This week's reading is also on John the Baptist. I will touch on that but since we went into such great detail on John this past week, we will cover The Immaculate Conception of Mary, a Solemnity Feast which was celebrated on Tues, Dec 8. This topic has been controversial for the Protestants since it is not explicitly stated in Scripture. However, we will review the Scriptural references that support why the earliest fathers of the Church held Mary to be free from sin. As St. Augustine declared: All the just have truly known of sin “except the Holy Virgin Mary, of whom, for the honor of the Lord, I will have no question whatever where sin is concerned” (De natura et gratin, c. xxxvi).
The Recap of last week's readings (primarily about the significance and role of John the Baptist) is below. You may want to read the Prayer Q&A at the end as we didn't quite finish. I.e., Do you pray for someone who is dying even if Heaven is the ultimate and preferred destination for us all?
Recap of Tuesday
As we discussed last week, Advent starts our New Liturgical Year, which means we finished Year A’s readings (the book of Matthew) on Nov 22. For the first Sunday of Advent last week, we started the book of Mark, but we read from Mark chapter 13. That was when Jesus spoke about his Second Coming, also called the Second Advent or Parousia. Remember:
"But of that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be watchful! (Mk 13:32)
The reason we started there was because in the season of Advent, the Christ’s Second Coming at the end of the world is of equal importance to Christ’s First Coming (Christmas). One could easily make the argument that the 2nd Coming is more important than the 1st Coming because the 2nd is the reason for the 1st. However, since the 2nd would not be possible without the 1st, we can say they are equal!
Q: So, we started Advent not with Christmas but with the Second Coming. Why?
A: Because that is where we are heading. It’s the finish line for humanity. And since any map in life requires a destination for the journey to give it shape and direction, we started with the 2nd Coming.
This 2nd week of Advent, we now look back at preparations for the First Coming of Christ. For this year, we will be traveling through Mark. But first, let’s do a little Gospel exegesis. For those who are new, exegesis means “explanation or interpretation of texts, especially in the Bible.” If you want to remember how it’s pronounced, we have coined Taylor’s first spelling of it when she first heard it: Eggs & Jesus.
Q: How many chapters are in each Gospel and when are they read?
Matthew – 28 chapters (Year A readings)
Mark – 14 chapters (Year B readings)
Luke – 24 chapters (Year C readings)
John – 21 chapters (Easter/Christmas/Holy days)
Q: What does Gospel mean?
A: The word Gospel usually designates the written record of Jesus Christ’s words and deeds. Most of us have heard that “Gospel” means “good news,” and that is true. Specifically, it’s Greek equivalent is evangelion and the Latin evangelium, which literally means “I bear a message,” and subsequently “good tidings.” As these words are used in the Gospels, the meaning is either “the good news of the kingdom” or “the good news of salvation,” and the most extraordinary part of the good news is that God, Himself, decided to come here and deliver it.
The name “Evangelist” is the name first given to the 4 Gospel writers, because the word means the "bearer of the Gospel" (good tidings of the Kingdom). Now you know where the word “evangelize” comes from: to preach the Gospel.
Q: Who is Mark?
A: If you look in your Bibles, you will notice at the beginning of the Gospel it usually says, “The Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Mark,” or “The Gospel according to Mark.”According to means that Mark himself is not the writer, which was common in pre-modern times and typical of most books in the Bible. They were often written by scribes or disciples of the person to which the writing is attributed.
That said, “Mark” has traditionally meant “John Mark,” in whose mother’s house (in Jerusalem) Christians assembled in Acts 12:12. He was also a cousin of Barnabas (as close to an apostle as you can get) and accompanied Barnabas and Paul on one of Paul’s missionary journeys (Acts 12:25; 15:36–39). Although he appears in Paul’s letters (ie., 2 Tm 4:11; Phlm 24) and with Peter (1 Pt 5:13), the first century bishop, Papias (c.60-c.135) described Mark as Peter’s “interpreter,” a view also held by other patristic writers. For this reason, Mark is often thought of as Peter’s Gospel.
