Jesus
came with his disciples into the house. Again
the crowd gathered, making it impossible for them even to eat. When his
relatives heard of this they set out to seize him, for they said, “He is
out of his mind.”
Mark 3:20-21
Piety
Tradition
or Catholic Action by Peter Maurin
The central act of devotional life
in the Catholic Church
is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
The Sacrifice of the Mass
is the unbloody repetition
of the Sacrifice of the Cross.
On the Cross of Calvary
Christ gave His life to redeem the world.
The life of Christ was a life of sacrifice.
The life of a Christian must be
a life of sacrifice.
We cannot imitate the sacrifice of Christ
on Calvary
by trying to get all we can.
We can only imitate the sacrifice of Christ
on Calvary
by trying to give all we can.
in the Catholic Church
is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
The Sacrifice of the Mass
is the unbloody repetition
of the Sacrifice of the Cross.
On the Cross of Calvary
Christ gave His life to redeem the world.
The life of Christ was a life of sacrifice.
The life of a Christian must be
a life of sacrifice.
We cannot imitate the sacrifice of Christ
on Calvary
by trying to get all we can.
We can only imitate the sacrifice of Christ
on Calvary
by trying to give all we can.
Study
In one of the most deliciously short yet cryptic
daily Gospel readings in any liturgical cycle, what are we to make of today’s brief
passage?
What does it say? Just as we have heard of others who were close
to Jesus turning on him recently, today, we see another group join the ranks of
the anti-Jesus crowd. First, it was the
Pharisees. Then, the disciples of John
the Baptist questioned why Jesus and his followers did not fast. Now his own relatives think Jesus is “out of
his mind.” Where will it end? It seems Mark’s Gospel is marked more by
documenting the non-followers and disbelievers rather than the followers and
believers.
What does it mean? Jesus does not have to go to a far-off land
to work his mission. “He came home.” He gets
to work on his own home “turf.” However,
even among friends and relatives, people turn on him. Ched Myers, writing in his book “Who Will
Roll Away the Stone?” notes that things are not looking too good for this little
rebel movement. “Everywhere they have
gone there has been conflict, and if it is not bad enough that Jesus has broken
with his natural family, now he is under investigation by the authorities from
the capital city.”
What does it matter? Why should this movement have any more
acceptance than any of the prophets in the Hebrew Bible? Myers also points out that as soon as Isaiah
had volunteered his services as Yahweh’s emissary than he was informed that his
message would be rejected. The point of
the movement is to persist until we can get over people’s blindness and
deafness. Jesus knows his job – and ours
– is to begin the outreach and to begin the healing.
In reality, Jesus is NOT out of his
mind. He is out of his family’s mind and
totally committed to the mindset he shares with the Father.
Action
We hear a lot of talk today about
“mainstream.” What is mainstream to one
person or group is rebellious to another.
Jesus was hardly mainstream.
Mainstream is consumerism. Christianity is a cultural contradiction
calling on us to leave behind the stuff so our journey is not weighed down.
Mainstream is best-seller lists, Oscars, Emmys, Grammys, Tonys, and the
Billboard Top 100. However, the small,
niche label goes unnoticed until it is too late. Pope Francis call us out of
the mainstream to be as counter-cultural as Jesus. Perhaps the family was
right. Jesus was operating outside of
their definition of a sound mind. Yet
perhaps he was acting crazy…like a fox. How else could Christianity become the
world’s largest religion? "As of
2010, Christianity was by far the world's largest religion, with an
estimated 2.2 billion adherents, nearly a third (31 percent) of all
6.9 billion people on Earth," according to a recent Pew report.[i]
Mainstream
also is getting all we can. Why else
would the news be so
dominated by the historic drop in the value of the stock
market at the start of this year? Not to
pick on the CEO of JP Morgan, but his salary really speaks to the excess. According to USA Today’s Kaja Whitehouse:
 |
| Artist Robert Preston depicted the JP Morgan CEO as the epitome of greed in his seven deadly sins series. |
“Even as Wall Street braces for more cuts to
jobs and bonuses, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon was paid $27 million
in 2015, up from $20 million the year before, the company said Thursday.
The pay raise comes after JPMorgan announced
record annual profits last week, thanks to cost-cutting that helped to
offset stagnating revenue growth.
In one year?!
27 million?! Does he really need
a 35 percent increase in pay from that base level? What board or compensation committee can
justify such lofty benefits? Is he is
the latest poster child for ‘Greed?’
Pope Francis calls for the opposite. "I want a Church which is poor and
for the poor." So wrote Pope Francis in The Joy of the Gospel
(Evangelii Gaudium).
January is Poverty Awareness Month. Get out
of the mainstream and into the poor-stream. Learn, pray, and take action with
the Catholic Campaign for Human Development. Sign
up here to receive a daily email from CRS with facts, tips, and ways you can
take action from the Poverty Awareness Month Calendar to end poverty in your
community!
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