“And no one dared to ask him anymore questions.” (Mk. 12:34)

When Jesus was asked which is the first commandment? He fixes love as the most fundamental commandment, but He further teaches us that love can be expressed in love of God, love of neighbor, and love of oneself. The commandment to love must start with love of God first, love of neighbor second, and love of self, last. His answer summarizes all of sacred scripture so that no one dared to ask him any more questions.

“Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me.” (Mk. 10:45)

The blind Bartimaeus’ cry among the crowd was a display of great faith in Jesus. He first experienced interior healing, when he began to publicly acknowledge that Jesus has the power to heal him. It is both a prayer and a profession of faith. This prayer has evolved through the centuries into a Christian tradition of the Jesus prayer. “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.” (CCC 2616)

“And you will have treasures in heaven; then come, follow me.” (Mk. 10:21)

"God made them male and female…."

In the Garden of Eden, God said, "It is not good for man to be alone." Thus, He created Eve, so that Adam will have someone with whom He could enter into a loving communion of life. The plan of God from the beginning was for man to be in a loving relationship with Him and with one another. The communion of man and woman forms the covenant relationship called marriage. The love of spouses require by its very nature, unity and indissolubility of the bond made in a marriage covenant, which embraces their entire married life. In the Gospel, Jesus identifies the root cause of many-failed relationship, the "hardness of heart."

For whoever is not against us is for us.” (Mk. 9:40)

Jesus is inviting his disciples to be more open toward those who are not within the formal bounds of the Christian community, and not to consider them as foes. He also teaches us to acknowledge and encourage those who may not be of our own kin or kind, of our own community but who collaborate with us in our work for His kingdom.

This week’s readings teach us that living as Christian stewards requires us to swim against the tide of our “me-first” culture and stake out a path for our lives that may be different from that of our neighbors, friends or co-workers.

Jesus illustrates in today’s Gospel. “Taking a child, He placed it in their midst, and putting His arms around it, He said to them, ‘Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but the One who sent me.’”

What is discipleship? Discipleship is living as Christ called us to live. It is following to the best of our abilities the perfect model that He provides us. The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains that it is ‘a vocation to holiness and to the mission of evangelizing the world.’ (CCC1513) ‘as we are called to follow and imitate Christ’ (CCC520).

We often associate the word "healing" with something that produces dramatic, physical results: the blind see, the crippled walk, and the deaf hear. Witnessing such miraculous events is few and far between for most. Healing happens more frequently in very ordinary ways using very ordinary means. Andwe can all be God's instruments for bringing it about.

In today’s Gospel from Mark, Jesus instructs us in the best way we can honor Him, teaching us the meaning of true worship. Jesus reveals that the way we truly worship Him is by giving Him our hearts. We also learn in this Gospel passage what our Lord does not want — the pious lip service that the scribes and Pharisees offer.

Formation is the product of education and practice. It’s an on-going cycle of applied learning. Without practice, it’s simply facts or knowledge. Without education action is often, and even most likely, misdirected and ineffective. The result of good formation is increased awareness. The old adage “The more you know, the more you know how little you know:” fits. Consider this as you read the question below:

Jesus said to the crowd, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life….” We can hardly blame the crowd for their shock at this statement — eating the Flesh and drinking the Blood of our Lord should cause us a bit of a shock. Yet how easy it is to show up at Mass Sunday after Sunday, receiving the Eucharist as simply part of a weekly routine.

If we really spent time contemplating the gift our Lord is offering us in this sacrament, we would be awestruck at the
love and power in this gift. Through it, our Lord is giving us the very best He has to give — Himself. Not even the greatest theological scholar or the holiest of saints can fully understand this mystery.

You sit down at a restaurant and order drinks and an appetizer. Then you order an entrée with a salad. When all of that has been consumed, you order a dessert. You leave after having had a good time, but your pants don’t fit so well now. You are so full you regret ordering all those courses. Your eyes were bigger than your stomach. You ordered what you wanted and not what you needed.

Have you ever approached a hushed group and were certain they were talking about you? It's an uncomfortable feeling to catch people murmuring about what you did, said, or didn't do. It breeds division and exclusion. In today's Gospel, Jesus invites us to just the opposite.

The reading opens with the crowds "murmuring" their doubts about Jesus after he has proclaimed himself the Bread of Life. "Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph? how can he say 'I have come down from heaven?'" In his response, Jesus brings up the Israelites and the manna God brought them in the desert. If you turn back to the story in Exodus, you'll see another similar word: murmuring. As the going got tough, the Israelites doubted Moses and God's plan to protect and care for them as a chosen people. Here, Jesus proposes a difficult theological concept. Jesus himself is "the living bread" and "flesh for the life of the world."

As human beings, we seem to have a wide array of insatiable desires. We long for more money, more time, and more stuff. We spend millions of dollars each year on remedies for our overeating. We look to our neighbors to see what they have that we want so we can keep up with them in the race toward happiness. We look for instant gratification only to find that our hunger for whatever it is remains intact.