Mary, Star of the Sea 

   Church

The Gospel is from St. Mark 9:38-43, 45, 47-48. There are two very practical lessons we must learn from today's Gospel: the grave obligation we have of not causing scandal to our fellow-Christians or indeed to any man or woman and secondly, the willingness we should have to sacrifice any earthly possession which is a cause of sin to us.

The Gospel is from St. Mark 9:30-37. The Apostles were still very worldly-minded. They were full of the hope that Christ would establish an earthly messianic kingdom, that he would not only free their holy land from the hated pagan rulers but that he would set up a worldwide empire for the people of God. Many of the messianic prophecies of the Old Testament spoke of a worldwide kingdom; all nations would submit to the descendant of David; Jerusalem would be the magnet which would attract all peoples. The prophets, however, were speaking of the true messianic kingdom, the spiritual kingdom that Christ would establish. The Apostles were as yet unable to see the true meaning of these prophecies.

The Gospel is from St. Mark 8:27-35. We need not be surprised at the slowness of the Apostles in grasping the messiahship of Jesus. He did not want the crowds who flocked to him to know this until later — after his resurrection — because they had the idea that the Messiah would be a political leader who would set them free from their subjection to pagan Rome. It was not until this occasion, near Caesarea Philippi, somewhat over a year after he had called them, that he admitted to his Apostles that he was the Messiah. He charged them not to make this fact known outside of their own limited circle. To forestall and erase any wrong ideas of a political leader which some of the Apostles might have, he immediately foretold the sufferings and death he would have to endure at the hands of the leaders of the Jews. He would be conquered and humiliated by his enemies but their victory would be short-lived -- death would not hold him -- he would rise triumphant on the third day.

The Gospel is from St. Mark 7:31-37. During his discussion with the Samaritan woman at the well of Jacob, our Lord told her that "salvation was to come from the Jews" (Jn. 4 : 22). This was in accordance with God's plan when he took Abraham from his pagan family and surroundings, and elected him to be the father of a Chosen People from whom God's blessing would come for all nations (Gn. 12: 1-4). This was the historic beginning of "salvation" for men. It was, as yet, a vague generic promise but down through the following eighteen-century history of the Chosen People (Abraham's descendants) this blessing eventually became crystallized in the Messiah — the anointed and holy one of God. It was He who would introduce the messianic age of which the prophets so often had spoken, and it was in Him that all peoples, Jews and Gentiles, would find their true "blessing."

The Gospel is from Matt. 16:21-27. From all eternity this was God's plan for mankind. But because sin had entered into the world before the Incarnation took place, the Son of God in his human nature had to suffer the violent death of the cross at the hands of sinners. In this very suffering he became the Lamb of God who took away the sins of the world, as the second-Isaiah had foretold in his "suffering servant" prophecies (Is. 53: 1-7; 42: 1-9 etc). His death, because he was God as well as man, was a sacrifice, an atonement, of infinite value, and therefore obtained forgiveness from the Father for all the sins of the human race.