Dear Parishioners, our world is full of people in crisis. This is manifested especially in the present generation. A simple example is that of the Crisis of corporeality: we have people who neglect their bodies to the extent that they look like beasts. On the other side we have those who give too much care to their bodies that in the final analysis they look like monsters. Then there are those who do not just accept their bodies as they are and so they do everything possible to change it. Many young people of our time do not know the roadmap of their lives again – they drift along life, carried from left to right, forward and backward by any current that shows forth. In the religious realm we have people who do not care in what church they switch to and at will; there is no distinction between good and evil in the moral sphere and what the media offers is taken for the truth. People in crisis move round placing others into crisis as they pass along; in the final analysis they infect the whole surrounding with their crisis. It also happens that people go into a crisis of faith. Consecrated persons too do go into crisis.

The gospel of Mark has been referred to as the gospel of discipleship, the gospel of the catechumens. St. Mark wrote this gospel for catechumens to indicate to them how the path of Christianity is. The numerous miracles that Jesus made, as expressed in this gospel, show us how the disciples battled with their faith journey. We are told that “As he was walking along by the Lake of Galilee, he saw Simon and Simon’s brother Andrew casting a net in the lake – for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, ‘Come after me and I will make you into fishers of people.’ And at once they left their nets and followed him (Mark 1:16-18). We don’t know if they had time to reflect on what was happening to their lives, but we read that their reaction to the call was very abrupt.

Having gone through all the pedagogy about their calling and about the kingdom of God and its demands, towards the end of his life the disciples still seemed not to have grasped the ideals of their master. One of them even took the initiative to sell him off. We read the sad story in the 14^th Chapter of Mark: “And at once, while he was still speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, came up and with him a number of men armed with swords and clubs, sent by the chief priests and the scribes and the elders. Now the traitor had arranged a signal with them saying, ‘The one I kiss, he is the man. Arrest him, and see he is well guarded when you lead him away.’” These are very precise instructions given by someone who knows the master so well. We all know the drama that took place at that juncture. “Then Jesus spoke. ‘Am I a bandit, that you had to set out to capture me with swords and clubs? ... And they all deserted him and ran away.” This abandonment is in direct opposition to the initial enthusiasm which made them follow him. At the moment of intense crisis, they all abandoned him and ran away. Even one of them who was following left his linen cloth in the hands of the soldiers and ran away naked (Mark 14:43-52). This act shows the extreme of the abandonment of Jesus.  Earlier on they had abandoned everything to follow him. Now they abandon everything about him. Where does the crisis of faith begin? 

(to be continued). 

Happy Sunday to you all!