“Our natural will is to have God, and the good will of God is to have us, and we may never cease willing or longing for God until we have him in the fullness of joy. Christ will never have his
full bliss in us until we have our full bliss in him.” - Julian of Norwich
(Get in touch with your longing for God, knowing that this is a response to God's love for you.)
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Hebrews 7:25—8:6; Psalm 40:7-8a, 8b-9, 10, 17 Mark 3:7-12 Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the lakeside, and great crowds from Galilee followed him. From Judaea,
Jerusalem, Idumaea, Transjordania and the region of Tyre and Sidon, great numbers who had heard of all he was doing came to him. And he asked his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, to keep him from being crushed. For he had cured so many that all who were afflicted in any way were crowding forward to touch him. And the unclean spirits, whenever they saw him, would fall down before him and shout, ‘You are the Son of God!’ But he warned them strongly not to make him
known.
Reflection on the Scriptures
Now we are in “Ordinary Time”. Our daily lives may seem ordinary, yet there is nothing ordinary about Jesus’ life. In today’s gospel we hear, “Jesus withdrew toward the sea…a large
number of people followed (him)…” Why follow Jesus? Not difficult for us to answer. Jesus cured the sick, lame and blind. He fed the hungry. He ate with the poor, marginalized, strangers and refugees. Jesus even associated with the rich and haughty. Jesus listened with his heart. He heard their laminations, silent tears, knew their darkest secrets and deepest desires. Some followed to see the miracles Jesus preform. Others, possibly hoping Jesus would cure them as he had cured
others. We don’t know exactly who and how many Jesus cured, fed and socialized with. We only know those specifically named in scripture. Let’s not forget another facet of Jesus – he wholeheartedly enjoyed a good time, fellowship and generous hospitality. For his friends, he grilled breakfast of fresh fish over an open fire on the beach. I can imagine the comradery, jokes and playful jeers. Weddings – dancing, singing, enjoying eating and being with his family and friends-
including women. See the children running here and there. Jesus was guest in Peter’s home, welcomed by 2 women – Peter’s wife and his mother. In my prayerful imagination, I see a tall goodlooking man with a deep resounding laugh, a warm welcoming heart and tender accepting eyes, not reluctant to reach out and touch others. As we might say today, Jesus “works the crowd” meaning inviting all to him. Ignatius invites us to use our imaginations and senses when we pray. It is a
prayer of building a reciprocal relationship with Jesus. Jesus has experienced all that we have – dancing & laughing all the while conscious of the other guests, the hosts and as all loving sons attentive to his mother. This begs the question – why do I follow Jesus? Possibly, for all the above reasons – for what Jesus can do for me.
I like to think that I follow Jesus for my transformation. Who I become in relationship with Jesus. I love the “we” coming to life. Together we fed the hungry, visit the sick and elderly, welcome the stranger, the refugee. It is not always happy times, beach meals, dancing and singing – but always rich, meaningful and brings the deep abiding Joy that is Jesus. Jesus knows, mostly I do not, how transforming is our presence to the other.
Relationship is the measure of transformation, of deep abiding Joy. Happiness is fleeting, Joy of Jesus is abiding. -by Joan Blandin Howard
The Bodily Resurrection of Jesus, by James Arraj
https://innerexplorations.com/catchtheomor/resurrecion.htm Inner Growth Publications, 2007.
Chapter 4: The Resurrection of Jesus The Metaphysical Nature of Matter Now we come to a critical point. If less intensive beings are taken up into more intensive ones so that the more intensive ones can act in a higher way, and in the process the less intensive beings lose their
autonomy of existence and action, we can ask – putting the question a bit crudely – what is in it for them? The answer is the reception of a higher way of being. Animals, for example, have a certain kind of animal imagination and intelligence. In human beings this animal intelligence and imagination serves the higher powers of the soul, but in doing so in virtue of their union with their spiritual soul, these animal powers receive a higher way of being and acting. They receive a new form of
being which is not the entitative being by which they exist, but something we can call a unitive being, which comes to them in virtue of their union with a more intensive being. Let’s try to clarify
this new kind of being by looking at our experience of the human body. What we experience is not a vegetative or even animal body, nor something we could simply call matter. Rather, we experience the body precisely as it is united with the soul, and thus it possesses a being of union that is not something purely material nor purely spiritual, but the elevation of the material because of its union with the spiritual soul. Therefore, the twinkle of an eye or a smile, or a gesture, or even speech,
itself, are all experiences of the material body transformed by its union with the spiritual soul.15
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