Fr. Bob’s Weekly Reflections

Whoever wishes to be great among you, will be your servant. I’ve recently been meeting with college business students, and this is what they are saying: “I want to write my own ticket. High Tech is a wide-open field.”

The Camel It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. The disciples were amazed at Jesus’ words.

On a serious subject like marriage, and a tragic one like divorce, you cannot be simplistic or judgmental. Divorce is everywhere, claiming almost half the marriages in our time.

Mark 9:38-48What did the passage from Mark mean back then, when it fell from the lips of Jesus? Jesus was not recommending mutilation.

If I were to stop you and ask you to describe a successful person, I dare say most of you would think in terms of income. Success for most of us means income and wealth, and financial prosperity means success in our society.

Who Do You Say that I Am? There is an interesting question in today’s Gospel: Who do you say that I am? Have you ever tried to answer the question, who do you think Jesus is?

Jesus seems to be doing some strange things. We read in the Gospel time and time again that Jesus just touched a person to cure them, or said, “Be cured. Your faith has made you whole.” Today we see Jesus spitting and touching a man’s tongue.

There is an old epic poem that some of us read in school called Beowulf. The story is about a warrior who battles monsters that are destroying lands and killing people because their joy disturbs the monster. The warrior ultimately emerges victorious.

The question in this morning’s Gospel is one that every generation of believers has had to face at one time or another: will you also go away?

I was staying at the Intercontinental Hotel in Columbia one time. It was a well-guarded hotel, for outside the walls the area was teeming with many people. There were poor people begging in the streets, and drug addicts all around. Inside, it was an entirely different world. It was safe, bright, and comfortable.