Jesus, in teaching his disciples, tells them a couple of pithy sayings (Mk 4:21-25).  A lamp is used to light up a room — not to be covered; all that is hidden or secret will come to light.  How one measures out will be measured back to him; those who have more will be given even more, those with less will lose even that.  The warning above should remind us of the futility of holding onto our sins and burying them within us.  Chances are they will become known, usually with the worst possible consequences.  But even if we manage to hide our deepest, darkest, sordid deeds until the end, we still have an accounting with the Lord who sees all (cf. Mt 6:4, 6).  The sacrament of Confession frees us from sins for which we are truly sorry and for which we have a firm desire of amendment.  We can be loosed from sins long ago committed that we hold onto with shame or regret.  We can receive graces to overcome vices that enslave us now and about which we would not dare let others know.  In such cases we must take recourse as soon as possible to the “medicine box” of the confessional so that our sins may be forgiven, penance can be received, reconciliation with God and neighbor can be effected, and our soul can be cleansed and unburdened.  There is no thought, word, or deed that can not be washed away in the fountain of God’s love.  Do not bypass the opportunity to have recourse to this wonderful gift as often as needed and regularly for unequaled aid in helping to maintain right standing with the Lord.

Beginning a new chapter in Mark (4:1-20), we find Jesus teaching from a boat because of the vast crowd that came to hear Him.  He gives them (and us) the Parable of the Sower in which He compares seed falling on a path, on rocky ground, amongst thorns, and in rich soil to His word being quickly taken away, being lost because not deeply rooted, being choked by worldly matters, and being accepted, respectively.  Consider the throngs surrounding Jesus on that day and maybe many other days when He told this parable or similar ones.  Also consider all of the billions who have heard this parable since then.  What percentage, might we imagine, fall into each of the four categories?  Christ’s message was and continues to be compelling.  Look at how the crowds flocked to Him.  Yet where were they on Good Friday?  If not absent, they were shouting for His death, for the most part.  A few lonely figures on Calvary holding vigil to a pulverized Man.  Is the Word so deeply rooted in the rich soil of a grace-filled soul that we will be with Christ on our Good Fridays as well as on our Easter Sundays?  Do we bear fruit for the Lord dozens of times over because of the deep conviction we have and a burning desire to evangelize?  When we see Jesus ignored, set aside, or forgotten today do we try to increase the numbers with whom He comes in contact?  When Jesus is being slapped, scourged, and crucified all over again do we cry “Stop and listen!”?  Let us never miss an opportunity to invite others to be open to the Word.  And by the example of Christ-like living, may we help enrich the soil of all who hear the Good News.

In with a crowd in His home, Jesus receives word that His mother and other relatives have arrived outside and are asking to see Him (Mk 3:31-35).  In response, He tells those around Him that whoever does the will of God is His mother, brother, and sister.  Jesus question (above) is one we should ask as well.  If Jesus calls those who do His will His brothers and sisters, and we know God “wills everyone to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim 2:4), then we should desire every person on earth to be our sibling in the way Jesus describes (of course, making sure we do not get lost along the way [1 Cor 9:27]).    The Lord calls us to this (cf. Mk 16:15).  God’s words to Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply apply here also — we are to be fruitful for the kingdom and multiply the number who come to know the Lord (or return to Him [cf. Lk 15:11-32, The Prodigal Son]).  Every time we say the Lord’s Prayer we start out with “Our Father” (Mt 6:9-13) — the one prayer Jesus explicitly taught His followers starts with a unifying and all-encompassing message.  Do we want even one person to not be in God’s good graces and thus be our sibling in His Church?

Jesus responds to accusations that He is possessed by the prince of demons and that He drives out demons because of this possession (Mk 3:22-30).  Jesus tells His hearers that it makes no sense that Satan would go against his own minions since a divided kingdom is bound to fall.  Jesus then says that anyone who believes that He is possessed by an evil spirit blasphemes against His true spirit, the Holy Spirit, and commits an unforgivable sin.  The recent theme of a world upside down continues with this excerpt from Mark.  The Just One is called the devil and the ones who claim status as just (the religious leaders) are following their father’s orders (“You belong to your father the devil and you willingly carry out your father’s desires” [Jn 8:44]).  So Satan wishes to cast aspersions on Jesus by having the Pharisees and scribes accuse Jesus of being Satan.  All through the ages the legions of hell have conspired to reverse the poles of truth and many have complied: “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and revered and worshiped the creature rather than the creator” (Rom 1:25).  That creature is Satan and the created things of this world that he twists to lead men to destruction.  His influence grows and many are sucked into his lies.  Pray daily to St. Michael to “cast into hell, Satan and all the evil spirits seeking the ruin of souls.”  May God have mercy on our country and this world.

