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In calling people to change their ways, one may use a carrot or a stick – reward or punishment. In today’s Gospel (Mark 9:38-43; 45, 47-48) one might say that Jesus chooses the stick when he speaks of the fires of Gehenna, a place that was feared and reviled by the residents of Jerusalem for centuries. It was viewed as a cursed place, the closest thing to hell one might imagine. It was in Gehenna where ancient peoples practiced the human sacrifice of children to appease pagan deities. To show their utter disdain for Gehenna and the evils that happened there, it eventually became a landfill where the populace of Jerusalem dumped their garbage which was then burned. The fires would burn constantly day and night as the smoke and horrible odors would waft over the countryside.

Most people today like success. Almost daily, through a wide variety of media, our attention is often drawn to those who are the wealthiest, the most powerful, the most beautiful, the most fashionable, and even to athletes and teams with the most wins. Their activities grab the headlines or the lead story on the evening news; their photos appear regularly in the social media, and their lives can dominate our conversations. At times we may desire what they appear to have - fame and fortune. We can begin to use these ideas of “success” as a standard for our own vision of what it means to be “successful.”

As Catholics, we usually think of Peter as the saint, the first Pope, the one whom Jesus entrusted with the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven, the rock on whom the Church was built. The basilica that bears his name sits at the center of Rome, in Vatican City. Yet, Scripture passages such as today's gospel show us a more headstrong and human side of Peter, one who was far from a perfect disciple. In today's gospel passage, Peter could not accept the fate Jesus foretold for himself. In fact, Peter rebuked Jesus when he predicted he would suffer and die. Peter, like countless others, was expecting a Messiah who would be a powerful religious and military leader, who would rise up, unite the people, and overthrow the yoke of Roman occupation. He was not expecting a Messiah who would willingly surrender his own life
be subjected to a shameful passion and death.

In our First Reading today (Isaiah 35:4-7a), Isaiah offers a prophecy of restoration. Written around the year 700 BC, some people see this prophecy as describing what will happen to the Jewish people after the Babylonian Exile which began about 589 BC. The Babylonian army under King Nebuchadnezzar had conquered the land of Judah and many of its inhabitants were taken as captives to Babylon where they would remain for nearly 70 years. The Jewish people would one day look back upon this humiliating defeat and period of captivity as God’s just punishment for their sins as a people. But Isaiah offers them hope through his prophecy of restoring Israel to its former glory and allowing it to be fruitful again, once they had been chastened for their sinfulness by the Exile. Other scholars would see the words recorded by Isaiah as being a prophecy that would be fulfilled in Jesus several hundred years later. To the Jews in exile, Isaiah said the glory of God and his blessings would be revealed through miraculous signs such as the blind having their sight restored and the mute being able to speak. Isaiah’s prophecy speaks of God coming to the people and offering them “vindication”- freedom from the punishment imposed by the exile.

Do you think it is possible to become so focused, so involved with something that you overlook the bigger picture and perhaps even forget why you are doing it in the first place? In today’s Gospel, the Pharisees and scribes were so focused on the disciples of Jesus eating their meals with unwashed hands that they did not pay any attention to God’s commandments.

What helps us to keep going when the going gets tough? How do we remain faithful to the call to discipleship when the cross we carry gets heavy? The readings from today’s Liturgy of the Word give us some help and encouragement.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church and the prayers of today’s Mass teach us that the Blessed Virgin Mary was preserved free of sin from the moment of her conception in the womb of her own mother. This is the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary; that through the anticipated merits of her Son, Jesus, Mary was preserved from Original Sin at the moment of her own conception, and remained sinless throughout her life. This is why the Archangel Gabriel, in the Annunciation found in the Gospel of Luke, greeted her with the words: “Hail, full of grace.” At the end of her earthly life, she was taken up, body and soul, into Heaven. This act of divine favor is known as the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and it allowed Mary to experience the first fruits of her Son’s Resurrection. In her glory, she gives us cause to hope that we, too, can one day share in Christ’s Resurrection.

Today's Gospel Reading continues from Chapter 6 of the Gospel of John which scholars call the bread of life discourse. In this lengthy oration, Jesus is professing that he is the bread of life sent down from heaven by the Father so that whoever eats this bread will live forever. It is a pivotal section in Jesus’ ministry because this is the time when many who follow him will find his words too difficult to hear and will leave him. Their departure comes after the passage we heard today. Jesus is the bread that came down from heaven and in partaking of this bread which has become his Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, we are transformed. We become united with God and his work. We are then sent forward to make God's Kingdom present on earth through our own efforts, in response to God’s command.

In our First Reading today (Genesis 16:24, 1215), God gave the Israelites bread from Heaven to sustain them on their Exodus journey from slavery in Egypt to the freedom of the Promised Land. The manna appeared on the ground each morning near the place where the people had camped. They could gather only what they needed for that day. If anyone tried to hoard more than a day’s portion, it would spoil overnight and could not be eaten the next day. Only on the sixth day (Friday) could they gather and save enough Manna for two days so that they could observe the Sabbath rest on Saturday and avoid the work of gathering Manna on the Sabbath. This manna truly was their daily bread, and God provided it in this way so that they could learn to trust that God would look out for them and provide for them.

