Mersey Leven Catholic Parish
To be a vibrant Catholic Community
unified in its commitment
to growing disciples for Christ
Postal Address: PO Box 362
Parish Office: 90 Stewart Street
(Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 10am - 3pm)
Office Phone: 6424 8383 Fax: 6423 5160
Secretary: Annie Davies / Anne Fisher
Pastoral Council Chair: Jenny Garnsey
Parish Mass times for the Month: mlcpmasstimes.blogspot.com.au
Weekly Homily Podcast: mikedelaney.podomatic.com
Our Parish Sacramental Life
Baptism: Parents are asked to contact the Parish Office to make arrangements for attending a Baptismal Preparation Session and booking a Baptism date.
Reconciliation, Confirmation and Eucharist: Are received following a Family–centred, Parish-based, School-supported Preparation Program.
Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults: prepares adults for reception into the Catholic community.
Marriage: arrangements are made by contacting one of our priests - couples attend a Pre-marriage Program
Anointing of the Sick: please contact one of our priests
Reconciliation: Ulverstone - Fridays (10am - 10:30am)
Devonport - Saturday (5:15pm – 5:45pm)
Care and Concern: If you are aware of anyone who is sick or in need of assistance in the Parish please visit them. Then, if they are willing and give permission, could you please pass on their names to the Parish Office. We have a group of parishioners who are part of the Care and Concern Group who are willing and able to provide some backup and support to them. Unfortunately, because of privacy issues, the Parish Office is not able to give out details unless prior permission has been given.
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Archdiocesan Website: www.hobart.catholic.org.au for news, information and details of other Parishes.
Parish Prayer
Heavenly Father,
and calling us to serve as your disciples.
as we use our gifts to serve you.
as we strive to bear witness
to the Gospel and build an amazing parish.
Amen.
Eucharistic Adoration - Devonport: Every Friday 10am - 12noon, concluding with Stations of the Cross and Angelus
Weekday Masses 1st - 5th May, 2017
Monday: 12noon Port Sorell… Feast Day of St Joseph
Next Weekend 6th & 7th May, 2017
Saturday: 9:30am Ulverstone
Saturday Vigil: 6:00pm Penguin
Devonport
Sunday Mass: 8:30am Port Sorell
9:00am Ulverstone
10:30am Devonport
11:00am Sheffield
5:00pm Latrobe
Ministry Rosters 6th & 7th May, 2017
Ulverstone:
Penguin:
Latrobe:
Readings this week – Third Sunday of Easter
PREGO REFLECTION ON TODAY’S GOSPEL:
After coming to stillness, I read the Gospel, perhaps several times. I may choose to use my imagination to enter into the events as they unfold: walking with the disciples, hearing their story told to me, listening to the friendly stranger, longing that he stays with us.
A moment of sudden recognition: this is Jesus, alive, risen from death, and he is with us! ...
How do I feel? What happens next?
I stay in the story.
After a while I might ponder: In my life now, how and where do I recognise the presence of the Lord? Does my heart burn within?
With whom do I want to share my story?
I talk with Jesus.
Readings next week – Fourth Sunday of Easter
Your prayers
are asked for the sick: Elaine Milic, David Welch &
…,
Let us pray for those who have died recently: Beverley O'Connor, Susan Reilly, George Archer, John Munro, Ila
Breen, Glen
Graham, Christine Illingworth, Darcy Atkinson, Daphne Saarman.
May they rest in peace
Weekly
Ramblings
Next Friday, 5th, we will gather in the Community Room at
Ulverstone for our next Open House for 2017 commencing at 6.30pm. As always
everyone is welcome and all you have to do is come along – food and drink are
supplied. This is an opportunity for people from all areas of our Parish to
meet in a social gathering and, maybe, even meet new people.
The next big gathering for the Parish will be on Sunday 4th
June, the Feast of Pentecost, when we will celebrate together as one Parish
Community at Mass. From next week we will be inviting people to indicate if
they might be able to provide a casserole or dessert for the meal following the
Mass as well as asking people to participate as lectors, singers, musicians and
special ministers at the Mass – watch this space.
Please take care on the roads and in your homes,
KNIGHTS OF THE SOUTHERN CROSS: monthly meeting scheduled
for Sunday 30th April has been cancelled.
ST VINCENT
DE PAUL: Mass for deceased members of the Society will be
held on Thursday 4th May 12noon at Our Lady of Lourdes Church
Devonport. All welcome.
To commemorate this special centenary Pope Francis will be
visiting Fatima on the 12th /13th May and whilst there,
he will canonise Jacinta and Francisco Marto - the youngest non-martyrs in
Church history. To coincide with this special event the Pilgrim Statue will be
in St. Mary’s Cathedral, Hobart on Saturday 13th May at 1pm when Archbishop
Julian Porteous will solemnly consecrate Tasmania to the Immaculate Heart of
Mary.
For more details regarding the Hobart visit, please ring
Maree Triffett on 6228:7108. For OLOL, please ring Ophelia McGinley on 0423 115
419.
CCR HEALING
MASS;
FOOTY
TICKETS: Round 5 (21st April)
footy margin 90 – winners; Kevin Mitchel, Ken McKenzie, Janice Hyde.
BINGO - Thursday Nights - OLOL
NEWS FROM ACROSS THE ARCHDIOCESE:
REINTERMENT OF BISHOP
ROBERT WILLIAM WILLSON DD - FIRST CATHOLIC BISHOP OF HOBART 1844 – 1866
THE JOURNEY CATHOLIC RADIO
PROGRAM – AIRS 30 April 2017
BECOMING A HOLY BEGGAR
This original of this article by Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI can be found here
With the exception of scripture and a few Christian mystics, Christian spirituality, up to now, has been weak in presenting us with a vision for our retirement years. It’s not a mystery as to why. Until recently, the majority of people died shortly after retirement and so there was no need for a highly developed spirituality of generativity after our active years.
What are our retirement years meant for, spiritually? What’s our vocation then? What might generativity mean for us, after our work’s been done?
Henri Nouwen, one of the first contemporary writers to take up this question, makes this suggestion: There comes a time in our lives when the question is no longer: What can I still do to make a contribution? Rather the question becomes: How can I live now so that my aging and dying will be my final great gift to my family, my community, my church, and my country?
How do I stop writing my resume in order to begin writing my eulogy? Happily, spiritual writers today are beginning to develop a spirituality around these questions and, in doing that, I believe, we can be helped by some rich insights within Hindu spirituality.
In Hinduism, life is understood to have five natural stages: First, you are a Child. As a Child, you are initiated into life, you learn to speak, you learn how to interact with others, and are given time for play.
The second stage is that of being a Student. In Hinduism, you’re a Student until you get married, begin a family, and establish a career. As a Student, your primary focus is to enjoy your youth and to prepare for life.
Then you become a Householder. This, the third stage of life, begins with marriage and ends when your last child is grown-up, your mortgage is paid, and you retire from your job. As a Householder, your task is family, business, and involvement with civic and religious affairs. These are your duty years.