In Mark’s Gospel, there is no infant narrative (only in Matthew and Luke). It starts off with John the Baptist “making way” for the arrival of the Lord. Although Mark is the shortest Gospel, it is written in the most vivid style with one incident following upon another in almost breathless narrative.
Q: ln the normal order of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, why is Mark the second Gospel?
A: A number of the early fathers thought Matthew had been written first since it was in Hebrew addressed to a Jewish audience and the apostles had evangelized the Jews first. Later, it was determined that Mark may have been written first. Mark probably around 55-60AD, and Matthew either 60-65AD or possibly in the 80s.
Before reading the Gospel, let's do the first reading.
Today first reading is from Second Isaiah.
You will notice how Isaiah is calling for the Lord’s to help like he did in the days of Moses and the Exodus, and to come down personally! This of course points to God answering the call by doing just that.
ISAIAH 40:1-5,9-11
Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her service is at an end, her guilt is expiated; indeed, she has received from the hand of the LORD double for all her sins.
A voice cries out: In the desert prepare the way of the LORD! Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God! Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill shall be made low; the rugged land shall be made a plain, the rough country, a broad valley. Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.
Go up on to a high mountain, Zion, herald of glad tidings; cry out at the top of your voice, Jerusalem, herald of good news! Fear not to cry out and say to the cities of Judah: Here is your God!
Here comes with power the Lord GOD, who rules by his strong arm; here is his reward with him, his recompense before him. Like a shepherd he feeds his flock; in his arms he gathers the lambs, carrying them in his bosom, and leading the ewes with care.
Q: What is meant by Jerusalem’s “service is at an end”?
A: God is coming save them and the whole world.
Q: What is meant “make straight the way…” and “every valley filled in” and “every mountain made low,” etc.?
A: First, this was the language of ancient kings. When they conquered lands, the victorious armies would cut through hills and fill in ravines to make roads so that the new King could visit his subjects. This is language that would have been understood in those days, just like Jesus’ parables make use of everyday stories that his audience would immediately understand. However, like the parable, the meaning is not in the literal words. The valleys being filled in represent the lowly being brought up, and the mountains made low represent the high and mighty being brought down. This is one reason why John the Baptist did not deliver his news in Jerusalem, where the high and mighty lived. Of the tens of thousands who came to be hear John and be baptized, we generally don’t hear or see any royalty or temple officials.
GOSPEL READING
Context of Gospel reading
John and the Wilderness/Essenes. John the Baptist is covered in all four Gospels and is often called the “precursor” or “forerunner” of Christ and also the “Prophet of the New Exodus” because he prepared the way for the coming of Jesus. John was in the desert long before his preaching began. As it says in Luke 1:80, after John’s birth he was “in the wilderness until the day of his manifestation to Israel.”
Some believe John was sent by his (elderly) parents, or other family members after their passing, to be raised by the devout men of the Essene community/monastery at Qumran on the shores of the Dead Sea (the “wilderness” - 20+ miles east of Jerusalem), which records indicate accepted boys from Jewish communities.
MAP
There were also a number of similarities between John’s preaching and teachings of the Essenes found in the Dead Sea Scrolls. However, by the time we meet John in the Gospels, he is on his own and some teachings clearly diverged from the Essenes, which may be the reason he was no longer with them (perhaps kicked out). For instance, John’s baptism was a one-time event while the Essenes did so daily. Also, the Essenes disregarded Isaiah’s visions of a Messiah that was coming to all the people and nations. Not John. What John was wearing and eating would be in line with the rules of the Essenes.
Q: John doesn’t have a large part in the Bible. How do we know he is so important and popular?