The miracle in today’s Gospel (John 6:1-15) is well known. The Gospels of Mark and Matthew each have two accounts of a multiplication of loaves and fishes, while the Gospels of John and Luke both have one such account. Large crowds were following Jesus because he had been curing the sick. Jesus saw that they were hungry. After asking his disciples where they could buy enough food for them to eat, Andrew told him about a boy who had five barley loaves and two fish. Jesus took the food, gave thanks, and distributed it. Amazingly, Jesus fed about five thousand men and an uncounted number of women and children.

Jesus was often surrounded by crowds. They followed him through the countryside and gathered around him in the cities. They pushed their way into homes where he was staying. In one instance, they even tore away the roof tiles to reach him that he might cure a paralytic.

Do you remember being out at recess during school and teams being picked for baseball or dodgeball or some other game? It could be scary, thinking about how it would turn out. Will I be the last one picked? Will everybody laugh at me? Will I be good enough? Many of us may approach our faith and relationship with Jesus the same way, asking whether or not God will choose us; whether or not we are “good enough.” The Good News for each of us today is that God has already chosen us, and send us out on a mission that we can accomplish through his grace, power, and authority.

Today’s passage from the Gospel of Mark (Mark 6:1- 6) is quite revealing. Those who had gathered in the synagogue that was located in Jesus’ “native place” clearly were familiar with Jesus because they began to name his family – Mary, his mother; his brothers, James and Joses, Judas and Simon. They even mention his sisters. It is important to note that this identification as brothers and sisters must be taken within the context of the culture and language in which Jesus was living. These “brothers and sisters” would be more like extended family, perhaps cousins. This passage in no way contradicts the truth that Mary conceived Jesus by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit and that she remained ever-virgin, having had no other children.

One important message that we hear in today’s Scripture Readings is that God created all things for good. Still, we cannot deny that there is evil in the world. Illness, poverty, injustice, and war are frequently in the news, but these things do not come from God. Pain, violence, and death came into the world as a result of sin – of man’s disobedience and belief in the lies of the devil.

“Quiet! Be still!” With these words, Jesus calmed the storm that was threatening the Apostles as their boats were being tossed about and filled with water in today’s Gospel (Mark 4:35-41). It must have been a fierce storm indeed to have frightened these men, several of whom were seasoned fishermen who had made their living on the sea before becoming disciples of Jesus. They were so frightened that they woke up Jesus who was asleep in the boat. They needed him to be present to them in their panic and fear.

Today’s First Reading (Ezekiel 17:22-24) presents the image of the growth of plants. It is God who regulates what will prosper and what will not. This image will be used in the Gospel where Jesus applies it to the question of how faith grows. God will bring down the mighty and arrogant and will lift up the lowly and the humble. This is a theme we hear in the hymn sung by the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Magnificat, found at the Visitation in the Gospel according to Luke. In Ezekiel’s day, the mighty and arrogant were represented both by those who refused to repent of their evil ways in Judah and by the nation of Babylon, which had conquered the kingdom if Judah and sent its leading citizens into exile.

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi). The Catholic Church has consistently taught from Apostolic times that during a valid celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the bread and wine truly become the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. This is what is meant by the “True Presence” or “Real Presence” of Jesus in the Most Holy Eucharist. Although the elements still have the appearance of bread and wine, they have – through the power of the Holy Spirit – been changed into Jesus’ Body and Blood, just as they did at the Last Supper. Tragically, a large number of Catholics have not been catechized well with regard to the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. They have come to see the Eucharist simply as the symbolic presence of Christ rather than his Real Presence.

Today we celebrate one of the most fundamental beliefs of Christianity: the Most Holy Trinity – three distinct, coequal Persons in one God. For the Church, the Trinity is considered a mystery. There are aspects of the Trinity that we will never fully grasp while we are this side of Heaven. But it is something we hold as revealed truth. We experience the presence and reality of the Most Holy Trinity as what has been described as “a divine communion of love.”.

In the Scripture Readings for today’s Mass, we hear two accounts of the Pentecost. The more dramatic of the two occurs in our First Reading from the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 2:1-11) where the Holy Spirit descends upon the Apostles, empowering them to speak in different tongues so that the Jews from different lands who had gathered in Jerusalem could hear the message of Jesus proclaimed in their own language. The second, and perhaps less dramatic account is found in today’s Gospel (John 20:19-23) where the Risen Jesus, himself, appears to the Apostles, breathes the Holy Spirit upon them, and commissions them to go forth and continue the mission of announcing the coming of the Kingdom of God.

Today we celebrate Christ’s ascension into Heaven and his return to the right hand of the Father. A week from now, we will commemorate the birth of the Church at Pentecost. For over six weeks now, we have observed the Easter Season and reflected on the glory of the Risen Christ. In the Gospel chosen specifically for today’s feast (Mark 16:15-20), Jesus gives his Great Commission to the disciples: “Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.”