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27^th Sunday in Ordinary Time

We, as the Holy Cross Parish community, have been journeying together for 27 weeks of Ordinary Time; the color for this liturgical time is Green. It is a time of growth.  How has your spiritual growth been? Are you having a deeper relationship with Jesus? Has he gifted you? Has your relationship with loved ones improved? We still have 7 more weeks with Ordinary Time. An opportune time to reflect on your life with Jesus, and ask how you have experienced growth. Am I more prayerful, more loving, more patient, and kind?

Today’s first reading is from Genesis, about the time of creation, the first man “Adam”. He was the only human alive and was given the task of naming all of creation. Imagine having only you to give names to the animal world. God noticed how lonely Adam was, even though he was surrounded by the beauty of nature. God knows our every need and so he created woman. Adam experienced a deep sleep, God took one of his ribs and made a woman, he brought her to the man. It was the beginning of the relationship between man and woman.

The Gospel acclamation (1 John 4:12) states: “If we love one another, God will live in us, in perfect love.” As I reflect on life, at times I wish I had Jesus in my life in a deeper way earlier in my life. However, at this point in my life, I am able to spend quiet time with Jesus, especially in the wee hours of the morning. A perfect time to reflect on yesterday, the movements of the Holy Spirit, the ah ha moments, and to pray for the day to come, to ask God for the gift of loving more like him.

The Gospel today (Mark 10:2-16) is about marriage between a man and woman, about divorces and adultery. Jesus knows we have this hardness of heart and we have a hard time forgiving, our heart holds onto grudges. The grudge simmers within us; this is a perfect time to look at ourselves, to ask Jesus to be with us, to help us through these tough times and to help us to see our way through the thickness of the dark times. He alone can bring light and guide us to go deep within our heart and soften our hardened heart.

With Jesus it is never too late to grow in love, and we have 7 more weeks of Ordinary Time as a time of Spiritual Growth.

Amen

Margaret Tish Manitowabi, Christian Life Community member

What clear and opposing worlds are brought to light in these scripture passages!  One, from ancient days, in the Book of Numbers, to Mark’s Gospel, they both welcome the generosity of the Spirit at work among God’s people. And the other from James and Mark, a harsh reminder that the shadow side of life has undesirable consequences. 

Mark identifies Jesus as heightening the awareness of the danger that lurks (the shadow), when we, without awareness, strike out on a path, or worse – when we know better. How stark a thought to be cast into the sea, or to lose a hand, a foot or an eye! Jesus knew how human we are!  Out of love, Jesus wants us to walk safely on the path, away from the edge of a cliff, being formed, ‘through Him, with Him and in Him’ as guide. Always Jesus is offering the “Master class.”

What about our inaction, our complacency, the couch potato? We willfully choose to cut off our own hand, our own foot or refuse to hear and see, cutting off by choice, our service among family, friends, and community. Recently on the news I heard a term, “cognitive dissonance.” When one is deeply confused or stubborn, deceived, a choice is made not to believe the facts, the truth; then one suffers from cognitive dissonance.

On the journey of faith, we are uniquely formed (not one of us alike) with gifts to serve the people. Removing the obstacles, the false comforts of power, honor and wealth toward vulnerability, humility and poverty are lessons learned from the Master, Jesus our brother and our Lord. Turning toward the truth of Jesus’ extravagant Love, we can embrace reconcillation with two hands, two feet, with eyes that now SEE.

Tomorrow, Canada marks a day of stark awareness. A National Day of Truth and Reconcilation seeks reconiliation as a nation, for dreadful harm to Canada’s Indigenous people. Together, the gift we will continue to offer is a voice for justice and peace, with Christ’s mercy and love. Every Child Matters.

Mary Balfe

Christian Life Community (CLC)

Parents and elders who have lost a child in their family might find a special companionship in Jesus—in the loneliness of Jesus—revealed in the Gospel this Sunday.