1. We can start with the words of the angel Gabriel to John’s father, Zechariah, “He will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb.” (Luke 1:15)
2. In Matt 11:11, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has risen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet even the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”
a) In the first part, Jesus is comparing John to all the OT prophets. Why was John greater than all these? Because John was chosen to introduce the Second Person of the Trinity to the world!
b) In the second part, “yet even the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he,” Jesus is not downgrading John; he is simply saying that nothing humans did before his coming compare to being in the Kingdom of Heaven. Prior to Jesus’ resurrection, all the OT people bound for heaven were waiting in Sheol.
3. Estimates of how many people came to John to hear him or be baptized range in the many tens of thousands. As Scripture said above, “People of the whole Judean countryside and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem were going out to him. There were about 2 million people living in Israel at the time of Jesus.
4. 10-15 years later in Acts, Paul is still encountering followers of John (Acts 19:3).
5. The Jewish historian, Josephus (37-c.100), describes in his Jewish Antiquities that “many people thought the destruction of the Herod Antipas and his army was divine punishment, because Antipas had ordered the execution of a just man, John the Baptist.”
Mark 1:1-8
The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God.
As it is written in Isaiah the prophet: Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare your way. A voice of one crying out in the desert: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.”
John the Baptist appeared in the desert proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
People of the whole Judean countryside and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they acknowledged their sins.
John was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist. He fed on locusts and wild honey. And this is what he proclaimed:
“One mightier than I is coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the thongs of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
Q: What OT prophet does John’s clothing call to mind?
A: Elijah. “He wore a garment of hair, with a belt of leather about his waist.” (2 Kings 1:8) Elijah and John had many other similarities, such as their brash outspokenness. Elijah was expected to come again at the time of the messiah, and after the Transfiguration when Peter, Andrew, and John asked Jesus about it, Jesus told them Elijah had already been here – it was John.
Q: Where is John baptizing?
A: At the Jordan River across from Jericho facing the desert where Moses and the Exodus ended. Remember, the Messiah is to usher in the New Exodus. Where else should John be baptizing? Here is a passage from Joshua when they crossed over the Jordan for the first time:
So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant went ahead of them. Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water's edge, the water upstream stopped flowing as far as Adam, the city near Zarethan, while the water flowing toward the Dead Sea was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho (Joshua 3:14-16).
Q: John says the one coming will baptize with the Holy Spirit. How key is this?
A: This is the key to humanity’s future: receiving the 3rd Person of the Trinity. Jesus becomes the Bridge and the first thing God does is send the HS back across the Bridge to be our personal advisor, personal protector, and Trinitarian GPS to help us complete our journey to Heaven.
Q: Why was John’s “preparation” necessary in the first place?
A: Mark gives us a clue when he calls John’s baptism “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” It was the same thing Jesus would teach: Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand.
Q: How does John’s preparation differ from ours?
A: It isn’t, except for one small fact – we are post Jesus’ arrival!
During Advent, whether one is looking back or forward, we are preparing for the coming of the Lord, and part of this preparation involves asking for forgiveness and seeking to change our lives.
Q: What about us?
A: Like John, we are also called to lead the way to God whether with family, friends, colleagues or even strangers. It starts with how we live our lives. St. Francis said, “Preach the Gospel and, if necessary, use words.” Our conduct gives credibility to our beliefs. Sometimes, our role is just to plant seeds for the Holy Spirit’s cultivation. Sometimes, we have a more direct role, such as with our families for whom God gives us a more direct responsibility. Sometimes God places people right smack in front of us for the purpose of introducing them to Him.
Like John, we have the Holy Spirit who gives us the wisdom and courage to speak and build relationships with others for purposes of helping them find God.
Q: What else can we do?
A1: Forgiveness: forgive us our trespasses (Confession) as we forgive others (anyone in your life?)
A2: Repentance: doesn’t just mean stopping selfish behavior; it means doing something proactive. Remember the parable about sloth – no spiritual activity helping others.
How about checking in our elderly neighbors or relatives? Often they need help getting groceries or medicine.
Charitable deliveries services
Donate clothes or food
Be a Crisis Counselor or “Volunteer Listener”
Be a career mentor to young people
Volunteer to help blind persons at Be My Eyes
Sign up to volunteer at the jail.
