BIBLE SHARING

Mk10:28-31

Since few days, the Church proposes us to meditate upon the message of the kingdom.

1.      Jesus told us that we should have the heart of a child to enter the kingdom.

2.      He called us to seek first the kingdom and the rest will be given.

3.      He invited us to detach from whatever prevent us to enter the kingdom.

4.      Today Peter asks him: We have left everything and follow you, (even if Mark does not mention this second part), what will we gain in this kingdom you are talking about?

Peter’s mind had been working from all the events he has witnessed. He had just seen a man deliberately refusing Jesus because of the wealth he has. Then Peter goes on and asks: “The man has left you because of what he has; now tell us, we have accepted to leave everything, what will we get?”

      Jesus’ response shows that if riches won’t qualify one for the kingdom, following him does not mean impoverishment. “What one lost in order to follow me will be likewise gained by following me.”

      The message we can draw from this gospel brings us to the question of how we build our hope for the kingdom. It is an eschatological message where Christian hope in a better life is the key point. “We have left everything, what will we get?”  This question is of everyone here present whether religious or not. Trying to shed some light on it, I want to bring in the idea of the kingdom in our midst.

      What we have to agree on is that we hope four our fulfillment in the last days and this hope comes from what we live now. Jesus’ response to Peter shows that the eschatological future promised by God starts from the present experience of humanity. It is a message of faith that the grace we have received and which we experience in our life is which should lead us to look at the future for the fulfillment.

      This gospel calls us to look at how we value our life here and now, because it is our experience of life in the present time which gives us hope in the future when God will be all in all.

      During this day, let us pray for all those who suffer: The sick, the refugees, the poor, the prisoners, (…) so that the good Lord may give them good experience of life from which they can build up their hope. We do not forget those who make people suffer that the Lord may visit them and show them that they are killing hope in their fellow brother.         

To believe is to belong

Since Easter the Liturgy of the Word has been proclaiming the twofold effect of the Resurrection: confirming the faith of the apostles and creating the Christian community. The Gospels have been giving us the apparitions of the Risen Jesus confirming the faith of the apostles, and the First Reading, the Acts of the Apostles, creating the Christian Community. They are two sides of the same coin. To believe is to belong.
The first readings reveal that community was an integral part of the first Christians. They were of one mind and one heart. They held all things in common and shared their possessions according to the needs of each. There was a “common purse” just like the one Judas had. How different is the culture in which we live with its “privatization and rugged individualism.” It is a “do-it-yourself” culture in which everyone wants to be independent and self-sufficient.
This rugged individualism has crept into religion. So we have this phenomenon today of people being captivated by Jesus and wanting to be disciples of Jesus, but wanting nothing to do with a Church or community. Their religion is “me and Jesus.” They believe but do not belong. It is a contradiction in terms. To be a Christian is to be the member of the Christian community.
The Eucharist, through which the Risen Jesus continues his mission, also confirms the faith of the disciple and creates a community. The Eucharist which relates me to Jesus, relates me also to everyone else who is related to Jesus. The Eucharist is the source and the bond of unity. The Eucharist is the sharing of a family meal.
Unfortunately, the sense of the Church as a community and the Eucharist as the sharing in a family meal has been weakened today because the family is no longer the basic community in which meals are taken and where unity and community are fostered. The daily experience of a common meal shared with the family is slowly disappearing. The family meal is giving way to the “fast-food” culture. This “fast-food” mentality has also crept into the Eucharist. Some people come late for Mass and leave right after receiving the Eucharist, much like they would run in and get a “Big Mac.”
When the apostles asked our Lord to teach them to pray he taught them the Our Father. The first two words give us our relationship with God and with one another. God is our loving, caring Father and we are all his children, all brothers and sisters of the same family.
In the Creed we say, “We believe.” It is a personal commitment made in the community of believers. The Christian community is the greatest support group in the world. Without it we lose our roots and our identity. It is hardly possible for an individual to survive without it in this culture which is diametrically opposed to Christ.
Without community we lose our roots, our identity. This is one of the great tragedies today. Young people think that they can become themselves by breaking away from their family, church and even country and manufacture their identity on their own. They do not realize that they are turning away from the very things that give them substance and identity. So they end up with no roots, no identity, now knowing who they are, where they came from and where they are going.
Without community there is no authentic freedom. The road to freedom is through community. Only when we find warmth and love in a community do we begin to take off our masks and come down from our pedestals. Then we can reveal our true selves and admit that we are wounded and need help and forgiveness.
And the paradox of paradoxes is that community is not based on the things we prize most about ourselves, our talents, virtues, strengths and accomplishments. Community is based on our weakness, our finitude and our falls from grace. Our strengths divide us our weaknesses unite us. Prayer unites, theology divides.