Mark tells of the isolating loneliness of Jesus as he tries, and fails, to let his close friends and family understand his suffering. Perhaps you have felt something similar.

Jesus and his followers were approaching Jerusalem for the last time and Jesus had a strong intuition—which was really a certainty—that he was coming to a terrible and tragic end. However, even his closest followers could not comprehend the enormity of the burden that pressed down on Jesus. Imagine, if you can, the fear and the sadness that must have weighed on him.

Maybe you can relate to the loneliness, the isolation, and the heaviness, that Jesus must have felt. If you sometimes feel alone, whether in grief or from some other sadness, maybe this Sunday’s Gospel can offer you a unique chance to know Jesus.  If you can grasp how your sadness might have something in common with how he too must have felt, it would be good to pause and stay there. And remember, as the first reading from Wisdom tells us, that Jesus carried something else. He had an enduring assurance of his Father’s tender care. However much he may have felt alone, he knew that he was always in the protective company of his Father at every step.

So too for each and everyone of us—the Creator’s spirit is also our constant companion. When you feel most alone in your suffering, you too can find solace in the company of Jesus and of the One who is ever with you, within you, and beside you.

– Fr. Mark Hoelsken, S.J.

Yesterday we celebrated the ‘Exaltation of the Holy Cross’, the feast which our Wiikwemkoong church is named after. The Cross that is the center and the key to our Christian faith.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus asks who other people say he is. His disciples respond with the names of different religious ancestors. Then he asks them who they say he is. They know him as “the Christ”.  Jesus’ first question reminds me of the first half of life, and how we grow up to see ourselves through other people’s eyes, as we journey in the work to learn about ourselves. The disciples know who he is, as Jesus knows who he is. As we approach the second half of life, we too begin to know the depths of who we really are, usually supported by honest close friends, helping to lead us to this knowledge.

Peter, like many of us, only wanted what makes us feel good even when that ‘feel good’ is not real but temporary. Peter was not completely aware of what was happening, and wanted to keep Jesus with them. Like Peter, it pains us to see loved ones suffering and we want to prevent it at all cost, but we are often so helpless to prevent it.

Jesus had the option of playing along with the religious leaders of his day, or he could be real and honest. He chose to be real even though it meant death. Jesus knew what life was about, that we don’t complete our life and destiny if we remain false. Living a lie, or falsehood, is also a very real threat to us. In the last part of the Gospel, Jesus tells us what it means to be his follower, that is to take up our cross. This is a very concrete message of how we are to live. The second reading from James tells us that faith is not just words, but action is needed to accompany what we profess.

We are the Holy Cross community. We need to be real and honest, dropping the false image of who the world expects or wants us to be. Let us ask God to open our ears and not hide our face from insults, because we know that “the Lord God helps us”.  This Sunday, we ask God to give us courage and strength to live with the cross because without it we are lost.

– Sr. Terry (Kateri) Beaudry CPS

The Lord is just, and his justice is impartial. We too are exhorted to be just and impartial by the apostle James in his letter. Not conferring special honours to one, while denying others the dignity due to them and to all. That is not the example that Christ has left us with.

Today’s Gospel demonstrates this for us first by the locations encountered: Tyre, Sidon, the Decapolis. Although nearby, these are not Israelite territory but Gentile. Jesus may be showing his impartiality in another manner also, in whom he is dealing with in these territories. That is possibly to Gentiles, not fellow Israelites.

“Here is your God” proclaims Isiah – pointing to the fact that all that follows is not only God’s promise to be carried out, but that it will be conducted by God himself. This passage reminds of me of another. Pilate proclaiming as he presents Jesus to the crowds, “Behold the man!” Both are true in the person of Christ, and we see both present in the Gospel. He demonstrates his divinity by acting in the person of God himself, in fulfilling his promises made which we have heard in the prophet Isiah, and his true, bodily humanity in the way he performs this healing.

