Dear Fellow Disciples, peace.

This Sunday the readings focus on themes of service, humility, and the example of Jesus Christ as the Suffering Servant. In today’s Gospel, James and John approach Jesus with a bold request: they want places of honor when Jesus comes into His glory. They’re imagining positions of power and prestige.

from Hamlet, Act III, Scene I, William Shakespeare

Is that really the question? Brothers and sisters, this week the Gospel opens a very important question for those who believe in Jesus Christ. “What must I do to inherit eternal life?" Well just as Shakespeare asks this question to follow it will be noble to suffer. Now we ask ourselves, when we said we would follow Christ, is it noble to do the will of the father? To go out of us and do his will?

We heard those words this week in the readings. Jesus as well in the first reading set to us a teaching of marriage. One of the themes for us in the parish as we move forward in this catechetical year, is focused on the Holy Family and the Domestic church. The domestic church is a vocation for all the Christian families.

Brothers & Sisters in Christ,

In the first reading from the Book of Numbers, we see Moses exclaim to Joshua, “Would that all the people of the Lord were prophets!” What exactly does it mean to be a prophet? For the people of the Old Covenant, it meant calling back the sinful Israelites and foretelling the doom they would undergo if they did not repent. It meant proclaiming that one day God would send a savior, the Messiah, to right all the wrongs of the world. However, what does it mean to be a prophet under the New Covenant?

Dear Fellow Disciples, peace.

In today’s Gospel Jesus teaches His disciples a profound lesson on humility and service. The disciples are arguing about who among them is the greatest. Jesus, aware of their conversation, turns the world’s idea of greatness upside down. He tells them, “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.”

Dear Fellow Disciples, peace.

Today's Gospel focuses on a critical question Jesus poses to His disciples, "Who do you say that I am?" (Mk 8, 29). This question invites both reflection and response. Not just for the disciples of Jesus' time but, even more, for the disciples of today.

Dear Fellow Disciples, peace.

In this Sunday's Gospel we witness Jesus healing a deaf man with a speech impediment. This passage is powerful in its simplicity, illustrating the compassion and healing power of Christ. Jesus takes the man aside, away from the crowd, away from distraction, and intimately engages with him. He touches the man's ears and tongue, looks up to heaven, and with a deep sigh, says, "Ephatha", meaning "be opened".

Dear Fellow Disciples, peace.

As we return to meditating on the Gospel according to Mark, we are confronted with Jesus' critique of the exterior acts of devotion and worship performed by his contemporaries. Acts without depth or conversion of heart and life.

Jesus follows the example of the prophets of Israel, who denounced the peoples' faith and devotion which were based only in exterior actions but empty of interior meaning and conversion. We also risk such empty faith and devotion.