The fourth stage is that of being a Forest-Dweller. This period should begin when you are free enough from family and business duties to do some deeper reflection. Forest-Dwelling is meant to be an extended period wherein you withdraw, partially or fully, from active life to study and meditate your religion and your future. Very practically, this might mean that you go back to school, perhaps study theology and spirituality, do some extensive retreats, engage in a meditative practice, and take some spiritual direction from a guide.
Finally, once Forest-Dwelling has given you a vision, you return to the world as a Sannyasin, as a holy beggar, as someone who owns nothing except faith and wisdom. As a Sannyasin, you sit somewhere in public as a beggar, as someone with no significance, property, attachments, or importance. You’re available to others for a smile, a chat, an exchange of faith, or some act of charity. In effect, you’re a street-person, but with a difference. You’re not a street-person because you do not have other options (a comfortable retirement, a golf course, a cottage in the country), but rather because you have already made a success of your life. You’ve already been generative. You’ve already given what you have to give and you’re now looking to be generative in a new way, namely, to live in such a way that these last years of your life will give a different kind of gift to your loved ones, namely, a gift that will touch their lives in a way that in effect forces them to think about God and life more deeply.
A Sannyasin gives incarnational flesh to the words of Job: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb and naked I return.” We come into this world possessionless and possessionless we leave it. A holy beggar incarnates that truth.
Imagine what a witness it could be if very successful people, doctors, bank presidents, athletes, journalists, teachers, business people, tradespeople, farmers, and happily married persons who had raised children successfully, people who have all kinds of comfortable options in life, would be sitting, as holy beggars, in coffee shops, in fast-food outlets, in malls, on street corners, and in sporting arenas. Nobody could feel superior to them or treat them with pity, as we do with the street people who sit there now. Imagine the witness of someone becoming a voluntary beggar because he or she has been a success in life. What a witness and vocation that would be!
But this concept, being a holy beggar, is obviously an idealized image that each of us needs to think through in terms of what that might mean for us concretely.
In the early centuries of Christianity, spirituality saw martyrdom as the final expression of Christian life, the ideal way to cap off a faith-filled life. Justin, Polycarp, Cyprian, and countless others “retired” into martyrdom. Later, Christians used to retire into monasteries and convents.
But martyrdom and monasteries are also, at a certain place, idealized images. What, concretely, might we retire into?
CARING FOR CREATION
You can subscribe to the Daily emails from Fr Richard Rohr OFM by clicking here
We naturally move from the concrete to the universal, and so
it makes sense to begin loving Earth, caring for God’s creation, with what is
closest to us. Becoming intimate with God’s presence in one aspect of
creation—be it a pet, birdsong, garden, or favourite wild space—can move us
toward loving our forgotten brothers and sisters, human or otherwise, through
compassionate actions.
Let yourself be drawn today and in the coming week to a
particular created thing. Spend time observing and coming to know it better.
Use all your physical senses and your heart as well. Study this creature to
learn more about its characteristics, how it evolved, the niche it fills in an
ecosystem, its various needs and contributions to the balance of
life-death-life. Recognize Christ’s indwelling presence.
As you come to love this unique creation, let your embrace
widen to include all it touches—water, air, minerals, plants, animals, humans,
and the rest of the “great chain of being.” You might feel called to a
specific, tangible way of loving this being and its community, perhaps through
one of these practices:
Introduce someone else, especially a child, to your beloved
creation. (Take a walk in the woods together; share a picture or a story that
makes this creation special; invite them to join you in a caring act.)
3 CATALYSTS FOR PARISH GROWTH
The original blog by Fr Michael White, Pastor of the Church of the Nativity, Baltimore can be found here
For the vast majority of Catholics in the world, the faith is lived and learned and experienced in the local parish. The parish is the heart of the Church. But our hearts aren’t always that healthy. It’s an encouraging sign that there are a growing number of parishes and organizations who are making good progress toward getting “heart healthy” so the rest of the body can grow and flourish. This week I’ve been spending time with a dozen or so such parishes with our friends at Parish Catalyst in Los Angeles. I want to highlight three insights they focus on that can help every parish get moving in the right direction.
1. Commitment to Community
The core of Parish Catalyst is its “Learning Communities.” Each Learning Community includes between 10-12 pastors and their pastoral teams, who collaborate in a process aimed at accelerating parish vitality and growth. The teamwork and intensity that’s fostered in close proximity is very special to witness.
Learning happens best in a community or association of parishes. Churches that work together grow together. While many parishes are being “consolidated,” and that may hurt, why not look for an opportunity to collaborate in a new way? That’s also why at Nativity we’ve organized the Rebuilt Parish Association, which connects parishes that want to work together and share ideas and resources to make the vision a reality.
2. Commitment to Excellence
Excellence honors God, and God honoring parishes strive for excellence. Excellence is not the same as perfection or never making mistakes. Instead it’s about striving to create the best possible experience using the fullness of the community’s gifts and resources.
Excellence also evangelizes. People are drawn to music, ministry, and messages that are done well. Commitment to excellence is never self-serving, but for the sake of clearer goals and mission, stronger leadership, wider community engagement, and greater impact in missions and ministry.
3. Commitment to Innovation
Cultural change requires innovation and influence. As church leaders, one of our tasks is identifying others committed to innovation who can then be the influencers of the next generation. For example, the parishes in Parish Catalyst serve as testing grounds for new approaches to ministry, which they can hone before sharing them with other communities. Innovation requires room and permission to try something new and permission to fail. A commitment to innovation has never been more important in the Church than it is right now.
SAINT MARK THE PASTOR
On 25 April we celebrate the feast of Saint Mark, whose gospel, as its first verse states, tells us ‘the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God’. Although shorter than those of Matthew, Luke and John, Mark’s gospel narrates a rich story, centred fully on Christ but drawing on the characters of his disciples. Scripture scholar Peter Edmonds SJ looks closely at Mark’s gospel and suggests what encouragement it might have given to early Christians. The original article can be found here
Each year on 25 April, the Church celebrates the feast of St Mark. Who is this Mark? He is usually identified with a young man we meet in the Acts of the Apostles. This Mark was a member of the first Christian community in Jerusalem, whose mother offered refuge to Peter when he escaped from Herod’s prison (Acts 12:12). We also know of a Mark who was a companion of Paul and Barnabas on their missionary travels (Acts 13:5), but who at a certain point left them, causing Paul to refuse to invite him to join him on a later journey (Acts 13:13; 15:38). But there may well have been a reconciliation, since the name of Mark is mentioned in some Pauline letters (Colossians 4:10 and Philemon 24). There is also a Mark mentioned as ‘my son, Mark’ in the conclusion of the First Letter of Peter (1 Peter 5:13). But we must be aware that Mark was a very common name in those days, and we have no guarantee that these several references to ‘Mark’ refer to the same person and that this Mark was the one who wrote the gospel we know as the ‘Gospel according to Mark’.
