Sunday reflections

There are two miracle-stories that occur only in Mark’s gospel: the healing of the blind man at Bethsaida, and today’s story of the healing of the deaf-mute. Both stories reveal to us the truly human face of Jesus who responds with compassion to people’s infirmities. But they also reveal the healing powers of the promised Messiah who will ‘open the eyes of the blind’ and ‘unseal the ears of the deaf’ (Isaiah).

Have you ever experienced something that becomes more absorbing the more you spend time with it? Maybe it’s a piece of music, a novel, a spot in the park. You could watch that movie a million times. The bible is similar. It was written to be pondered; it is ‘meditation literature’.

For these last five weeks we have listened to gospel readings from John Chapter 60, readings about bread and, most importantly of all, the Bread of Life. Jesus teaches “I have come to give you the Bread of Life.”

Mary set out quickly from Nazareth to a town in the hill country of Judah, to visit her older cousin, Elizabeth, who was pregnant with the child we know as John the Baptist. Mary is carrying her own child, Jesus. At the presence of Jesus and his mother, the child in Elizabeth’s womb leaps for joy!

The first session of the Plenary Council will take place in Adelaide from 2-10 October 2021 and the second in Sydney from 4-9 July 2022. The Council meetings will be multi-modal in that people will be present face-face and online.

In today’s gospel, the people ask Jesus three questions and each time his response suggests, think again.

We’ve seen them on car bumper-bars, keychains, lapel pins, and pendants. Users of online discussion boards and chat rooms find innovative ways to employ them in posts. They are the so-called “Jesus Fish”, a symbol comprising two intersecting arcs; or, in the case of online chat rooms, formed by the astute use of the “greater than” and “less than” symbols (<><).

I was having dinner with my sister’s family recently and the conversation turned to the latest developments regarding COVID-19. At that point my five-year-old niece threw her arms in the air and lamented, “COVID seems to have gone on forever.”

Most of us can only admire those who reach the top of their profession. We realise what commitment is required to be an Olympic athlete, or to be a virtuoso musician: the hours of practice and training which culminate in winning trophies or playing in the great concert halls of the world.

If we hear something interesting about someone, we might be inclined to search for more information about that person. But Mark in today’s gospel tells us about a contrasting attitude displayed by the people of Nazareth, Jesus’ own kinfolk.