Scripture Reflections for the Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

“Not to glamorize poverty, because there is nothing glamorous about being poor, but while living in the dump I saw a real advantage in having fewer material things – you are able to see God’s actions in your life much more easily”

“So the way we touch things cannot save us. We can only be saved if we are touched by God.”

“So loneliness need not crush us. We can face illness and death with joy because we share them with the Lord of Life.”

“We Christians are those who have been infected by the love of God shown forth in Christ, and are willing to die of that infection because we know that love is stronger than death.”

“In the end, the power to give life can only be restored to us through grace and community, through letting a power beyond give us something that we cannot give to ourselves.”

“When we are unable to touch the things that we feel are necessary, when life seems to brush past our fingertips, it is important to believe that God’s love is still there.”

“It seems like time is too short, there is not enough of it. And yet Jesus in his lifetime which was 33 years, only 3 years of which were really active ministry, transformed and changed the entire world”

“Is there somebody in your life that you know who's really walked down this terrible path? They can’t summon faith but your faith will bring Jesus to them.”

“Is the Church listening to the stories of the women and the children and the grieving parents? And how can we listen better?”

“The Lord knows what he’s doing”

“How would our Church be changed if our leaders stopped and listened to the truth of women stories? How much would the voice of women in the assembly enrich our understanding of God’s saving power?”

“How do you overcome that isolation? You reach out and you touch Jesus Christ and you allow him to touch you. In that personal contact with him, life flows, life is restored, the community is created.”

“The Church…is being defined now in relation to Jesus. It’s not so much the regulations of Leviticus that matter, now it is our relationship to him, that we do what he does.”

“Mark presents Jesus today not only as a healer but one who heals when we have spent all we have. In other words, he heals gratuitously.”

“I believe it is our call as people of faith to not only seek out the sick and marginalized, whether it is physically, mentally, or spiritually, but to help heal them. Maybe we cannot completely heal them, but we can give them life, value, and dignity.”

“The universe is always open to “input” from it’s maker, just as a piano keyboard is open to the input of the player...When, in the Gospel, Jesus “breaks the laws of nature” by raising the little girl from the dead, he is not “interfering” with creation but healing it and perfecting it.”

“Surely we can all look back on our life or the lives of those around us and see similar experiences where something we felt was so bad or horrible at the time resulted in a blessing”

“Both outside and inside the church, the narrative of today’s readings challenges us to pause and reflect on how women are being treated. How we might be surrounding Jesus, creating obstacles that might be hindering women from touching the hem of his garment.”

“Surely the sacraments give us a model for the ‘Healing of the Nations’, in our own time, as we look forward to our sharing in the life of the Trinity in the time to come.”

“Jesus challenges us all to face up to whatever sinister prejudices and irrational beliefs there are which set us apart from our fellow human beings”

“God sees death as a dormition, an anticipation of the greater life to come”