The real reason why the Church selects a special day in honour of Mark is to show her profound appreciation of the gospel that bears his name. But just as the missionary achievement of Mark in the Acts of the Apostles is overshadowed by those of Paul and Barnabas, so too his gospel has lived in the shade of three gospels of greater length and popularity which we know as Matthew, Luke and John. It is true that the current Lectionary of the Catholic Church for the Sunday Eucharist since 1969 uses Mark as the most common Sunday gospel in its Year B of the cycle; for various reasons this gospel receives less exposure than do Matthew in Year A and Luke in Year C.
Despite the greater use of the other gospels in the Church, Mark’s gospel is a treasure to be discovered and deserves its day of celebration in the Church’s calendar. Like many buried treasures, Mark’s gospel has to be dug up layer by layer. One way of approaching this work of excavation is to move step by step by asking four probing questions in four continuous readings of the gospel.
· The first question concerns the story that this gospel tells.
· The second is to examine the portrait of Jesus that it presents.
· The third is to follow the career of those characters that after Jesus are considered the most important, namely the disciples of Jesus.
· The fourth and final question follows logically after the first three, asking which figures in this gospel story does the author want its readers and hearers to take as models and exemplars in their own life of discipleship, those whom we may call the ‘little people’ of Mark.
The Story of Mark
The first challenge is to grasp Mark’s story. It is a good exercise for the reader to try to make a two or three page summary of this. Such a summary would surely note the beginning and end of the gospel. For example, the first verse of Mark gives us a title for the whole work and a title for Jesus, its major character. The work is a ‘gospel’, an euangelion, a good news, which echoes the joyful proclamation made centuries before by the prophet Isaiah who pronounced how beautiful were the feet of those who brought good news of peace and salvation (Isaiah 52:7). It is a gospel about Jesus, the major character whom he calls the Christ and Son of God. The reader already knows what Peter confesses half way through the story, ‘You are the Christ’ (Mark 8:29), and what the centurion would proclaim once Jesus had died, ‘Truly this man was God’s Son’ (Mark 15:39). Yet paradoxically, the gospel ends with flight and fear, with terror and amazement (Mark 16:8). It is with this verse that most experts on this gospel find the conclusion of the story rather than with Mark 16:8b-20, which was added later.
There are several ways of dividing Mark’s work. What follows is one that has been found useful. Unlike a modern author, Mark does not offer a foreword or a preface, but he does provide a prologue which gives the reader information helpful for understanding the story he is about to tell. This ‘prologue’ of Mark presents to his readers quotes from the Old Testament; the proclamation of John the Baptist about the ‘stronger one’ who was to come; the coming of Jesus to the Jordan river to be baptised; and his subsequent testing by Satan in the desert (Mark 1:2-13). None of this privileged information, shared with Mark’s readers, was available to the characters in the account of Jesus which follows.
The gospel narrative can be divided into three major blocks or ‘acts’. In the first ‘act’, we learn about the public ministry of Jesus in Galilee which concludes with the question of Jesus to bewildered disciples in the boat, ‘Do you not yet understand?’ (1:14-8:21). The second act consists of the journey of Jesus from Galilee to Jerusalem. Peter confesses Jesus as ‘the Christ’, but when Jesus warns his disciples three times about his coming suffering, death and resurrection and its relevance for their own lives, they misunderstand and resist his message. The block ends with the story of Bartimaeus who, unlike the disciples, recognises his blindness and is able to follow Jesus ‘on the way’ (8:22-10:52). The third act is set in Jerusalem. Jesus enters the city, engages in controversies in the Temple with the authorities who plot to arrest and kill him, speaks his final words to his disciples and shares a final meal with them, is arrested and executed through crucifixion. He is buried but when the women visit his tomb, they are told that he was not there but was risen (11:1-16:8). The final verses of Mark follow as a sort of epilogue, providing a summary of various appearances which are related in other gospels; they are written in a different style from the rest of the gospel, and are commonly considered as added by a different writer (16:9-20).
The Jesus of Mark
Having grasped the overall outline of the story, it is now time to read through it again, this time concentrating on how Mark portrays Jesus who is its major character. There is something of a tension here, because along with Peter, the reader has to accept this Jesus as The Christ (8:29) and, with the centurion on Calvary, as The Son of God (15:39). He is presented as one who teaches with authority (1:22,27) and has power over nature, demons, disease and death (4:35-5:43). He even does what God does in forgiving sins (2:50), calming storms (4:39), walking on water (6:48), and appearing in glory on the mountain of Transfiguration (9:2).
Yet at the same time, Jesus is human, even weak: he gets angry (3:5), shows ignorance (5:30), and is ‘without honour in his own country’ (6:4). As Son of Man, ‘he must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again’ (8:31). This is sometimes called the ‘second story’ of Jesus in Mark. Having struggled to accept Jesus as the ‘stronger one’ as the first stage of proper understanding, the hearer of this gospel must recognise him as the one who has to die in shame upon a cross. And this communicates a message for the Christian life of the reader, who is one who wants to follow this Jesus (8:34).
A third element essential to Mark’s portrayal of Jesus is the assurance of Jesus that he would return ‘in the glory of his Father with the holy angels’ (8:38). Not only would Peter and his disciples see him in Galilee after he has been raised from the dead (16:7), but they were to keep awake and be ready for the day of the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory (13:26,37). He warned those who condemned him that they would see ‘the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Father, and coming with the clouds of heaven’ (14:62).
The Disciples of Jesus
If in our second reading of Mark, we concentrated on the figure of Jesus, in a third reading we are to concentrate on the role of those called disciples. Jesus is never alone in this gospel; he is always accompanied by disciples who were appointed, ‘to be with him, and to be sent out to preach and to cast out demons’ (3:14-15). Jesus told them that it was to them that the mystery of the kingdom of God was being given (4:11). Sometimes they are examples to the reader, as in their ready response to the call of Jesus by the lakeside (1:16-20) and in their going off on mission on his behalf (6:12-13). On their return, they gathered around Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught (6:30). They continued to follow him even when they were amazed and afraid (10:32). They readily obeyed his instructions to prepare the Passover meal (14:16).
Yet their behaviour at other times reveals cause for disappointment and alarm. Three times they failed when in a boat with Jesus: they panicked during the storm (4:38); and again when he came to them walking on the water (6:50); and yet again when they failed to grasp his warning about the leaven of the Pharisees (8:21). On the road to Jerusalem, they three times refused to heed his warning about his coming suffering (8:32; 9:34; 10:37). In Jerusalem, when agitated and distressed in Gethsemane, he appealed to them to keep awake; they fell asleep (14:37) and when the mob that came to arrest him, seized him, they all ran away (14: 50). Peter, the first name in the list of the Twelve (3:16), denied three times that he ever knew Jesus (14:68, 70, 71). There is no mention of the disciples in the account of the death of Jesus, and whereas the disciples of John the Baptist had been at hand to bury John after his being put to death by Herod (6:29), the disciples of Jesus played no part in his burial.