However, unlike other healers who acted similarly at the time, Jesus then instructs them not to tell of it. He is not seeking any attention, anything for himself or another motive, but only the glory of God. As he says elsewhere, he is looking to find and establish true worshipers of God, “in spirit and in truth” – another line of Jesus elsewhere to a non-Israelite.

This theme of Jesus sometimes conforming to the norms of his time and place and yet simultaneously turning them on their head is constant in his life. Like his impartiality, it demonstrates the inexhaustible mystery of God. This helps prepare us for the upcoming Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. The cross, which was not only a sign, but the reality of defeat and death has been absolutely transformed and established as the sign and reality of victory and of eternal life.

– Aaron Neiva 

By Eddie MacDonald

“Eat your supper,” your mother says; “Clean up your plate”. “Do you want to make that a combo?” asks the girl behind the counter at Wendy’s. “How about an extra patty on your burger?” she asks. At what point did we go from eating enough for our bodies to work, to the sin of gluttony?

Today’s readings remind us how we are much like our ancestors in the desert, how easily we fall into the pleasure and contentment of food, no matter what the risk is to our physical and spiritual health. The Israelites forgot their miraculous escape and preferred to be slaves. And in the Gospel the followers of Jesus thought the meal to be so good the first time that they ask for another “show”. Each missed the point. It is not the food itself but the witness of the miraculous. The Psalmist shares the truth of the situation: God rained down on the Israelites the food of heaven, the food in which the angels partake. This is a glimpse of what is to come, the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ in the form of bread and wine.

How often in Mass do we go through the gestures – kneeling upon the consecration of the host; the moment of transubstantiation lost as we daydream about what’s for lunch! We are present for the most important sacrament – and often we let it slip by us. The real food that nourishes our soul and prepares us to be in heaven one day for that heavenly banquet. Let us come often to the sacrifice of Christ on the altar and stay alert to this truly life-changing bread.

In the first reading, the prophet Jeremiah compares political and religious leaders of Israel to bad shepherds leading their flock astray. In contrast, the author of the responsorial psalm points to the Lord as the good shepherd taking exemplary care of every individual sheep. The Gospel confirms that Jesus excelled in that role by showing compassion to people deprived of meaningful guidance in their lives.

As Christians, we should help people, especially young people, to navigate rightly their lives when so many voices try to draw their attention. Let us assist them in the discernment between Jesus the Good Shepherd on one side; and false gurus leading to self-destruction, dominant fads, prevailing mass media trends, or harmful ideologies, on the other one.

To make correct choices, it is necessary to pray in solitude as Jesus planned to do in a deserted place. Very often someone complains about of time. However, he/she wastes precious time on watching frivolous movies or searching for meaningless information on the internet. Let us use our time to serve others as best as we can while lack simultaneously asking Christ for the perfect balance between action and contemplation. 

– Fr. Toni Baranowski SJ

Our first reading today is from the prophet Amos, a humble and wise man, as all true and real prophets are. Amos was called by God from what he was doing, tending flocks, and was sent to prophesy to the northern tribes of Israel. They did not want to listen to him but sent him away because he was warning them of pending doom if they didn’t change.

Amos is challenging us personally to a change of our behaviors, and to challenge ourselves to a change of heart. We live in a world that promotes consumerism, self-gratification, power, control, and prestige that flatters the ego. Amos is challenging us to keep a close check on ourselves so as not to get caught up in the passing pleasures that are self-destructive. If we can keep our hearts in check, and focused on God, practicing our ancestral teachings, we will reap the fruits that will turn us into people like Amos. We are all called to be prophets; and to be a prophet, one has all those teachings imbedded into their person. That is our call.

In the gospel of Mark, Jesus sends his disciples on mission, telling them to take nothing with them and to stay wherever they were welcomed. If people refused to listen to them, they were to shake the dust from their feet when they left the area. Jesus sends out his disciples to bring healing to the sick, to spread the good news, and to practice a simple life.

