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Posts Tagged ‘revolution’
Download 12th Sunday Yr C
Reflection Questions
- The Old Testament readings are often fulfilled by Jesus in the New Testament Gospel Reading. Hadadrimmon is the special mourning place for King Josiah who called his people to change and repentance but was killed in battle in the plain of Megiddo. Have you experienced a special place where you ʻturnedʼ to God?
- Paul writes to the community in Galatia and is upset with Jewish Christians misleading newly baptised people. He writes to them teaching them that obeying all the Jewish Laws does not ʻsaveʼ us. We need to get the right starting point of our relationship with God. Do you think more about what you could do for God (obedience to the law), or what God has done for you in Christ (unmerited and unconditional love for sinners through his saving death on the cross)? What is the correct starting point for Paul and why?
- Paul writes in this letter using a very early baptismal prayer. All barriers of culture and race (Jews / Greeks), gender (male / female), social standing (slave or free) have been dissolved by baptism and following Christ. What barriers and walls between people upset you? What barriers are present in your own life / attitudes?
- It is strange that Jesus rebukes Peter for his answer. Jesus wants them to be silent before they truly understand what type of messiah / Christ Jesus is. It will not be the military glory of public expectation but a suffering messiah who is rejected and killed before rising again. This requires a completely new mind-set. For Jewish people and Jesusʼ followers it was shameful to suffer and die. It is the obstacle that Jews cannot overcome. Jesus therefore cannot be the Messiah. What do you think?
- Jesus speaks now to ʻallʼ followers to take up oneʼs cross. The wooden ʻcrossʼ in Jesusʼ time was an instrument of death used to kill revolutionaries. It is shocking for Jesus to tell his followers they must ʻtake it upʼ. Have you ever thought of Jesusʼ requiring his disciples to be radical revolutionaries and being willing to ʻdieʼ for his values? What does ʻtake up your cross mean to you?
- The context of Jesusʼ words are not of a one time martyrdom or death, but a ʻdailyʼ sacrificial living. And it is not ʻdaily burdensʼ but something far deeper. Jesus invites disciples into the posture of a condemned person awaiting a death sentence. No worldly attachments are present now. Everything is stripped away by the ʻdeathʼ sentence to ʻselfʼ. There is to be no holding back. Have you ever considered religious or priestly life as a deeply freeing experience of letting go to give ʻall to Christʼ? What excites or scares you about such a call?
- What is one action that you will do to be ‘livingtheword’ this week?
Download 24th Sunday Yr B
Reflection Questions
- The 3rd Song of the Suffering Servant reading from Isaiah has been chosen today to ‘match’ with the Gospel reading and Jesus’ predication of suffering in Jerusalem. Isaiah gets battered and bruised as he shares a message of hope amongst his people in Exile in Babylon. So disheartened are God’s people they feel their ‘God’ has been over-powered by Babylon’s God by allowing them to be exiled. Each day Isaiah listens to God and seeks to comfort his people. Have you ‘heard’ anything from God recently…. and ‘not turned your back’ on it?
- Isaiah chooses above all to trust in God and ultimately he believes he will not be disgraced. Even though the experience of rejection is hard. Have you ever realised deeply your purpose and passion and calling. What would it involve to ‘set your face like flint’ in living and achieving this call from God? Do you know someone who is an example to you? Have you ever asked their advice?
- A beautiful part of Jewish tradition and piety was an emphasis on helping the poor. It was more than an obligation. In fact, lifting up the poor (through almsgiving) earned one the title ‘righteous’ before God. If faith is words only, it is ‘dead’. Can your faith be seen in any ‘works’ for lifting up the poor?
- Today we arrive half-way in the Gospel of Mark. It is a turning point. Jesus’ secret identity only known and shouted by ‘evil spirits’ is now public and spoken by Peter. The healing ministry of Galilee turns toward the suffering and saving mystery of Jerusalem – the Cross. Peter correctly states Jesus’ identity but misunderstands what this really means. Do you secretly wish God will ride triumphantly into the world and with power and might (violence!) ‘save the world’?
- Peter’s – and Jewish- expectation was for a Messiah / Saviour to be a Royal leader, political figure, show military might and ‘boot out’ the occupation Army of Rome. Bring a military victory. Restore Israel’s national honor. Jesus gets ‘told off’ by Peter when he suggests there is another way God will ‘save’. Jesus ‘rebukes’ Peter and told him to get behind him (the rightful place for a disciple to walk is behind the master). A major argument reveals a major disagreement. What do you think is going on here? Satan is the Hebrew word for ‘obstacle’. What is the obstacle that needs to be removed?
- As Jesus turns the disciples toward Jerusalem he gathered them together to teach them. To ‘take up your cross’ was a shocking idea for disciples of the time. We have sanitized it with the thought of privately enduring little hardships and spiritual difficulties. Essentially, the cross was the most shameful object to die upon. It was the means by which Rome tortured and crucified anyone who resisted them and the power ‘status quo’. It symbolised the powerful, crushing the poor. The fear of death (violence used by the powerful elite) reduced the poor to inaction and non revolution. Jesus points the pathway to over-turning this violence with non violent resistance and the willingness to even take up your cross, deny yourself, be willing to die. You will ransom (lead someone from slavery to freedom) societies structures and interrupt the cycle of violence in the world. The disciples didn’t get it. Do you?
- What is one action that you will do to be ‘livingtheword’ this week?