HAPPY SPRING everybody, It’s Mark. I wanted to get my Joy-filled Spring wishes to you before Fr. Eke gets back and before Ash Wednesday, March 5th.
ABBREVIATION Alert: Our 1st scripture is Genesis 1:1, the Creation account. **Please read in full** We’ll replay days 1-4, and God will make it good. 😊
In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was a formless wasteland, and darkness covered the abyss, while a mighty wind swept over the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw how good the light was. God then separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” Thus, evening came, and morning followed– the first day.
Then God said, “Let there be a dome in the middle of the waters, to separate one body of water from the other.” God called the dome “the sky.” Evening came, and morning followed– the second day. Then God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered into a single basin, so that the dry land may appear.” Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth vegetation: every kind of plant that bears seed and every kind of fruit tree on earth that bears fruit with its seed in it.” God saw how good it was. Evening came, and morning followed– the third day. Then God said: “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky, to separate day from night. Let them mark the fixed times, the days and the years, and serve as luminaries in the dome of the sky, to shed light upon the earth.” And so, it happened!! God made the two great lights, the greater one to govern the day, and the lesser one to govern the night; and he made the stars. God set them in the dome of the sky, to shed light upon the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. God saw how good it was. Evening came, and morning followed– the fourth day.
*** The Creation story, for me, is great literature, information and hope. I am not looking for an argument! I’ll leave that to the people who need that type of validation. For me the issue is not if God really did this. The central piece of proof, is you & you & me. Look around you, at other folks. All of us are so splendidly different in our personal features, not to mention birth and birth-defects. Each one of us is a gift by the power of God! There has to be a God, because human beings don’t, (not all of us) have that much imagination. *‘I WANT’ to believe this story because this was the beginning of the end of oral tradition. Hebrews have been telling these stories to their descendants for millennia before actually creating a written language and writing it down. Very few of us sits down to tell stories anymore
Discoveries through science and archeology, like the rock drawings found in Cerro Azul in the Amazon from 12,500 years ago, or the Dead Sea Scrolls, will slowly validate/ confirm most of our faithful events and the words preserved in sacred scripture. One day to God is a millennium to us humans! As for believing in an all-powerful God… That’s simply Faith!!
Psalm 104:1-2a, 5-6, 10, 12, 24, 35c, Bless the LORD, O my soul! O LORD, my God, you are great indeed! You are clothed with majesty and glory, robed in light as with a cloak. You fixed the earth upon its foundation, not to be moved forever! With the ocean, as with a garment, you covered it; above the mountains the waters stood. May the Lord be glad in his works.
*** WOW, talk about a solid confirmation of our 1st reading. This psalmist is very obviously joyful about their relationship with God beyond expression. I Love It! May our faith life and prayer life create this ecstasy in us!!
Gospel: Mark 6: 53-56, After making the crossing to the other side of the sea, Jesus and his disciples came to land at Gennesaret and tied up there. As they were leaving the boat, people immediately recognized him. They searched about the surrounding country and began to bring in the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. Whatever villages or towns or countryside he entered, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak! As many that touched it, they were healed.
*** Well, it seems that the folks of Gennesaret have invented the first century version of ‘paparazzi’. Jesus can’t go anywhere anymore, without being recognized and subsequently overwhelmed. I assume, that this is exactly what a ‘new’ preacher / healer would want. Certainly, as with any new business & owner, you want your name, likeness and business to spread like wildfire! But, I also, finally, understand another scripture that says that Jesus saw the crowd and had pity on them. It makes me wonder if our modern-day healers (Drs., priests, etc.) ever have a moment of despair or pity. There are just soo many people who need healing!! No one human could do it all. I am personally sad in empathy for these healers. I cannot help them. What I can do, is to have a positive, even Joyful, effect on my little world. Physically, that’s all I can do. It’s not recorded if Jesus, in the year 25 a.d., ever stood on the beaches of the U.S.A. Even though Jesus is both human and Divine, I never heard of Him sailing to Panama to research the building of a canal. He and His miracles stayed in the Holy Land, His physical world. Except for the work He was doing, His Divinity would be on-hold a little while longer. My dear friends, Joy conquers hate!! So please, never despair, stay JOYful! Remember, W.W.J.D.! Shalom and may all of God’s Love be yours, Mark
