Sunday reflections

It must have been tough being a disciple of Jesus, an eloquent public speaker, who could sway large crowds with his rhetoric. He healed the sick, cast out demons, stilled a storm at sea, walked on water and raised the dead. Jesus appeared to bear all the hallmarks of the expected Messiah.

In the book of Exodus, God appeared to Moses asking him to free the Israelites who were enslaved by the Egyptians. Unsure of his ability to achieve this outcome, Moses asks God what he is to say to the Israelites.

Get yourself a life coach says an online ad and you can ‘turn the ordinary into the extraordinary.’ At some point in our lives, it may serve a purpose but contrast it with a local parish which decided to have a weekly meal for anyone who wished to come along.

Complaining about life’s woes is a fairly common human experience. We find it in today’s Exodus account of the Israelites wandering in the desert. Although they had been freed from slavery, they now find themselves in search of food and bitterly complaining of their situation to Moses and Aaron. Yet, we also know how the story ends: the Lord sends them heavenly bread, but only after they have been tested to learn the lesson that God does not abandon the chosen people.

St Jerome said: “Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.” On the back cover of my Bible, this famous line is printed beneath an image of the fourth-century hermit-saint in his study. Scriptures in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin are open on desks behind him. He seems to be taking a break from his translation project to pull the thorn out of the lion’s paw.

Two common images presented to us in the Scriptures are those of shepherds and banquets. First and foremost, God shepherds his people Israel by caring for them like sheep, keeping them from danger, and preparing a banquet for them.

Giovanni di Pietro di Bernadone was wealthy, popular and influential. Yet, he renounced his wealth, privilege and lavish lifestyle to follow Jesus and to proclaim the good news of the Gospel. Francis of Assisi, as we now know him, embraced poverty, dressing himself in a coarse woolen tunic, the dress of poor Umbrian peasants.

The three main characters in this week’s readings suffer rejection and humiliation. Their pain is summarised in the Psalm: “Indeed, all too full is our soul with the scorn of the rich, with the proud man’s disdain.”

Today we continue with readings from Mark’s gospel. Earlier in this chapter, Jesus has demonstrated his divine mastery over destructive forces of nature (in calming the sea) and over a legion of demons who were afflicting a man (in the exorcism of a deeply troubled person).

The Shetland Islands are north of Scotland and just below the Arctic Circle. They are a group of one hundred islands with only sixteen inhabited. There is a daily ferry for travellers, but also private boats for hire.