Yet if we feel ourselves justified in condemning these disciples for apostasy and infidelity in their following of Jesus, we are brought up short when we read the message of the young man speaking to the women at the empty tomb, ‘Go and tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee’ (16:7). If we condemn them, Jesus did not.
The ‘little people’ in Mark
If then those whom we may call the ‘official disciples’ of Jesus in Mark’s story prove ambiguous and unreliable role models for imitation, we need to read through this gospel a fourth time, concentrating on those characters who come on to the gospel stage but once, and who on each occasion do or say something that can be admired and imitated by the reader. To each of them we may apply the words that Jesus spoke about the woman of Bethany who anointed his feet: ‘Wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her’ (14:9).
This unnamed woman is just one of many such ‘little people’ in this gospel. We may recall the request of the Gerasene demoniac ‘to be with Jesus’s (5:18), an echo of Jesus’s invitation to the Twelve (3:14); the confession of the woman with the haemorrhage who, by telling Jesus ‘the whole truth’, was freed from her fear and trembling (5:33); and Jesus’s words to Jairus before he raised his daughter, ‘Do not fear, only believe’ (5:36). After reading the deaf resistance of the disciples to the message of the cross on their way to Jerusalem (8:32; 9:34; 10:37), it is a relief for us to admire the three-fold prayer for sight of Bartimaeus who eagerly followed Jesus on the way (10:51). Jesus had warned that those who wanted to be his followers must take up the cross; Simon of Cyrene did this literally on Jesus’s road to Calvary (15:21). Also on Calvary were the women who had followed Jesus from Galilee; these, unlike the invisible disciples, watched the cross from afar (15:40-41), and they became the first to hear the news of the resurrection when they came to the tomb (16:6).
We can add others to this list of ‘little people’, a list in fact of equal length to the ‘official list’ of the Twelve in which Mark gives of the names of Peter and his companions (3:16-19). So we remember the lively and courageous faith of the Syro-Phoenician woman (7:28) and the astonishing prayer of the father of the epileptic boy who prayed, ‘I believe, help my unbelief’ (9:24). We appreciate the contribution of the scribe whom Jesus encountered in the Temple and whom he declared to be ‘not far from the kingdom of God’. He had asked Jesus about the greatest commandment and added his own comment to the words of Jesus which echoed the prophet Hosea (12:33). Soon after, we read of the widow in the temple whose trust in God allowed her to put both her coins in the collection box (12:44). We meet two more of these ‘little people’ after the death of Jesus in the persons of the pagan centurion who had supervised the execution and the respected member of the council that had condemned Jesus. The first confessed Jesus as ‘The Son of God’ (15:39) and the second took courage to ask Pilate for the body of Jesus and buried him (15:43-46). We have listed twelve such characters. You might like to add more as a result of this fourth reading of the text.
Mark the Pastor
Just as there is uncertainty about the precise identity of Mark – whether he was in fact the person whom Peter in his letter referred to as his ‘son’, whether he was the John Mark who accompanied Paul and Barnabas on their missionary travels – there is also uncertainty about the purpose and circumstances of this gospel. But it may well have had its origin in Rome in the time of Nero in his later years (AD 68). We know from the Roman historian Tacitus that the Christians there were under grave threat from the Roman authorities who were blaming them for a great fire that had recently devastated the city. Many, unjustly accused, paid with their lives. Others denied that they were Christians and apostasised. It was dangerous to be a Christian in those days. Mark was writing for such people. The Jesus whom they professed to follow was one who had willingly walked to Jerusalem, the city of his enemies where he knew he faced death. His disciples had struggled in many ways unsuccessfully to remain faithful to their calling but Jesus, despite their failings, summoned them to meet him again in Galilee. Thanks to Mark, memories and traditions were repeated of ‘little people’ who had said or done something that in turn instructed and encouraged the ‘little people’ of that small group of Christians in Rome. What Mark wrote has a call on our attention today. As we read it or listen to his words, we can join ourselves in spirit and imagination with that group of poor Christians in Rome centuries ago. We know that like the seed in Jesus’s parable that was sown in good soil, it can produce a hundred fold (4:20). As the shortest of the gospels, it might seem as insignificant as the mustard seed described in another parable of Jesus, but it can become a great tree in whose branches we can all find shelter (4:32). We celebrate it every year on 25 April.
Peter Edmonds SJ is a tutor in biblical studies at Campion Hall, University of Oxford.
and calling us to serve as your disciples.
as we use our gifts to serve you.
as we strive to bear witness
Eucharistic Adoration - Devonport: Every Friday 10am - 12noon, concluding with Stations of the Cross and Angelus
Benediction with Adoration Devonport: - first Friday of each month.
Legion of Mary: Wednesdays 11am Sacred Heart Church Community Room, Ulverstone
Prayer Group: Charismatic Renewal – meetings will be held on Monday evenings in the Community Room, Ulverstone at 7pm.
Monday: 12noon Port Sorell… Feast Day of St Joseph
Tuesday: 9:30am Penguin … St Athanasius Wednesday: 9:30am Latrobe Thursday: 12noon Devonport Friday: 9:30am
Ulverstone 12noon Devonport
Next Weekend 6th & 7th May, 2017
Saturday: 9:30am Ulverstone
Saturday Vigil: 6:00pm Penguin
Devonport
Sunday Mass: 8:30am Port Sorell
9:00am Ulverstone
10:30am Devonport
11:00am Sheffield
5:00pm Latrobe
Ministry Rosters 6th & 7th May, 2017
Devonport:
Readers: Vigil: V Riley, A Stegmann, M Stewart 10:30am F
Sly, J Tuxworth
Ministers of Communion: Vigil D Peters,
M Heazlewood, T Muir, M Gerrand, M Kenney
10.30am: F Sly, E Petts, K Hull, S Arrowsmith, S Samarakkody,
R Batepola
Cleaners 5th
May: M.W.C. 12th May: P Shelverton, E Petts
Piety Shop 6th
May: L Murfet 7th May: D French Flowers: M O’Brien-Evans
Ulverstone:
Reader/s: S Lawrence
Ministers of Communion: E Reilly, M & K McKenzie, M
O’Halloran
Cleaners: K.S.C. Flowers: C Mapley Hospitality:
S & T Johnstone
Penguin:
Greeters: G & N Pearce Commentator: J Barker Readers: M & D Hiscutt
Ministers of
Communion: J
Garnsey, A Guest Liturgy: Sulphur Creek C
Setting Up: F Aichberger Care of Church: J & T Kiely
Latrobe:
Reader: S Ritchie Ministers of Communion: B Ritchie, M Kavic Procession of Gifts: Parishioner
Readings this week – Third Sunday of Easter
First Reading: Acts 2:14, 22-33;
Second Reading: 1 Peter 1:17-21;
Gospel: Luke 24:13-35
PREGO REFLECTION ON TODAY’S GOSPEL:
After coming to stillness, I read the Gospel, perhaps several times. I may choose to use my imagination to enter into the events as they unfold: walking with the disciples, hearing their story told to me, listening to the friendly stranger, longing that he stays with us.
