Association Of Catholic Bloggers

In today’s Gospel from Mark 12:18-27, some Sadducees, who did not believe in the resurrection, questioned Jesus. They asked about a woman, married to seven brothers, in successive order. As was the Jewish custom, as each brother died, the next brother, in line of succession, took her as his wife. The Sadducees wanted to know whose wife she would be in this so-called afterlife. Jesus, in his typical manner of responding to a question, posed a different question. “ Are you not misled because you do not know the scriptures or the power of God… As for the dead being raised, have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God told him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?’” (Mark 12:24, 26). Are You Not Misled? If Jesus were to ask you today, “are you not misled because you do not read scripture or understand the power of God,” how would you respond? Would Jesus be justified in accusing you of being misled? I think we could all...

The Spirit of God flows through our imperfections.   An Allegory.                 An  idealistic young man, Mark, traveled a great distance to find a well-known holy man to mentor him. Although this elder, Fr. Simon, was a confirmed hermit, Mark noticed he was becoming physically weak. Ingeniously, Mark offered the perfect exchange; he would do the heavy chores for the elderly monk, freeing valuable hours so Father would have more than enough spare time to teach him how to live a spiritual life. This earnest young fellow was determined to do his work so well the monk would never regret sharing his hermitage and more importantly, his wisdom with him. . One of the new novice’s daily chores was to haul water from a creek nearby with a yoke across his shoulders. On each end of a pole hung large clay pots. However, one of the pots had a crack in it while the other pot was perfect and always deliv...