Open-minded people see disagreement as a thoughtful means to expand their knowledge. They don’t get angry or upset at questions; rather, they want to identify where the disagreement lies so they can correct their misperceptions. They realize that being right means changing their minds when someone else knows something they don’t.

Closed-minded people are more interested in proving themselves right than in getting the best outcome. They don’t ask questions. They want to show you where you're wrong without understanding where you’re coming from. They get angry when you ask them to explain something. They think people who ask questions are slowing them down. And they think you’re an idiot if you don’t agree.

Gospel Text: (MK 6:1-6)

Jesus departed from there and came to his native place,
accompanied by his disciples.
When the sabbath came he began to teach in the synagogue,
and many who heard him were astonished.
They said, “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 Joseph and Judas and Simon?
And are not his sisters here with us?”
And they took offense at him.
Jesus said to them,
“A prophet is not without honor except in his native place
and among his own kin and in his own house.”
So he was not able to perform any mighty deed there,
apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them.
He was amazed at their lack of faith.

So often we are like Jesus' own towns-folk: we refuse to even listen or to try to understand because of established prejudices, though without any basis. How often have we ignored God's message to us because we do not like the priest or bishop who delivered the homily to us? How often have we failed to love our neighbor because of unfounded misunderstanding with some in the community? Are we open to the daily miracles of love and sacrifice we see in people around us? Are we able to see God's love and care for us in the many daily wonders of nature around us?

“What happens when people open their hearts?"…..They get better.”

“The way you help heal the world is you start with your own family.” ― Mother Teresa: (1910 – 1997: Founded the Missionaries of Charity)

Gospel Text: (MK 5:21-43)

When Jesus had crossed again in the boat
to the other side,
a large crowd gathered around him, and he stayed close to the sea.
One of the synagogue officials, named Jairus, came forward.
Seeing him he fell at his feet and pleaded earnestly with him, saying,
"My daughter is at the point of death.
Please, come lay your hands on her
that she may get well and live."
He went off with him
and a large crowd followed him.

There was a woman afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years.
She had suffered greatly at the hands of many doctors
and had spent all that she had.
Yet she was not helped but only grew worse.
She had heard about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd
and touched his cloak.
She said, "If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured."
Immediately her flow of blood dried up.
She felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction.
Jesus, aware at once that power had gone out from him,
turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who has touched my clothes?"
But his disciples said to him,
"You see how the crowd is pressing upon you,
and yet you ask, Who touched me?"
And he looked around to see who had done it.
The woman, realizing what had happened to her,
approached in fear and trembling.
She fell down before Jesus and told him the whole truth.
He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has saved you.
Go in peace and be cured of your affliction."

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."
He did not allow anyone to accompany him inside
except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James.
When they arrived at the house of the synagogue official,
he caught sight of a commotion,
people weeping and wailing loudly.
So he went in and said to them,
"Why this commotion and weeping?
The child is not dead but asleep."
And they ridiculed him.
Then he put them all out.
He took along the child's father and mother
and those who were with him
and entered the room where the child was.
He took the child by the hand and said to her, "Talitha koum,"
which means, "Little girl, I say to you, arise!"
The girl, a child of twelve, arose immediately and walked around.
At that they were utterly astounded.
He gave strict orders that no one should know this
and said that she should be given something to eat.

What is the message of the gospels that is “heard ‘round the world?”   In the end, God wins.  Evil loses.  Come, let us join in the victory celebration that is the Mass.

“A transformed life is the greatest of all miracles."

"It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad." - C.S. Lewis: (1898 – 1963: was a British novelist, poet, & academic)

Gospel Text: (MK 5:1-20)

Jesus and his disciples came to the other side of the sea,
to the territory of the Gerasenes.
When he got out of the boat,
at once a man from the tombs who had an unclean spirit met him.
The man had been dwelling among the tombs,
and no one could restrain him any longer, even with a chain.
In fact, he had frequently been bound with shackles and chains,
but the chains had been pulled apart by him and the shackles smashed,
and no one was strong enough to subdue him.
Night and day among the tombs and on the hillsides
he was always crying out and bruising himself with stones.
Catching sight of Jesus from a distance,
he ran up and prostrated himself before him,
crying out in a loud voice,
"What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?
I adjure you by God, do not torment me!"
(He had been saying to him, "Unclean spirit, come out of the man!")
He asked him, "What is your name?"
He replied, "Legion is my name. There are many of us."
And he pleaded earnestly with him
not to drive them away from that territory.

Now a large herd of swine was feeding there on the hillside.
And they pleaded with him,
"Send us into the swine. Let us enter them."
And he let them, and the unclean spirits came out and entered the swine.
The herd of about two thousand rushed down a steep bank into the sea,
where they were drowned.
The swineherds ran away and reported the incident in the town
and throughout the countryside.
And people came out to see what had happened.
As they approached Jesus,
they caught sight of the man who had been possessed by Legion,
sitting there clothed and in his right mind.
And they were seized with fear.
Those who witnessed the incident explained to them what had happened
to the possessed man and to the swine.
Then they began to beg him to leave their district.
As he was getting into the boat,
the man who had been possessed pleaded to remain with him.
But Jesus would not permit him but told him instead,
"Go home to your family and announce to them
all that the Lord in his pity has done for you."
Then the man went off and began to proclaim in the Decapolis
what Jesus had done for him; and all were amazed.