I sit with the travellers as we eat, watching the familiar gesture of blessing and breaking of bread.
A moment of sudden recognition: this is Jesus, alive, risen from death, and he is with us! ...
How do I feel? What happens next?
I stay in the story.
After a while I might ponder: In my life now, how and where do I recognise the presence of the Lord? Does my heart burn within?
With whom do I want to share my story?
I talk with Jesus.
A moment of sudden recognition: this is Jesus, alive, risen from death, and he is with us! ...
How do I feel? What happens next?
I stay in the story.
After a while I might ponder: In my life now, how and where do I recognise the presence of the Lord? Does my heart burn within?
With whom do I want to share my story?
I talk with Jesus.
Readings next week – Fourth Sunday of Easter
First Reading: Acts 2:14, 36-41;
Second Reading: 1 Peter 2:20-25;
Gospel: John 10:1-10
Your prayers
are asked for the sick: Elaine Milic, David Welch &
…,
Let us pray for those who have died recently: Beverley O'Connor, Susan Reilly, George Archer, John Munro, Ila
Breen, Glen
Graham, Christine Illingworth, Darcy Atkinson, Daphne Saarman.
Let us pray
for those whose anniversary occurs about this time: 26th April – 2nd
May
Ellen Lynch, Ronald Allison, Delia Soden, Ron Batten,
Cedric Davey, Maureen Beechey, Frances Hunt, Mark McCormack, David O’Rourke, Mary Scolyer, Brian
McCormick, Michael Harvey, Michael Pankiv, Matthew Keen, William Clooney, Catherine Johnson, Julie Horniblow, Aileen
Harris, Nell Kelleher, Peter Rae, Mary Edmunds, Robert Cooper, Lorna Woods and Courtney
Bryan.
May they rest in peace
Weekly
Ramblings
This weekend, together with members of the Pastoral
Council, I will begin a series of conversations at Ulverstone and Latrobe then,
over the coming fortnight, at all the Mass Centres sharing the journey to how
my Vision was formed and how we, as a community, might move forward. Not
because we have any absolute answers but because we want to share our
reflections on where we are and how we can continue to make our Parish a
vibrant Catholic Community unified in its commitment to growing disciples for
Christ. I hope that as we move through all our communities everyone might have
the chance to both listen to and reflect on our journey so that we can all
share what our hopes and dreams for our Parish might be.
Next Friday, 5th, we will gather in the Community Room at
Ulverstone for our next Open House for 2017 commencing at 6.30pm. As always
everyone is welcome and all you have to do is come along – food and drink are
supplied. This is an opportunity for people from all areas of our Parish to
meet in a social gathering and, maybe, even meet new people.
The next big gathering for the Parish will be on Sunday 4th
June, the Feast of Pentecost, when we will celebrate together as one Parish
Community at Mass. From next week we will be inviting people to indicate if
they might be able to provide a casserole or dessert for the meal following the
Mass as well as asking people to participate as lectors, singers, musicians and
special ministers at the Mass – watch this space.
Please take care on the roads and in your homes,
KNIGHTS OF THE SOUTHERN CROSS: monthly meeting scheduled
for Sunday 30th April has been cancelled.
ST VINCENT
DE PAUL: Mass for deceased members of the Society will be
held on Thursday 4th May 12noon at Our Lady of Lourdes Church
Devonport. All welcome.
FATIMA
100 YEARS.
A Pilgrim Statue of Fatima will be visiting parishes
throughout Tasmania in May to commemorate the centenary of Our Lady’s
appearances to Jacinta, Francisco and Lucia at Fatima in 1917. The
Statue will be at Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Devonport on Monday 15th
May. Devotions will start at 1pm and will conclude with Mass at
2pm followed by prayers for healing.
To commemorate this special centenary Pope Francis will be
visiting Fatima on the 12th /13th May and whilst there,
he will canonise Jacinta and Francisco Marto - the youngest non-martyrs in
Church history. To coincide with this special event the Pilgrim Statue will be
in St. Mary’s Cathedral, Hobart on Saturday 13th May at 1pm when Archbishop
Julian Porteous will solemnly consecrate Tasmania to the Immaculate Heart of
Mary.
For more details regarding the Hobart visit, please ring
Maree Triffett on 6228:7108. For OLOL, please ring Ophelia McGinley on 0423 115
419.
CCR HEALING
MASS;
Catholic Charismatic Renewal are
sponsoring a Healing Mass at St Mary’s
Catholic Church Penguin on Thursday 18th May commencing at 7pm
(please note early start). All denominations are welcome to come and
celebrate the liturgy in a vibrant and dynamic way using charismatic praise and
worship, with the gifts of tongues, prophecy and healing. After Mass teams will
be available for individual prayer. Please bring a friend and a plate for
supper in the hall afterwards. If you wish to know more or require transport,
please contact Celestine Whiteley 6424:2043, Michael Gaffney 0447 018 068, Zoe
Smith 6426:3073 or Tom Knaap 6425:2442.
FOOTY
TICKETS: Round 5 (21st April)
footy margin 90 – winners; Kevin Mitchel, Ken McKenzie, Janice Hyde.
BINGO - Thursday Nights - OLOL
Hall, Devonport. Eyes down 7.30pm! Callers for Thursday 4th
May – Tony Ryan & Alan Luxton.
NEWS FROM ACROSS THE ARCHDIOCESE:
REINTERMENT OF BISHOP
ROBERT WILLIAM WILLSON DD - FIRST CATHOLIC BISHOP OF HOBART 1844 – 1866
On 12 May 2017 an historic event will take place at St
Mary’s Cathedral, Hobart. Following Mass at 7.00 p.m. Bishop Robert Willson’s
mortal remains will be reinterred in the Cathedral Crypt.
Bishop Willson’s contribution to both religious and secular
life in Tasmania is writ large in history. He established parishes and schools
across the island and he worked to better the lives and conditions of convicts
and the insane.
The formal reception
of his mortal remains will take place at St Joseph’s Church Hobart on Thursday
11 May, the Church to which Bishop Willson was welcomed on his arrival in 1844.
He will lie in state from 12 noon until 6.00 pm and from 9.00 a.m. until noon
the following day. At noon on 12 May the hearse will leave St Joseph’s and
follow a route familiar to Bishop Willson, including past the Old Hobart
Penitentiary, the Female Factory in Degraves Street, South Hobart and his
former home Stephensville, (now part of St Michael’s Collegiate School) and
then to St Mary’s Cathedral where the bishop will lie in state until 7.00 p.m.
when Mass will be concelebrated by Archbishop Porteous and priests of the
Archdiocese. Following the Mass Bishop Willson will be taken in procession to
the Cathedral crypt to his final resting place.
All parishioners are warmly invited to spend some time in
prayer during the lying in state as well as attend the Mass and reinterment on
Friday 12 May at 7.00 p.m.
