Reflections for Ordinary Time

Mark juxtaposes two stories in our Gospel reading today that don’t seem to have anything in common (Mk 10:2-16). But they are are connected – there’s an “and” between them! The first is a discussion about marriage. In the second Jesus says: “whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child will not enter […]

Mark in his Gospel puts a lot of emphasis on “the Twelve”. The idea that there were 12 “apostles” is so deeply embedded in our church culture that we never think about it. There was Jesus, and the twelve, and then the rest. That’s pretty simple.  Except Paul was a bit of an anomaly, as

You’ve probably had the feeling – someone has been trying really hard to explain something, but you’re still not getting it. There’s a point at which you get frustrated and start thinking maybe the problem isn’t me but with the person doing the explaining. But you don’t want to admit you’re not getting it, so

In this week’s gospel (Mk 8:27-35) Mark again shows Jesus telling his disciples not to talk about him, and again fails to explain why. This time it seems like the disciples are at last getting it – Peter acknowledges that Jesus is “the Christ”. Why would Jesus then tell them not to talk about it?

In today’s gospel reading (Mk 7:31-37) we hear of the curing of a deaf person. It’s nicely introduced by a reading from Isaiah about how God will cure the blind and the deaf, the lame and the mute (Is 35:4-7a). We’ve heard such stories many times and are not surprised by any of this. But

One of the messages Jesus emphasizes over and over again is that God isn’t looking for us just to follow the rules (Mk 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23). Jesus is not the first to say this – many of the prophets had said the same. Hearing our first reading (Dt 4:1-2, 6-8) we can appreciate why this

Today we finish our series of readings from Chapter 6 of John’s Gospel, in which he sets out the centrality of the Eucharist in our relationship with Jesus (Jn 6:60-69). Next week we return to Mark’s Gospel. We might expect at this point that John would finish with a flourish – maybe the Father speaking

In the readings of the last few weeks, John has been gradually building his story of what it means for Jesus to be the source of eternal life and how this is linked with his feeding us. Jesus has already told his listeners that the food that he provides comes from heaven and is better

This week Jesus doubles down on his claim to be the bread from heaven (Jn 6:41-51). Better than the manna that provided a meal for hungry Israelites in the desert, his food provides eternal life.  The people around him found this claim hard to swallow 😊. They knew this guy, it made no sense to

We heard how Jesus was sorry for the crowd because “they were like sheep without a shepherd”, and he taught them. They continued following him around (like sheep?) and he fed them. So of course they keep following him (Jn 6:24-35).  Now he starts to push them to do more than follow like sheep, or