Like the disciples, Jesus is sending us, too. We are called to bring healing to those who are suffering, and to invite all to a change of heart, from selfishness to self-giving. Jesus modelled that life to his disciples and had his disciples do the same on their journey. We too need to become true, honest, respectful people, with courage to live our faith. The gifts of wisdom, humility and love will be the qualities we receive and we need, to be prophets for our community. In Anishnaabe language or terminology, it means becoming the “elders” who will speak up to admonish the younger generation. To be a prophet is what St Paul talks about in his letter to the Ephesians when he says, “with all wisdom and insight God has made known to us the mystery of his will…”. This is what a prophet is endowed with; and you are already prophets because Jesus, the greatest prophet, the son of God, lives in you.

– Sr. Terry (Kateri) Beaudry CPS

Today’s Gospel weaves together two separate healing events. The first healing is of a woman who is bleeding. The second is of a child whom Jesus resuscitates.

In both instances healing occurs through touch. The woman with the hemorrhage, believing in his power to heal, reaches out to touch Jesus. In the case of the child, it is Jesus who reaches out with his hand to lift her up.

There are two distinct lessons for us here. On one hand, like the woman who trusts in the power of Jesus to help her, we are all encouraged to reach out to Jesus for the healing we need. We are all wounded, Fr. Henri Nouwen reminded us. We may or may not be shedding blood, but we have wounds that Jesus can heal if we but believe and go to him.

On the other hand, we are called to be healers if, like Jesus, we are willing to go to the side of others who are suffering, even someone who may seem beyond help. “Jesus has no hands but yours”, said St. Teresa of Avila, to bring his healing touch wherever there is suffering.

Speaking of our woundedness, Fr. Nouwen observed that unless we let Jesus heal us, the danger is that we can wound others with an angry touch. But if we allow the healing power of Jesus to touch our wound and heal us, we too, like Jesus, can be “wounded healers.”

– Fr. Mark Hoelsken, SJ

In the Gospel of this Sunday, Jesus, with the disciples, are in a boat on the Sea of Galilee, when they are suddenly caught in a storm, with violent wind and waves (Mark 4.35-41.). Everyone fears for their lives. Everyone, that is, except Jesus, who continues to sleep as the tempest rages. How can he continue to sleep, and do nothing to save the others, and himself?

Perhaps, the scene may resonate with something that confronts us personally, today: a family problem; a personal crisis; the state of the economy; our victimization by crime; the tribulation of wars in the world; the out-of-control ecological crisis. There are many occasions when it seems to us that there is very little we can do to lift ourselves out of trouble. What is God doing in the midst of these calamities?

As, from the whirlwind, God answered Job’s complaint with questions, Jesus responds also to his companions with questions: “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” Jesus quells the raging storm and calms the sea, demonstrating that nothing is beyond his reach. The Gospel challenges our belief, trust, and faith in Jesus, for whom nothing is impossible.

The Gospel scene reflects, as well, our own interiority, our own relationship in prayer with God, with Jesus Christ. Do the “storms” of our lives, the troubles of the world, that seem to come out-of-the-blue, upset the inner calm and peace of Christ within us? Perhaps, they do for a while, for we are human and, like Jesus’ hand-picked disciples, we are prone to doubt, and fear of the unknown. Yet, Jesus is always with us, and continues to call us to deeper trust, to certain faith in God’s steadfast love for us.

Indeed, in the tribulation of his crucifixion, Jesus surrendered, not to the world, but to the enduring, everlasting love of God. Are we not, in Jesus Christ, “a new creation”? (2 Corinthians 5.17) As members of the Body of Christ, alive in the world, we are all the more alive in Christ, with the freedom of the children of God. May the peace of Christ, who lives with us and in us, calm the storms within, and may we always trust that nothing is impossible for God.

– Fr. Gerry McDougal, SJ