THE JOURNEY CATHOLIC RADIO
PROGRAM – AIRS 30 April 2017
This week on the Journey, Fr Ken Café shares a moving and
powerful Gospel Reflection, one of which we can all relate. We are
reminded by Trish McCarthy in her Milk and Honey section to renew our
mind, and Marilyn Rodrigues, The Peaceful Parent talks about having a
team around us (repeat). This is threaded together carefully with some amazing
Christian music artists to help us create a show that is all a about faith,
hope, love and life. Go to www.jcr.org.au
or www.itunes.jcr.org.au where you can listen anytime and subscribe
to weekly shows by email.
BECOMING A HOLY BEGGAR
This original of this article by Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI can be found here
With the exception of scripture and a few Christian mystics, Christian spirituality, up to now, has been weak in presenting us with a vision for our retirement years. It’s not a mystery as to why. Until recently, the majority of people died shortly after retirement and so there was no need for a highly developed spirituality of generativity after our active years.
What are our retirement years meant for, spiritually? What’s our vocation then? What might generativity mean for us, after our work’s been done?
Henri Nouwen, one of the first contemporary writers to take up this question, makes this suggestion: There comes a time in our lives when the question is no longer: What can I still do to make a contribution? Rather the question becomes: How can I live now so that my aging and dying will be my final great gift to my family, my community, my church, and my country?
How do I stop writing my resume in order to begin writing my eulogy? Happily, spiritual writers today are beginning to develop a spirituality around these questions and, in doing that, I believe, we can be helped by some rich insights within Hindu spirituality.
In Hinduism, life is understood to have five natural stages: First, you are a Child. As a Child, you are initiated into life, you learn to speak, you learn how to interact with others, and are given time for play.
The second stage is that of being a Student. In Hinduism, you’re a Student until you get married, begin a family, and establish a career. As a Student, your primary focus is to enjoy your youth and to prepare for life.
Then you become a Householder. This, the third stage of life, begins with marriage and ends when your last child is grown-up, your mortgage is paid, and you retire from your job. As a Householder, your task is family, business, and involvement with civic and religious affairs. These are your duty years.
The fourth stage is that of being a Forest-Dweller. This period should begin when you are free enough from family and business duties to do some deeper reflection. Forest-Dwelling is meant to be an extended period wherein you withdraw, partially or fully, from active life to study and meditate your religion and your future. Very practically, this might mean that you go back to school, perhaps study theology and spirituality, do some extensive retreats, engage in a meditative practice, and take some spiritual direction from a guide.
Finally, once Forest-Dwelling has given you a vision, you return to the world as a Sannyasin, as a holy beggar, as someone who owns nothing except faith and wisdom. As a Sannyasin, you sit somewhere in public as a beggar, as someone with no significance, property, attachments, or importance. You’re available to others for a smile, a chat, an exchange of faith, or some act of charity. In effect, you’re a street-person, but with a difference. You’re not a street-person because you do not have other options (a comfortable retirement, a golf course, a cottage in the country), but rather because you have already made a success of your life. You’ve already been generative. You’ve already given what you have to give and you’re now looking to be generative in a new way, namely, to live in such a way that these last years of your life will give a different kind of gift to your loved ones, namely, a gift that will touch their lives in a way that in effect forces them to think about God and life more deeply.
A Sannyasin gives incarnational flesh to the words of Job: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb and naked I return.” We come into this world possessionless and possessionless we leave it. A holy beggar incarnates that truth.
Imagine what a witness it could be if very successful people, doctors, bank presidents, athletes, journalists, teachers, business people, tradespeople, farmers, and happily married persons who had raised children successfully, people who have all kinds of comfortable options in life, would be sitting, as holy beggars, in coffee shops, in fast-food outlets, in malls, on street corners, and in sporting arenas. Nobody could feel superior to them or treat them with pity, as we do with the street people who sit there now. Imagine the witness of someone becoming a voluntary beggar because he or she has been a success in life. What a witness and vocation that would be!
But this concept, being a holy beggar, is obviously an idealized image that each of us needs to think through in terms of what that might mean for us concretely.
In the early centuries of Christianity, spirituality saw martyrdom as the final expression of Christian life, the ideal way to cap off a faith-filled life. Justin, Polycarp, Cyprian, and countless others “retired” into martyrdom. Later, Christians used to retire into monasteries and convents.
But martyrdom and monasteries are also, at a certain place, idealized images. What, concretely, might we retire into?
CARING FOR CREATION
You can subscribe to the Daily emails from Fr Richard Rohr OFM by clicking here
We naturally move from the concrete to the universal, and so
it makes sense to begin loving Earth, caring for God’s creation, with what is
closest to us. Becoming intimate with God’s presence in one aspect of
creation—be it a pet, birdsong, garden, or favourite wild space—can move us
toward loving our forgotten brothers and sisters, human or otherwise, through
compassionate actions.
Let yourself be drawn today and in the coming week to a
particular created thing. Spend time observing and coming to know it better.
Use all your physical senses and your heart as well. Study this creature to
learn more about its characteristics, how it evolved, the niche it fills in an
ecosystem, its various needs and contributions to the balance of
life-death-life. Recognize Christ’s indwelling presence.
As you come to love this unique creation, let your embrace
widen to include all it touches—water, air, minerals, plants, animals, humans,
and the rest of the “great chain of being.” You might feel called to a
specific, tangible way of loving this being and its community, perhaps through
one of these practices:
• Grow a
garden and feed it with compost. (Raising your own food is a nourishing and
meaningful way to connect with and care for Earth; eating less meat puts less
strain on Earth’s resources; native plants provide habitat and food for bees,
butterflies, and birds; composting reduces landfill waste and nourishes the
soil.)
• Travel
sustainably. (Walk, ride a bike, take a bus, carpool, shop locally.)
• Learn
about environmental policy and let your voice be heard. (Call or write to a
representative; join a peaceful demonstration or protest.)
• Simplify.
(Cultivate non-attachment through meditation and find ways of living with less
while appreciating the beauty and abundance of simplicity.)
Introduce someone else, especially a child, to your beloved
creation. (Take a walk in the woods together; share a picture or a story that
makes this creation special; invite them to join you in a caring act.)
3 CATALYSTS FOR PARISH GROWTH
For the vast majority of Catholics in the world, the faith is lived and learned and experienced in the local parish. The parish is the heart of the Church. But our hearts aren’t always that healthy. It’s an encouraging sign that there are a growing number of parishes and organizations who are making good progress toward getting “heart healthy” so the rest of the body can grow and flourish. This week I’ve been spending time with a dozen or so such parishes with our friends at Parish Catalyst in Los Angeles. I want to highlight three insights they focus on that can help every parish get moving in the right direction.
1. Commitment to Community
The core of Parish Catalyst is its “Learning Communities.” Each Learning Community includes between 10-12 pastors and their pastoral teams, who collaborate in a process aimed at accelerating parish vitality and growth. The teamwork and intensity that’s fostered in close proximity is very special to witness.
