The
Discipleship
Questions for
Sunday
February 8, 2009
Scripture
First
Psalm
Second
Gospel: Mk 1:29-39
First
Reading Jb 7:1-4. 6-7
A reading from the Book of Job
I am filled with restlessness until the dawn.
Job spoke,
saying:
Is not man’s
life on earth a drudgery?
Are not his days
those of hirelings?
He is a slave who longs for the shade,
a hireling who
waits for his wages.
So I have been
assigned months of misery,
and troubled nights
have been allotted to me.
If in bed I say,
“When shall I arise?”
then the night drags
on;
I am filled with
restlessness until the dawn.
My days are
swifter than a weaver’s shuttle;
they come to an end
without hope.
Remember that my
life is like the wind;
I shall not see happiness again.
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 147:1-2, 3-4, 5-6
(R.) Praise the Lord, who heals the
brokenhearted.
or:
(R.) Alleluia.
Praise the LORD,
for he is good;
sing praise to our
God, for he is gracious;
it is fitting to
praise him.
The LORD
rebuilds
the dispersed of
(R.) Praise the Lord, who heals the
brokenhearted.
or:
(R.) Alleluia.
He heals the
brokenhearted
and binds up their
wounds.
He tells the
number of the stars;
he calls each by
name.
(R.) Praise the Lord, who heals the
brokenhearted.
or:
(R.) Alleluia.
Great is our
Lord and mighty in power;
to his wisdom
there is no limit.
The LORD
sustains the lowly;
the wicked he casts
to the ground.
(R.) Praise the Lord, who heals the
brokenhearted.
or:
(R.) Alleluia.
Second Reading
1 Cor 9:16-19, 22-23
A reading from the first Letter of Saint
Paul to the Corinthians
Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel.
Brothers and
sisters:
If I preach the
gospel, this is no reason for me to boast,
for an obligation
has been imposed on me,
and woe to me if I
do not preach it!
If I do so
willingly, I have a recompense,
but if unwillingly,
then I have been entrusted with a stewardship.
What then is my
recompense?
That, when I
preach,
I offer the
gospel free of charge
so as not to make
full use of my right in the gospel.
Although I am
free in regard to all,
I have made
myself a slave to all
so as to win over
as many as possible.
To the weak I
became weak, to win over the weak.
I have become
all things to all, to save at least some.
All this I do
for the sake of the gospel,
so that I too may
have a share in it.
Gospel
Mk 1:29-39
A reading from the holy Gospel according
to Mark
Jesus cured many who were sick with various diseases.
On leaving the
synagogue
Jesus entered
the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John.
Simon’s
mother-in-law lay sick with a fever.
They immediately
told him about her.
He approached,
grasped her hand, and helped her up.
Then the fever left her and she waited on
them.
When it was
evening, after sunset,
they brought to him
all who were ill or possessed by demons.
The whole town
was gathered at the door.
He cured many who were sick with various diseases,
and he drove out
many demons,
not permitting them
to speak because they knew him.
Rising very
early before dawn, he left
and went off to a
deserted place, where he prayed.
Simon and those
who were with him pursued him
and on finding him
said, “Everyone is looking for you.”
He told them,
“Let us go on to the nearby villages
that I may preach
there also.
For this purpose
have I come.”
So he went into
their synagogues,
preaching and driving out
demons throughout the whole of
Discipleship
Questions:
1.
The world is not flat but too many
of us think that it is! Our world has
been defined by the arid reductionism of rationalism. Listen to what Annie Dillard writes – do you
believe it? “Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so
blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does
no one believe a word of it? The
churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up
a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning.
It is madness to wear ladies’ straw hats and velvet hats to church; we
should all be wearing crash helmets.
Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash
us to our pews. For the sleeping god may
wake someday and take offense or the waking god may draw us out to where we can
never return.”
2.
Please read the following and discuss:
God wants to remind us that His
Kingdom has come to earth – Heaven has come to earth and is with us – and He
wants to encourage us to open the eyes of our sanctified imaginations – the
eyes of our faith - to
His heavenly Kingdom here and now on Terra Firma!
The Flat World. So
many of us – and I include Christians in this – so many of us - live out our
lives in the hovels of our limited imaginings of who we are, who God is and
what He has called us to!
The
world really has been flattened by the rationalism of our materialistic
culture! For many of us our dreams have
been defined only by what we can see and hear and touch and smell and
control! But this is such an impoverished
understanding of what real reality is!
Writers and poets and painters and
sculpters have sought throughout human history to tease us out and beyond the
flat world of the reductionism of rationalism into the rich multi-layered,
multi-faceted miraculous world of God’s Kingdom!
·
The rationalist sees the sun setting the poet sees God’s heart melting
into the primordial waters of the universe.
·
The rationalist lusts after sexual power the heavenly lover loves
beyond life his or her beloved.
·
The rationalist sees what is and says “It is what it is” but the man or
woman of faith looks beyond the veil of the visible and sees the resurrected
Lord calling them to greater and greater acts of sacrificial love that will in
time bring magnificent redemption!
3. Read
the passage from Job and discern how flat Job saw his world. Can you see how often we sometimes see our
world through his eyes? Please discuss.
4. Please
read Luke 4:16-21. In this passage Jesus
reads from the Prophet Isaiah and tells his audience that the
5. Miracles
were breaking out! Now read Mark
1:29-34. What sign of the Kingdom did
Jesus exhibit in these verses?
6. Now
read John 14:12. “Greater things than
these will you do!” The world is not
flat defined by what is visible but it’s the invisible world – the
7. Please
read the following and discuss: The world is NOT FLAT! God is all about us – open your eyes – open
the eyes of your heart and look for Him – He will be found and He will bless
you beyond all measure as you discover Him in the big and small things of your
daily lives!
Jesus lives –
He was resurrected – Yes! He died but
then He came back to life! The
YOUR
World is not flat. You life is
not bound by your job description or your bank balance or you debt! NO!
God’s world – your world – is so so so much more majestic and sublime
than only what you can see.
There is so so
much waiting for your faith to reach through the veil to take hold of it and
usher it into the visible world. But to
do that you need to hope – and believe that what you know in your heart is fact
- is in fact fact – simply reach through the veil and take a hold of it – and
it will come.
But
make sure that it’s what Jesus wants and not just what you want.
Truly the song of the one who knows this is
that of David:
Ps 147:1-2, 3-4, 5-6
(R.) Praise the Lord, who heals the brokenhearted.
Praise the
LORD, for he is good;
sing praise to our God, for he is
gracious;
it is fitting to praise him.
The LORD
rebuilds
the dispersed of
(R.) Praise the Lord, who heals the brokenhearted.
He heals the
brokenhearted
and binds up their wounds.
He tells the
number of the stars;
he calls each by name.
(R.) Praise the Lord, who heals the brokenhearted.
Great is our
Lord and mighty in power;
to his wisdom there is no limit.
The LORD
sustains the lowly;
the wicked he casts to the ground.
(R.) Praise the Lord, who heals the brokenhearted.
Is
this the song of your heart right now. It should be.
It’s our song. It’s the song of
every believer in God!
If it’s not the song of your heart
then it should be – it must be – for your good and for the good of those around
you.
If you and I aren’t filled with a
joyful hope then stop and listen for the whisper of our Lord – He will inspire
you once again. You are His and He is
yours. You’ve simply forgotten – and we
all forget – it’s OK – but don’t linger any longer than you have to in the flat
– dull – uninspiring landscape of this one dimensional world – there’s so so
much more awaiting all of us!
Amen and Amen!