Proper 12 | Ordinary Time 17, Cycle B
John 6:1-21 This text in which Jesus is portrayed as feeding 5,000 men with five barley loaves and two fish and as walking on the water of the Sea of Galilee begins a section in which the Fourth Gospel follows the pattern established in Mark (compare John 6:1-25 to Mark 6:32-56) more closely and for [...]
Proper 11 | Ordinary Time 16, Cycle B
Mark 6:30-34, 53-56 These verses have preserved in summary fashion typical events and occurrences during the time when the Jesus of history was serving so well in meeting the needs of large numbers of his own Jewish people. In many ways he was like a shepherd for them, and that shepherd was later killed by [...]
Proper 10 | Ordinary Time 15, Cycle B
Mark 6:14-29 According to the portion of Mark that precedes this text, a portion that we used last Sunday, the proclamation of Jesus that his fellow Jews should ask God for forgiveness whenever they had cooperated fully with the oppressive Romans who were occupying the land of the Jews had been extended to Jesus’ twelve [...]
Proper 9 | Ordinary Time 14, Cycle B
Mark 6:1-13 Within the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Mark) this text is one of several in which the Jesus of history is close enough to the surface that some of his human limitations and frustrations are depicted. “He was not able to do any mighty deed there, except for placing his hands on a few [...]
Proper 8 | Ordinary Time 13, Cycle B
Mark 5:21-43 The introductory note in Mark 5:21 regarding Jesus crossing again in the boat to the other side of the lake should alert us to the interest in and the importance of “theological geography” in this section of the Gospel According to Mark. In Mark 5:20 Jesus was on the “Gentile” side of the [...]