Learning happens best in a community or association of parishes. Churches that work together grow together. While many parishes are being “consolidated,” and that may hurt, why not look for an opportunity to collaborate in a new way? That’s also why at Nativity we’ve organized the Rebuilt Parish Association, which connects parishes that want to work together and share ideas and resources to make the vision a reality.
2. Commitment to Excellence
Excellence honors God, and God honoring parishes strive for excellence. Excellence is not the same as perfection or never making mistakes. Instead it’s about striving to create the best possible experience using the fullness of the community’s gifts and resources.
Excellence also evangelizes. People are drawn to music, ministry, and messages that are done well. Commitment to excellence is never self-serving, but for the sake of clearer goals and mission, stronger leadership, wider community engagement, and greater impact in missions and ministry.
3. Commitment to Innovation
Cultural change requires innovation and influence. As church leaders, one of our tasks is identifying others committed to innovation who can then be the influencers of the next generation. For example, the parishes in Parish Catalyst serve as testing grounds for new approaches to ministry, which they can hone before sharing them with other communities. Innovation requires room and permission to try something new and permission to fail. A commitment to innovation has never been more important in the Church than it is right now.
SAINT MARK THE PASTOR
On 25 April we celebrate the feast of Saint Mark, whose gospel, as its first verse states, tells us ‘the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God’. Although shorter than those of Matthew, Luke and John, Mark’s gospel narrates a rich story, centred fully on Christ but drawing on the characters of his disciples. Scripture scholar Peter Edmonds SJ looks closely at Mark’s gospel and suggests what encouragement it might have given to early Christians. The original article can be found here
Each year on 25 April, the Church celebrates the feast of St Mark. Who is this Mark? He is usually identified with a young man we meet in the Acts of the Apostles. This Mark was a member of the first Christian community in Jerusalem, whose mother offered refuge to Peter when he escaped from Herod’s prison (Acts 12:12). We also know of a Mark who was a companion of Paul and Barnabas on their missionary travels (Acts 13:5), but who at a certain point left them, causing Paul to refuse to invite him to join him on a later journey (Acts 13:13; 15:38). But there may well have been a reconciliation, since the name of Mark is mentioned in some Pauline letters (Colossians 4:10 and Philemon 24). There is also a Mark mentioned as ‘my son, Mark’ in the conclusion of the First Letter of Peter (1 Peter 5:13). But we must be aware that Mark was a very common name in those days, and we have no guarantee that these several references to ‘Mark’ refer to the same person and that this Mark was the one who wrote the gospel we know as the ‘Gospel according to Mark’.
The real reason why the Church selects a special day in honour of Mark is to show her profound appreciation of the gospel that bears his name. But just as the missionary achievement of Mark in the Acts of the Apostles is overshadowed by those of Paul and Barnabas, so too his gospel has lived in the shade of three gospels of greater length and popularity which we know as Matthew, Luke and John. It is true that the current Lectionary of the Catholic Church for the Sunday Eucharist since 1969 uses Mark as the most common Sunday gospel in its Year B of the cycle; for various reasons this gospel receives less exposure than do Matthew in Year A and Luke in Year C.
Despite the greater use of the other gospels in the Church, Mark’s gospel is a treasure to be discovered and deserves its day of celebration in the Church’s calendar. Like many buried treasures, Mark’s gospel has to be dug up layer by layer. One way of approaching this work of excavation is to move step by step by asking four probing questions in four continuous readings of the gospel.
· The first question concerns the story that this gospel tells.
· The second is to examine the portrait of Jesus that it presents.
· The third is to follow the career of those characters that after Jesus are considered the most important, namely the disciples of Jesus.
· The fourth and final question follows logically after the first three, asking which figures in this gospel story does the author want its readers and hearers to take as models and exemplars in their own life of discipleship, those whom we may call the ‘little people’ of Mark.
The Story of Mark
The first challenge is to grasp Mark’s story. It is a good exercise for the reader to try to make a two or three page summary of this. Such a summary would surely note the beginning and end of the gospel. For example, the first verse of Mark gives us a title for the whole work and a title for Jesus, its major character. The work is a ‘gospel’, an euangelion, a good news, which echoes the joyful proclamation made centuries before by the prophet Isaiah who pronounced how beautiful were the feet of those who brought good news of peace and salvation (Isaiah 52:7). It is a gospel about Jesus, the major character whom he calls the Christ and Son of God. The reader already knows what Peter confesses half way through the story, ‘You are the Christ’ (Mark 8:29), and what the centurion would proclaim once Jesus had died, ‘Truly this man was God’s Son’ (Mark 15:39). Yet paradoxically, the gospel ends with flight and fear, with terror and amazement (Mark 16:8). It is with this verse that most experts on this gospel find the conclusion of the story rather than with Mark 16:8b-20, which was added later.
There are several ways of dividing Mark’s work. What follows is one that has been found useful. Unlike a modern author, Mark does not offer a foreword or a preface, but he does provide a prologue which gives the reader information helpful for understanding the story he is about to tell. This ‘prologue’ of Mark presents to his readers quotes from the Old Testament; the proclamation of John the Baptist about the ‘stronger one’ who was to come; the coming of Jesus to the Jordan river to be baptised; and his subsequent testing by Satan in the desert (Mark 1:2-13). None of this privileged information, shared with Mark’s readers, was available to the characters in the account of Jesus which follows.
The gospel narrative can be divided into three major blocks or ‘acts’. In the first ‘act’, we learn about the public ministry of Jesus in Galilee which concludes with the question of Jesus to bewildered disciples in the boat, ‘Do you not yet understand?’ (1:14-8:21). The second act consists of the journey of Jesus from Galilee to Jerusalem. Peter confesses Jesus as ‘the Christ’, but when Jesus warns his disciples three times about his coming suffering, death and resurrection and its relevance for their own lives, they misunderstand and resist his message. The block ends with the story of Bartimaeus who, unlike the disciples, recognises his blindness and is able to follow Jesus ‘on the way’ (8:22-10:52). The third act is set in Jerusalem. Jesus enters the city, engages in controversies in the Temple with the authorities who plot to arrest and kill him, speaks his final words to his disciples and shares a final meal with them, is arrested and executed through crucifixion. He is buried but when the women visit his tomb, they are told that he was not there but was risen (11:1-16:8). The final verses of Mark follow as a sort of epilogue, providing a summary of various appearances which are related in other gospels; they are written in a different style from the rest of the gospel, and are commonly considered as added by a different writer (16:9-20).
The Jesus of Mark
Having grasped the overall outline of the story, it is now time to read through it again, this time concentrating on how Mark portrays Jesus who is its major character. There is something of a tension here, because along with Peter, the reader has to accept this Jesus as The Christ (8:29) and, with the centurion on Calvary, as The Son of God (15:39). He is presented as one who teaches with authority (1:22,27) and has power over nature, demons, disease and death (4:35-5:43). He even does what God does in forgiving sins (2:50), calming storms (4:39), walking on water (6:48), and appearing in glory on the mountain of Transfiguration (9:2).
