do you want to go away too?" Simon Peter answered, "Lord, to whom shall we go to? You have the message of eternal life, and we believe: and we know that you are the Holy One of God."
This is a parting of the way. The believers remain and the non-believers depart. many choose to leave Jesus. it is Peter who makes the great assertion of his faith in Jesus who has the words of eternal life. He professes him as the "Holy One of God."
Note the title "Son of Man." This is Jesus' choice of description of himself. It has occurred already in this chapter. The meaning is ambiguous. It reflects Daniel's vision (Dan 7:13-14) alluding to a heavenly being with an active relationship between heaven and earth. It can also and often refer to the Aussie equivalent of "a bloke" or ordinary person. Jesus has the two meanings in mind.
"I gazed into the vision of the night, and I saw, coming on the clouds of heaven, one like the Son of Man." (Dan 7:13)
"It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh has nothing to offer." This clashed with the words of Jesus re: the necessity of eating the "flesh of the Son of man." It is not a denigration of our bodies because "the Word became flesh." There is a shift of meaning from unredeemed humanity to the humanity of Jesus.
The choice is ours. To leave with the 500 or to stay with Peter.

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Rev Kev - 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time

16/8/2018

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"As I, who am sent by the living Father, myself draw life from the Father, so whoever eats me will draw life from me. This is the bread come down from heaven; not like the bread your ancestors ate; they are dead, but anyone who eats this bread will live forever."
This verse makes a big transition from Wisdom teaching to Sacramental teaching. "The bread that I shall give is my flesh for the life of the world." This is confronting language. Even today this language has the capacity to shock. Cf. I am light, living water, the way, the truth and the life.
Here is another question: "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" Jesus has the opportunity to say he has been misunderstood. Does he? No. He goes even deeper into the mystery. "I tell you solemnly, if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you will not have life in you." Does this sound like a backdown? He continues, "Anyone who does eat my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is real food..."
"He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in him..."
And most of all, try and get around this. "As I, who am sent by the living Father myself draw life from the Father, so whoever eats me will draw life from me."

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Rev Kev - 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time

9/8/2018

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Rev Kev is back! We are taking these blogs from his Bible Study group held Monday mornings in the Muldoon Room after 9am Mass.

Complaining. The story of the Hebrew people in the 40 years of the dessert is a story of complaints. Poor Moses had to go before God begging for release from their complaints. It was in answer to this that God provides the manna and water from the rock. John reverses the process in his Gospel story. Jesus promises the bread of life and this provokes the complaints.
Jesus' teaching is based on the Wisdom books of the Old Testament. It is divine wisdom that feeds the hunger of the heart. "To hear the teaching of the Father and learn from it is to come to me."
"Everyone who believes has eternal life."
"I am the bread of life." "This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that a man may eat it and not die."
The concluding verse opens up a whole new chapter for next week. Jesus introduces a whole new aspect of Eucharistic teaching. "Anyone who eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh, for the life of the world."
Here the bread is identified with Jesus' flesh, the crucified on the Cross, and given prophetically at the Last Supper.

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Rev Kev - 22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time

Rev Kev - 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time

Rev Kev - 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Rev Kev - 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time

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