ashivers

January 16

[media presentation below]

GospelThink

Thursday, January 16

MARK 1:40-45

Overwhelmed by God

Prayerthoughts

a. The leper tells Jesus “if you wish.” He is saying to the Lord that it is Jesus’s decision and not his. In our prayer to our God, do we always add the thought that “if it is God’s will”?

b. The Lord says to me as well that he wants to heal me, but it may be different from the way I want. Am I able to accept what the Lord sends?

c. Jesus touched the leper, an action that was not permitted because of the law, but it was a sign of love. Do I show signs of “love” to others? Think especially of those that I see every day.

d. Jesus did not want to publicize the good thing that he had done. When I do something good, do I “brag” about it in some way to others?

e. What is my opinion about why the leper publicized the miracle? It could have been that he was simply so overwhelmed that he had to tell someone. In what ways has the Lord “overwhelmed” me in my life?

f. My prayerthoughts…

Today, I will read the Letter to the Hebrews, chapter 3,

and write an important thought from it.

Some Thoughts on the Liturgy

GOD’S PRESENCE IN OUR WORLD

+ You can interpret the Gospel in two ways, I think

- one involves the understanding that the man healed of leprosy was directly disobedient to Jesus

- instead of following the directions of Jesus, he went directly against them, setting up a very difficult situation for Jesus

- the interpretation that I prefer, however, is that the man healed of leprosy was so overjoyed with his new found life and thankful to Jesus that he simply had to publicize it,

- God’s presence was an overpowering force, and he simply had to spread it to others

+ Taking this second way of understanding the Gospel, and thinking about it

- there were two things that had to happen in order to feel overpowered with God’s presence

- and both of them are important to us, I believe

- one of them is that he truly recognized the importance of Jesus in his life

- or translated for us, that we recognize God’s presence in our lives

- as the letter to the Hebrews translates that idea,

- we become partners with Jesus

- the way to stay away from an evil and unfaithful heart is to work at being a partner with Jesus

- and translated for us—as Jesus was a human being with all the problems that human beings have

- we can become a partner with him as we recognize that God is present in every circumstance of our lives

+ And two, once we recognize God’s presence, in order to be overpowered by God’s presence, we have to publicize it in some way, as the leprous man did in the Gospel

- we have to state that God is alive in our minds and hearts

- most of it is done by living our lives wherever we are with the fact that God is alive and well in our belief

- it is the Franciscan thought of preaching the word of God, but speaking only if necessary—living is the most important

+ God is present in our lives and it should be an overpowering thought, so that we want to proclaim it to all

- but in order to proclaim it, we have to truly recognize God in everything that happens and we have to be willing to proclaim it by our actions.

MEDIA PRESENTATION

Song: "Shivers" -- Ed Sheeran

DANCING TILL THE SUNLIGHT CRACKS

The Gospel

LUKE 5:24-26

LUKE 5:24-26

Jesus said to the man who was paralyzed, “I say to you, rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home.” He stood up immediately before them, picked up what he had been lying on, and went home, glorifying God. Then astonishment seized them all and they glorified God, and, struck with awe, they said, “We have seen incredible things today.”

Gospelthink: When you believe in me, you will see incredible things. Do I recognize that the Lord has given me unbelievable things because of my faith?

"I took an arrow to the heart. I never kissed a mouth that tastes like yours—strawberries and then something more. I want it all. Lipstick on my guitar, fill up the engine, we can drive real far, go dancing underneath the stars. I wanna be that guy, I wanna kiss your eyes, I wanna drink that smile, I wanna feel like my soul’s on fire. I love it when you do it like that, and when you’re close up, give me the shivers. You wanna dance till the sunlight cracks, and when they say the party’s over, then we’ll bring it right back."

It is not too difficult to get into the minds of the people that Jesus cured. Their lives were not happy before they met Him. In fact, there were no doubt many difficulties that their ailments caused. The man who was paralyzed for some reason in Luke's Gospel could not do anything on his own, and had to rely on the generosity of others to help him. Suddenly, his whole life changed, bringing about good things for him, and astonishment for the people who witnessed the miracle. The man expressed it by glorifying God, perhaps keeping his stretcher as a remembrance of the good feelings that he had. There was no doubt a deep love for Jesus as he lived the rest of his life.

Perhaps one of the things about feelings that we should concentrate on is that feelings are just that—feelings. They may not even match the realities of life, but we are experiencing them—that is for sure. And so, what must happen is that we control them a little. If the feelings are good and make us feel good, we have to put them into proper perspective, and realize that life will go on. Likewise, the bad feelings must be put into some type of perspective—some general view of what is going on in our lives—and also realize that life will go on. That is, in both cases, we have to work with our feelings, understand why we are feeling them at this particular time, and then go on with life, not allowing them to be such a major force in our lives, but controlling them so that we choose what we want our lives to be.

Ed Sheeran's song is a love song, of course, and certainly the feelings that he has toward his fiancee are love feelings. He is very much in love. Of course, she must respond if the love is to last and in the video of the song, she does. When a man or woman loves another, whether romantic or otherwise, it will mean great feelings, good feelings that will be expressed in various ways.

The man that Jesus cured had a good feeling about what happened to him. His expression of the feeling was to glorify God. Our reaction to the good feelings that happen to us ought to be one of helping others to see our joy, and share it with them in a good way, maybe even by dancing with them.

PRAYER

Good and gracious God, Your Son gave many people reason to have good feelings in their lives. Continue to give us the opportunity to turn to Your Son, and then show our feelings with a deeper love toward ourselves and others. Be with us, we pray.

+++++

GUIDE FOR CLASSROOM PRESENTATION AND PERSONAL ENRICHMENT

Theme: To love someone is to have strong feelings for him/her.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
1. What are some incredible things that we have seen in the lives of others?
2. Text analysis: "Lipstick on my guitar." What do you think he means?
3. Why is dancing a good way to express our concern for others?
4. Why do people often express their good feelings by doing things that are not good?
5. Why do people tend to dwell too much on negative happenings in their lives?
6. What are some good ways to share our good feelings with others?
7. What does the song "Shivers" teach young people?