FOURTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME YR B, 2024 BY FR. MARTIN EKE, MSP

Ezekiel 2:2-5; Psalm 123:1-4; 2 Corinthians 12:7-10; Mark 6:1-6

Ezekiel was one of the prophets whom God called and sent to prophecy to the people of Israel. The Israelites were rebellious to God and consequently were carried off to exile by the Babylonians. Ezekiel was among the captives. Even while in exile, they remained “hard of face and obstinate of heart.” Yet, God did not abandon them. He never left them without his prophets. In the same way, God has not abandoned our rebellious world and all of us without prophets.

Unfortunately, all over the world, many of God’s prophets are persecuted rather than listened to. There are countless examples of true prophets who are either silenced or killed. Persecutors of the messengers of God close their ears to truths and open their ears only to lies and whatever they like to hear. Instead, false prophets are glorified because they ‘prophesy’ whatever pleases their ‘base,’ their masters, their admirers, their followers, and their listeners. In the gospel reading, Jesus was amazed at the lack of faith of the people of his time. The blatant rejection of truth and messengers of truth by many people and their acceptance of and preference for falsehood and lies of our generation are, indeed, amazing.

St. Paul’s mystical experience narrated in the second reading encourages all God’s messengers not to be discouraged in the face of oppositions and persecutions. God’s assurance is, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weaknesses.” The reading encourages God’s messengers to be calm and strong in times of weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and constraints.

In the gospel reading, Jesus was a prophet among his own people, but they rejected him. “They sneered at him, ‘Where did this man get all this? What kind of wisdom has been given him? What mighty deeds are wrought by his hands! Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?’ And they took offense at him.”

God did not go to a foreign land to get a prophet for his people in exile. He called Ezekiel from among the Israelite exiles to prophecy to them. Ezekiel’s people did not listen to him. I guess they would have said to him, “Keep quiet, young man. Where did you get all this? We know when you were born; and we know your parents and relatives who are here with us.”

Do we recognize and listen to God’s messengers in our midst, or do we sneer at them and persecute them? 

The interchange between Abraham and the rich man comes to mind: “[The rich man] said, ‘Then I beg you, father, send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they too come to this place of torment.’ But Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them.’ He said, ‘Oh no, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ Then Abraham said, ‘If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead’” (Luke 16:27-31). Most times, God sends his messages through someone among us. Let us listen to the person and not dismiss or persecute the person.

Some people spend so much time, money, and energy, running up and down and seeking for miracle workers, fortune tellers, diviners, dream analysts, palm readers, psychics, spiritualists, and so on to ‘prophesy’ to them. Meanwhile, these same people neglect God’s words in the Bible. They neglect Sunday sermons from their church leaders, good advice from parents, relatives, friends, colleagues, teachers, and so on.

God sends us to be prophets to one another. Let us speak the truth to one another. Let us listen to one another. Jesus says, “I say to you, whoever receives the one I sent receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me” (John 13:20).

You may be the ‘Ezekiel,’ or the ‘Paul,’ or the ‘Jesus’ God has sent to ‘prophesy’ the truth to someone or about a situation. You are encouraged to pray and proceed without further delay. It is not by your power, but by the power of the One who sent you! Let God’s grace be sufficient for you. St. Paul says, “proclaim the word; be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient” (2 Timothy 4:2).

We conclude with Moses’ prayer in Numbers 11:29, “Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets and the Lord would put his Spirit upon them all.” Amen.

THIRTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR B, 2024 BY FR. MARTIN EKE, MSP

 Wisdom 1:13-15, 23-24; Psalm 30:2, 4-6, 11-13; 2 Corinthians 8:7, 9, 13-15; Mark 5:21-43

Job 1:21, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” John 14:3, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be.” By these two passages and similar ones, we believe that our life and death are in God’s hand.

The first reading states, “God did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living. For he fashioned all things that they might have being, and the creatures of the world are wholesome; there is not a destructive drug among them …” (Wisdom 1:13-14). We can infer from this passage that killing and slaughtering of human beings, wars, genocides, holocausts, killing of the unborn, and all kinds of destruction of human life are not God’s making but the work of the devil and his agents. The first reading further states, “But by the envy of the devil, death entered the world …” (Wisdom 1:24). Unfortunately, many people have embraced the vices that lead to the culture of death from the devil instead of the virtues that lead to the culture of life from God. We pray for the conversion of the agents of the devil who inflict our world with the culture of death.

Another kind of death that is caused by the devil is spiritual death, which is why St. Paul writes in Romans 6:23, “The wages of sin is death.” Jesus advises us how to save ourselves from spiritual death. In Mark’s Gospel, when Jesus began his ministry, his first words were, “Repent, and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15). In John 6:29, Jesus says, “This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.” If we stop listening to the devil and falling into sin, but believe in Jesus and obeying his commands, we will surely be saved from spiritual death.

St. Paul admonishes us in the second reading, “For you know the gracious act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). Jesus differentiates himself from the devil in John 10:10, “A thief [the devil] comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.”

Jesus shows in today’s gospel that he came that we may have life and have it more abundantly. The woman who was afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years wanted her life back. She spent all that she had and suffered greatly at the hands of many doctors but got no cure. She reached out and touched the clothes of Jesus. Her faith was so great that power came out of Jesus, which cured her. “Immediately her flow of blood dried up;” and she got her life back.

Jairus, a synagogue official, also reached out to Jesus and invited him, saying, “My daughter is at the point of death. Please, come lay your hands on her that she may get well and live.” “While he was still speaking, people from the synagogue official’s house arrived and said, ‘Your daughter has died; why trouble the teacher any longer?’ Disregarding the message that was reported, Jesus said to the synagogue official, ‘Do not be afraid; just have faith’” (Mark 5:35-36). Jesus put out those who were weeping, and who ridiculed him, and those who caused commotion. He, then, healed the girl.

No doubt, our world is hemorrhaging from the culture of death. Our society is hemorrhaging from killings, insecurity, inhuman treatment, uncertainty, fear, anxiety, hunger, sickness, and various kinds of hardship and crises. We pray for our own healing and the healing of our society and world.

In our prayer and Eucharistic celebration, we approach and touch Jesus with the hemorrhaging issues in our lives as the woman did. May he respond with his healing power. Let us invite Jesus to our helpless situations, as Jairus did. May he visit us, put out all ridicules and all commotions in our lives, and all that cause spiritual and physical death to us. May Jesus proclaim upon us the words, “I say arise;” and let his words come to fulfillment. Let us arise from sins. Let us arise from afflictions. Amen.