This gospel reading presents us the first four verses of Luke as a prelude to the opening of Jesus’ public ministry (Lk 1:1-4; 4:14-21).  Luke, in his prologue, addresses a certain Theophilus, telling him that the writings he is presenting him have been compiled after Luke’s own personal investigation of the events surrounding Jesus for the purpose stated above.  Moving ahead to chapter four, we are then told of the initial reaction to Jesus: that His fame is spreading due to His teaching.  Jesus makes His way to His hometown of Nazareth where He attends synagogue and reads aloud a passage from Isaiah (Is 61:1-2) that speaks of one who is to come who has the Spirit of the Lord and who will do wondrous things.  Finishing the passage, Jesus declares that it is fulfilled in the hearing of those present.  It appears that Luke went through much time and trouble to investigate and chronicle the story of Jesus’ life and ministry.  Inspired by the Holy Spirit we know that we can trust this writing, being secure in the fact that Luke and all New Testament authors “told us the honest truth about Jesus” (Dei Verbum, 19).  Being certain of the teachings is one thing, following them is quite another.  Luke emphasizes the veracity of what he writes to confirm Theophilus in what he had already learned and believed about Jesus.  Luke does the same for us.   We can be certain that Scripture gives us the Truth (capitalized since all of the Word [Jn 1:1] is about the truth, which is Jesus [Jn 14:6]).  No one wants to be lied to and no one want to live a lie.  In divine revelation we have all truth.  To the extent we conform ourselves to God’s Word we live in the truth.  Christ’s words to Saul during his conversion experience are ours to take to heart: “It is hard for you to kick against the goad” (Acts 26:14) — it is futile, even harmful, and potentially eternally deadly to live outside what we know inside is the truth.  But we know the truth will set us free (Jn 8:32); making us truly free (like God)  from the enslavement of sin (Jn 8:34).

Today’s two verse gospel passage (Mk 3:20-21) tells of the crowds coming to Jesus at His home in such large numbers that He and His disciples could not even eat.  Jesus’ relatives, hearing of His popularity, wish to seize him because they believe Him to be crazy.  The world today seems to be “out of its mind” as it falls away from God in so many ways (overt and covert hostility to Christianity, loss of religious freedom, disrespect of conscience, forced and unforced abortion, rampant promiscuity, gay “marriage,” increased atheism and agnosticism, among other things).  Yet society would have us believe that it is Christians who try to live their faith and honor the Lord’s teachings and commands that are out of their minds.  Why should we think ourselves worthy of better treatment than our Lord?  “If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you” (Jn 15:20); like the apostles we should find great joy in this (Acts 5:41).  We must cling to the truth (from the Truth) in season and out of season.  Like Jeremiah, we should not be able to hold it in (Jer 20:9).  Whatever consolations — or lack thereof — we find in this life, by being faithful to God we can sincerely hope to one day hear Him say to us: “Well done, my good and faithful servant. Since you were faithful in small matters, I will give you great responsibilities. Come, share your master’s joy” (Mt 25:23).

Marking the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul we read from the very end of Mark’s gospel (Mk 16:15-18).  Jesus appears to the remaining eleven apostles immediately before His Ascension to tell them to preach the gospel everywhere and baptize as they go.  Those who believe in the gospel and are baptized will be saved.  Then Jesus tells of signs (e.g., speaking new languages, handling poisonous snakes without harm, healing the sick) that will accompany true believers.  “Gospel” means “good news” (this is explicit in some other translations).  Why wouldn’t we want to spread good news?  When we find out some wonderful thing that has happened to us or to a friend or loved one, we can’t contain our excitement and want others to know immediately.  Sometimes we wish we could tell the whole world, like when a child is born, an engagement is announced, a daughter graduates college, a disease is overcome, or a major surgery is a complete success.  Such things are wonderful, but transitory.  How much more eager should we be to tell everyone of a happiness that is eternal and beyond anyone’s conception?   That it doesn’t end with the completion of this earthly life, as good or bad as it has been.  That there is hope for all of us if we believe the gospel (that is, to live by its precepts).  This commission of Jesus’ was not only for those first eleven, but it is meant for all of us who would legitimately call ourselves followers of the Lord.  Let us never miss an opportunity to have a hand in God’s work by living the gospel message and by “always be[ing] ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope” (1 Pt 3:15).