Christ can change anybody. Christ’s love can revolutionize anybody’s life, but His love must first be shared and then received. And so, the obvious lesson for us is to in faith, “become comfortable being uncomfortable” and seek to manifest the love of Christ through us to those who the world says are unworthy. 

“The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist…… “The second greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he is the good guy”

“Let us always remember… that the Adversary wants to keep us separated from God and therefore instills disappointment in our hearts when we do not see our apostolic commitment immediately rewarded. Every day the devil sows the seeds of pessimism and bitterness in our hearts. … Let us open ourselves to the breath of the Holy Spirit, who never ceases to sow seeds of hope and confidence.” - Pope Francis: Speech, 6/18/2013 

Gospel Text: (MK 1:21-28)

Then they came to Capernaum,
and on the sabbath Jesus entered the synagogue and taught.
The people were astonished at his teaching,
for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.
In their synagogue was a man with an unclean spirit;
he cried out, "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?
Have you come to destroy us?
I know who you are—the Holy One of God!"
Jesus rebuked him and said,
"Quiet! Come out of him!"
The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came out of him.
All were amazed and asked one another,
"What is this?
A new teaching with authority.
He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him."
His fame spread everywhere throughout the whole region of Galilee.

Many times in our lives we are "possessed" by many things: without knowing it, we have been subtly enslaved by our senses, by our craving for wealth and material things, by our desire for power and influence. Like the man possessed by an unclean spirit in the Gospel reading, we have been "possessed" by the wrong things: we are in a state far from our original standing as adopted sons and daughters of God, dwelling places of the Holy Spirit. It is in this context that Jesus frees us from such possession: he exorcises the evil in us so that only what is Godly remains.

We ask ourselves, at this point in our lives, what have subtly and perhaps unknowingly enslaved and possessed us and hold us captive and not free?

And we ask Jesus to deliver us from these……!

When a man finds no peace within himself it is useless to seek it elsewhere.

There are many things that are essential to arriving at true peace of mind, and one of the most important is faith, which cannot be acquired without prayer. – John Wooden: (1910 – June 4, 2010: was an American basketball player and head coach at the University of California at Los Angeles.)

Gospel Text: (MK 4:35-41)

On that day, as evening drew on, Jesus said to his disciples:
"Let us cross to the other side."
Leaving the crowd, they took Jesus with them in the boat just as he was.
And other boats were with him.
A violent squall came up and waves were breaking over the boat,
so that it was already filling up.
Jesus was in the stern, asleep on a cushion.
They woke him and said to him,
"Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?"
He woke up,
rebuked the wind,
and said to the sea, "Quiet! Be still!"
The wind ceased and there was great calm.
Then he asked them, "Why are you terrified?
Do you not yet have faith?"
They were filled with great awe and said to one another,
"Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?"

Faith is a gift freely given, but it’s also a gift that must be freely accepted. Jesus will not calm our souls without our consent, or rather, our faith in His power to do so. The disciples marvel at Jesus as one “whom even wind and sea obey”. Even more marvelous, however, is a disciple who obeys Jesus as His Lord.

"A providence is shaping our ends; a plan is developing in our lives; a supreme and loving Being is making all things work together for good."

'The more you abandon to God the care of all temporal things the more He will take care to provide for all your wants. But if on the contrary you try to supply all your needs Providence will allow you to continue to do just that, and then it may very well happen that even necessity will be lacking to you. For God will reprove you for your lack of faith in reliance on self.'  - St. Jean-Baptiste de la Salle: (1651 – 1719: was a French priest, educational reformer, and founder of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools)

Gospel Text: (MK 4:26-34)

Jesus said to the crowds:
“This is how it is with the Kingdom of God;
it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land
and would sleep and rise night and day
and the seed would sprout and grow,
he knows not how.
Of its own accord the land yields fruit,
first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.
And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once,
for the harvest has come.”

He said,
“To what shall we compare the Kingdom of God,
or what parable can we use for it?
It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground,
is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth.
But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants
and puts forth large branches,
so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade.”
With many such parables
he spoke the word to them as they were able to understand it.
Without parables he did not speak to them,
but to his own disciples he explained everything in private.

There are many things we do not really understand in our lives. There are times we work so hard and yet gain so little; or times when we hardly do anything but experience great success; or sickness and sorrow, and death.

The Lord is powerful and his ways mysterious. In moments we do not understand, we are left to trust and have faith that he remains in control.

God is a God of surprises and in all his surprises only one thing remains true: that his purpose is that we feel his love and concern for each one of us.

We need God and not the other way around.

The creation story tells us that God's creation is self-sufficient. In the Sermon on the Mount we are reminded that the birds of the air and the flowers of the field are well cared for. And "are you not worth much more than birds?" (Mt 6:26) "Set your heart first on the kingdom of God and all these things will also be given to you. Do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about itself." (Mt 6: 33- 34)

The Gospel reading tells us to trust that God has beautiful plans for each one of us. Are we patient enough to wait for it to unfold?