Yet at the same time, Jesus is human, even weak: he gets angry (3:5), shows ignorance (5:30), and is ‘without honour in his own country’ (6:4). As Son of Man, ‘he must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again’ (8:31). This is sometimes called the ‘second story’ of Jesus in Mark. Having struggled to accept Jesus as the ‘stronger one’ as the first stage of proper understanding, the hearer of this gospel must recognise him as the one who has to die in shame upon a cross. And this communicates a message for the Christian life of the reader, who is one who wants to follow this Jesus (8:34).
A third element essential to Mark’s portrayal of Jesus is the assurance of Jesus that he would return ‘in the glory of his Father with the holy angels’ (8:38). Not only would Peter and his disciples see him in Galilee after he has been raised from the dead (16:7), but they were to keep awake and be ready for the day of the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory (13:26,37). He warned those who condemned him that they would see ‘the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Father, and coming with the clouds of heaven’ (14:62).
The Disciples of Jesus
If in our second reading of Mark, we concentrated on the figure of Jesus, in a third reading we are to concentrate on the role of those called disciples. Jesus is never alone in this gospel; he is always accompanied by disciples who were appointed, ‘to be with him, and to be sent out to preach and to cast out demons’ (3:14-15). Jesus told them that it was to them that the mystery of the kingdom of God was being given (4:11). Sometimes they are examples to the reader, as in their ready response to the call of Jesus by the lakeside (1:16-20) and in their going off on mission on his behalf (6:12-13). On their return, they gathered around Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught (6:30). They continued to follow him even when they were amazed and afraid (10:32). They readily obeyed his instructions to prepare the Passover meal (14:16).
Yet their behaviour at other times reveals cause for disappointment and alarm. Three times they failed when in a boat with Jesus: they panicked during the storm (4:38); and again when he came to them walking on the water (6:50); and yet again when they failed to grasp his warning about the leaven of the Pharisees (8:21). On the road to Jerusalem, they three times refused to heed his warning about his coming suffering (8:32; 9:34; 10:37). In Jerusalem, when agitated and distressed in Gethsemane, he appealed to them to keep awake; they fell asleep (14:37) and when the mob that came to arrest him, seized him, they all ran away (14: 50). Peter, the first name in the list of the Twelve (3:16), denied three times that he ever knew Jesus (14:68, 70, 71). There is no mention of the disciples in the account of the death of Jesus, and whereas the disciples of John the Baptist had been at hand to bury John after his being put to death by Herod (6:29), the disciples of Jesus played no part in his burial.
Yet if we feel ourselves justified in condemning these disciples for apostasy and infidelity in their following of Jesus, we are brought up short when we read the message of the young man speaking to the women at the empty tomb, ‘Go and tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee’ (16:7). If we condemn them, Jesus did not.
The ‘little people’ in Mark
If then those whom we may call the ‘official disciples’ of Jesus in Mark’s story prove ambiguous and unreliable role models for imitation, we need to read through this gospel a fourth time, concentrating on those characters who come on to the gospel stage but once, and who on each occasion do or say something that can be admired and imitated by the reader. To each of them we may apply the words that Jesus spoke about the woman of Bethany who anointed his feet: ‘Wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her’ (14:9).
This unnamed woman is just one of many such ‘little people’ in this gospel. We may recall the request of the Gerasene demoniac ‘to be with Jesus’s (5:18), an echo of Jesus’s invitation to the Twelve (3:14); the confession of the woman with the haemorrhage who, by telling Jesus ‘the whole truth’, was freed from her fear and trembling (5:33); and Jesus’s words to Jairus before he raised his daughter, ‘Do not fear, only believe’ (5:36). After reading the deaf resistance of the disciples to the message of the cross on their way to Jerusalem (8:32; 9:34; 10:37), it is a relief for us to admire the three-fold prayer for sight of Bartimaeus who eagerly followed Jesus on the way (10:51). Jesus had warned that those who wanted to be his followers must take up the cross; Simon of Cyrene did this literally on Jesus’s road to Calvary (15:21). Also on Calvary were the women who had followed Jesus from Galilee; these, unlike the invisible disciples, watched the cross from afar (15:40-41), and they became the first to hear the news of the resurrection when they came to the tomb (16:6).
We can add others to this list of ‘little people’, a list in fact of equal length to the ‘official list’ of the Twelve in which Mark gives of the names of Peter and his companions (3:16-19). So we remember the lively and courageous faith of the Syro-Phoenician woman (7:28) and the astonishing prayer of the father of the epileptic boy who prayed, ‘I believe, help my unbelief’ (9:24). We appreciate the contribution of the scribe whom Jesus encountered in the Temple and whom he declared to be ‘not far from the kingdom of God’. He had asked Jesus about the greatest commandment and added his own comment to the words of Jesus which echoed the prophet Hosea (12:33). Soon after, we read of the widow in the temple whose trust in God allowed her to put both her coins in the collection box (12:44). We meet two more of these ‘little people’ after the death of Jesus in the persons of the pagan centurion who had supervised the execution and the respected member of the council that had condemned Jesus. The first confessed Jesus as ‘The Son of God’ (15:39) and the second took courage to ask Pilate for the body of Jesus and buried him (15:43-46). We have listed twelve such characters. You might like to add more as a result of this fourth reading of the text.
Mark the Pastor
Just as there is uncertainty about the precise identity of Mark – whether he was in fact the person whom Peter in his letter referred to as his ‘son’, whether he was the John Mark who accompanied Paul and Barnabas on their missionary travels – there is also uncertainty about the purpose and circumstances of this gospel. But it may well have had its origin in Rome in the time of Nero in his later years (AD 68). We know from the Roman historian Tacitus that the Christians there were under grave threat from the Roman authorities who were blaming them for a great fire that had recently devastated the city. Many, unjustly accused, paid with their lives. Others denied that they were Christians and apostasised. It was dangerous to be a Christian in those days. Mark was writing for such people. The Jesus whom they professed to follow was one who had willingly walked to Jerusalem, the city of his enemies where he knew he faced death. His disciples had struggled in many ways unsuccessfully to remain faithful to their calling but Jesus, despite their failings, summoned them to meet him again in Galilee. Thanks to Mark, memories and traditions were repeated of ‘little people’ who had said or done something that in turn instructed and encouraged the ‘little people’ of that small group of Christians in Rome. What Mark wrote has a call on our attention today. As we read it or listen to his words, we can join ourselves in spirit and imagination with that group of poor Christians in Rome centuries ago. We know that like the seed in Jesus’s parable that was sown in good soil, it can produce a hundred fold (4:20). As the shortest of the gospels, it might seem as insignificant as the mustard seed described in another parable of Jesus, but it can become a great tree in whose branches we can all find shelter (4:32). We celebrate it every year on 25 April.
Peter Edmonds SJ is a tutor in biblical studies at Campion Hall, University of Oxford.
