There's No Place Like Home

One of the first movies I remember watching was "The Wizard of Oz". I was only four or five. Our neighbors had a new TV. Our two families watched it together. The thing I remember most is getting freaked out by the flying monkeys. I was so scared that I did not sleep the night in fear of those darned monkeys. I continued to have nightmares for months afterwards thinking that those winged primates were coming after me! I was so frightened that I didn't care (or I didn't know) that Dorothy and Toto got to go home to Auntie Em in the end.

Jesus goes home to Nazareth in today's Gospel story from Mark (Mark 6:1-6a). He goes to the synagogue to preach and gets criticism instead of compliments. His old hometown neighbors talk behind His back, bad mouth Him, and tell Him that He's not "all that". This is very odd for this part of the Gospel of Mark. In this first half of the Gospel, everything that Jesus does is wonderful, never seen before, healing, powerful, compassionate, forgiving, and most of all successful. Everywhere He goes He is able to heal, forgive, exorcise, or do whatever it takes to care for peoples' needs. Everyone is praising Him and are in awe of God because of Him. But not in Nazareth. It may have been a case of His former neighbors and relatives being too familiar with Him. Perhaps they remembered the little snotty nosed Jesus, and couldn't get passed the fact that He had grown up physically and spiritually. After His Baptism He was on a mission from God. His homeboys and girls could not get their minds around the change that had occurred in the boy they knew as Mary and Joseph's son.

I have two things for us to think about this week (and two things for you to comment on, if you wish). First, are there individuals or even groups of people that we have failed to let grow in our minds, hearts, and lives? Are there family members, friends, co-workers, classmates, or others that we treat like we did when we first met them? Secondly, is our relationship with God that way too? Do we pray to God in the same way we did when we were ten, or when we were on that retreat? Have we let our relationship with God grow up as we have?

Please feel free to comment or just mull over my comments. I'm hoping you are finding this useful for you. I'm enjoying tring this. If you'd like for me to improve what I'm doing somehow, please feel free to let me know. Also, if there's someone who you would like to share this with, please pass it on.


paz,
Fr. Chuck

He did what?!?!?!?!?

What would your reaction be if someone with oozing sores & bloody skin came up to you & hugged you? My guess is that you'd want to jump in the shower or hose off as soon as you could.

In next weekends gospel Jesus is touched by a bleeding lady & then he goes to a synagogue official's house & touches his dead daughter. Both of these actions would have made Jesus ritually impure. In Jesus' culture & in His Jewish law being impure meant you were now an outcast from the synagogue & from polite society. Yet Jesus allowed himself to be made dirty & an outcast in order to show that God & His compassion is bigger than religious norms & social conventions. Jesus, showing the empathy of His Father, healed the hemmoriaging woman & raised the dead girl to life.

I want to read your comments on this reading this week from Mark 5:21-43. If you could focus your comments on one or both of these two sets of questions:
1. If Jesus is willing to risk His health, religious stature, & social standing to show God's compassion, then what boundary, phobia, politically correct behavior, or social wall would you be willing to ignore in order to imitate His compassion?
2. We all have some thing dead, sick, or dirty in us. Are you willing to bring the digusting part of yourself to God in order to given His new life, healing, & forgiveness?

Thanks for the comments, support, & suggestions from last week. Let me know if you can think of ways to make this blog more helpful.

peace,
Fr. Chuck Walker

Test 2

trying to figure out how to post blogs from my phone.
Paz,
Fr. Chuck

Jesus stills the storm(s)

This is my first attempt at this. What I'd like to do is post a blog each week, say on Sunday night or Monday morning. My plan is to usually give my first thoughts on the upcoming weekend's Catholic lectionary readings, or on whatever the upcoming weekend's Church feast is. I may also use this spot for letting you all know either what's going on in this warped mind of mine or what may be going on in our Church or parish. Why I'm doing this is because I want to know what you think about what I'm thinking and vice versa. Here's to trying any way.

The Gospel for next weekend is about Jesus being asleep in the boat with his disciples while a storm is whipping up the Sea of Galilee (Mark 4:35-41). Jesus wakes up and tells the storm and the waves to sit down and shut up, and they obey him. The disciples get upset with Jesus because He didn't move fast enough for them. Then Jesus questions their faith.

How do you deal with storms or crisis in your life? Sometimes I'm better at it than at other times. I like to think that I'm a pretty cool and calm operator. I like to think I don't get rattled very easily. But I fake it a bunch too. I don't like surprises, crisis, changes of plans, conflict, etc. any more than anyone else. Sometimes it takes me a while to realize and remember what I know and believe, i.e. God's in control ultimately and God is going to love me in whatever the storm is. God does not disappoint. Even if the answer is not the one I wanted or chose, God's answer is best. I may not fully understand God's solution to a crisis or a tragedy in this life, but I trust that God never stops loving (EVER).

Please comment on my post. I want to read what you have to say. Give me examples of storms in your own life, or how you saw God calming a storm that you experienced.