Mk 3:7-12: When it became known that Jesus was withdrawing to the sea, He was followed by a many people coming from many different regions.  Fearing He would be crushed, Jesus asks the disciples to ready a boat for Him.  Nevertheless, the people press upon Him to touch Him and be cured.  The possessed also came.  When exorcised, the demons behaved as spelled out above, but Jesus rebuked them and told them to be silent.  Two lessons we can take from this.  First, acknowledging Jesus as Lord does not a saint make.  “You believe that God is one.  You do well.  Even the demons believe that and tremble” (Jas 2:10).  Also, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven” (Mt 7:21).  Second, it is interesting that devils are not atheists or even agnostics.  In the presence of God they cannot deny Him; they know that it is their rejection of Him that put them in hell.  But they are much smarter than many today who, despite irrefutable proof of it, ignore or dismiss entirely the divine.  Demons are malicious; they are not stupid.  But they do live up to their billing as deceivers and murderers (Jn 8:44) as their hands are clearly seen in the increasing numbers that continue to turn away from God and who reject life, even killing the innocent.  The Way, the Truth, and the Life will prevail (Jn 14:6).  Embrace Him, pray to Him, advocate for Him, and serve Him as a counter to the spreading evil.  Stay close to the Rock and the Church because “the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it” (Mt 16:18).

The Pharisees continue to observe Jesus as He enters the synagogue (Mk 3:1-6).  There He encounters a man with a withered hand.  Knowing that they wanted to see if He would break their sabbath rules, Jesus asks the Pharisees if it is lawful to do good and save lives on the sabbath.  Their silence leads to the emotions described above and the subsequent healing of the disabled man.  The Pharisees go out and immediately conspire with the Herodians to have Jesus killed.  Jesus was like us in all things but sin (Heb 4:15).  He had a full range of emotions, just as we do.  His righteous anger flared most often at the hypocrisy of those who fancy themselves religious or righteous but do are not true to such conviction which shows in their actions.  Apart from this episode, recall Jesus’ cleansing of the temple (Mk 11:15–19, 11:27–33, Mt 21:12–17, 21:23–27 and Lk 19:45–48, 20:1–8, Jn 2:13–16), His arriving after the death of Lazarus (Jn 11:38), and His denouncing of the scribes and Pharisees to the crowds just days before His death (Mt 23:1-36).  Jesus did not tolerate hypocrisy and neither should we — not in ourselves, not in others, and not in society.  Fr. Hardon’s definition of hypocrisy is helpful here: “A form of lying in which a person pretends to have virtues or moral qualities that are not possessed.  Its motive is pride and its malice depends on the gravity of the pride and on the evil consequences that follow when people take one to be morally good and, perhaps, entrust one with confidences or responsibilities that are not deserved.  It is not hypocrisy, however, to be on one’s best behavior with those whom one justly wishes to impress favorably.  Nor is it hypocrisy when a person, because of human weakness, fails to live up to his or her own principles or profession of faith.”  We are correct to have a righteous anger at true hypocrisy, we should grieve at the hardness of heart that always accompanies it, and we should call it out when we see it and be prepared to confront and correct it.  This challenge confronts us more and more each day as our society pays lip service to compassion and religious freedom while killing our children in the womb and, increasingly, our elderly and sick, all the while narrowing our religious rights.  We know the Lord can get angry.  How do you think he’s feeling about now?  And what are we doing to alleviate His grief?

Jesus and His disciples are caught by the Pharisees passing through a field picking heads of grain on the sabbath (Mk 2:23-28).  Jesus’ reply when confronted about this “unlawful” behavior is to point to the scripture where David and his men, being hungry, ate of the bread of offering that could only be lawfully eaten by priests (1 Sam 21:2-7).  Jesus concludes by telling them that the sabbath was made for man and, as Son of Man, He is lord of the sabbath.  This passage offers us the opportunity to consider the Christian sabbath: Sunday, the day of the Lord’s resurrection.  How do we honor this day?  Mass, of course, is required (either on the day or in anticipation on Saturday).  But, aside from the strictly obligatory, we should use it as a day of rest and reflection.  It should not be a day, unless extraordinary circumstances warrant it, of shopping, heavy or noisy yard work, or any other very demanding physical or mental exertion that does not keep with the spirit of our faith (if you must do so, listen to Catholic programs or podcasts to feed the mind and enrich the soul).  But even if absolutely necessary to engage in such activities, some significant time should be said aside for rest, relaxation, good spiritual reading or related audio or video programs.  The body needs rest, the mind needs to be refreshed, we need to reconnect to God and family.  Highly recommended is John Paul II’s Apostolic Letter, Dies Domini, in giving clear understanding and renewed appreciation for this most important day of the week.  Giving the Lord quality time always redounds in manifold benefits to us and all those we love and encounter.