Wednesday, February 14, 2018

Parish Bulletin Article: "Are you Amazed?": 2-4-18

We have been listening to the Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Mark both during daily and weekend Masses.  In this Gospel, there is one word that is unique compared to Matthew, Luke, and John: amazed.  This word is used eight times in Mark, four times in Luke one time in Matthew and zero in John.
This in itself is amazing.
Here are a couple of places with this word occurs in Mark, especially with teaching, healing, forgiving or powerful moments:
·      2:9-12: “Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, take up your pallet and walk?  But that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins’ — he said to the paralytic — ‘I say to you, rise, take up your pallet and go home.’  And he rose, and immediately took up the pallet and went out before them all; so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, ‘We never saw anything like this!’”
·      9:14-15: “And when they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd about them, and scribes arguing with them.  And immediately all the crowd, when they saw him, were greatly amazed, and ran up to him and greeted him.”
·      12:17: “Jesus said to them, ‘Render to Caesar the things that are Caesars, and to God the things that are God’s.’  And they were amazed at him.”
So here is one question for you: what has amazed you from Jesus Christ?  Take some time and remember these moments in your life.  Did you and your spouse have a child?  Did you experience his love in your life?  Was someone saved through his healing?  Was your prayer effective?  Did your life change?
I know one way I use this word many times when I think about our family: when I speak with brothers and sisters that Jesus Christ continues to lead our parishes, parishioners and our school, we are amazed from our savior!

God Bless!

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