Our current "second topic" is Prayer and The Mass.
Prayer III
Q: Does God answer all our prayers?
A: Yes, as long as your request was not selfish or harmful.
Q: Does God give us whatever we ask for?
A: No. Hyperbolic story just to make the point: A man is in a hurry to make a business flight home for his son’s birthday. In his rush, he bumps into another elderly lady in the airport and knocks her belongings all over the place. He does the right thing and stops to help the lady pick her up things. While doing so, he pleads with God for help to still make his flight. As it turns out, he gets to the gate 1 minute late and misses the flight and son’s birthday. Later in his hotel room, he gets angry with God because a) he stopped and did the right thing, and b) he prayed for help to make his flight; but God still let him miss it!
The next morning he gets the newspaper with his coffee and reads about the disaster the night before. His flight never made it. It crashed.
This story may or may not have been true; nevertheless, it was intended to make a point, which is: How do you know what the right thing is? You might pray to get a job and it may have been the wrong job for any number of reasons, and then later the job you did get turns out to be perfect, which never would have happened if you got the first job. God knew better.
You might pray for a friend not to get fired and he gets fired anyway. How do you know that the friend wasn’t delaying alcohol treatment and now he will finally do what he needs to do? Sometimes, tough love is the better answer.
What about other people’s free will? You may pray for a friend to change their behavior, but what if that person doesn’t want to change their behavior? Should God overrule their free will? I think not. However, your prayer may well have planted a seed or some other good thing.
What if the person you prayed for was praying for something totally different or opposite than what you requested? Who should God listen to?
Sometimes we think we are the only one praying, but there are at least 500 million prayers are going up to God at any given time, every day. How should God balance these requests, especially since most prayers will have a chain reaction affecting many other people? Shouldn’t God take these millions of secondary and tertiary effects into consideration before he grants one prayer?
Still, God has infinitely perfect computing skills so he can still respond to all of them, in his way, how he sees fit.
Q: What about prayers when someone close to you is dying?
A: Our goal is to graduate from here and go to heaven. Why would you want to stop that?
Discussing this topic with a 4th grade CCD class, one young girl said her Aunt Margaret was dying and she had been praying for her but nothing happened and she was still dying. Her prayers weren’t doing any good!
I gently reminded her that the goal of every human is to graduation from here and go to Heaven, which will be much better than here, so we shouldn’t want to keep her from heaven for too long!
Then I asked what her Aunt Margaret’s illness was. It was cancer. I confirmed that indeed all prayers are answered but not always the way we want them to. However, we are guaranteed our prayers will make a difference. I asked how much pain her Aunt Margaret usually had, on a scale for 1-10. She guessed a 6. I said what if God used her prayers to bring her Aunt Margaret’s pain down from an 8 or 9 down to a 6. Would she stop praying for her? Of course, not, so don’t stop! Then the whole class prayed for her Aunt Margaret.
Q: Jesus taught us the Lord’s Prayer. What does it say about “God’s will”?
A: Thy will be done on earth, as it is in Heaven.
Jesus is telling us every way possible that learning to do the will of God is the main reason we are here.
Btw, what did Jesus do after he asked God about avoiding his torture and being nailed to a cross? At the end of his praying, he ended by saying, “Yet, may Your will be done, not mine.” (Mk 12:36) Shouldn’t we all do this?
Q: Can prayers be retroactive?
A: Yes. Prayers are a spiritual activity; they are not subject to finite laws. Consequently, prayers are not governed by time. If we pray for someone after the fact, God would know that you were going to pray and can apply your prayers accordingly.
If you decided not to pray, then God would know that, too, and would not apply any prayers because you never said any.
Q: Have you heard the comparison of the boat (our will) and the dock (God’s will)?
A: Think of us being the boat and God is the dock. When most of us pray, we throw a rope to the dock (God) but then we try to pull the dock towards us. The goal is to learn to pull ourselves to the dock.
See you next Tuesday!
Ron
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