September 8

[media presentation below]

GospelThink

Sunday, September 8, Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time

MARK 7:31-37
The Sick

Prayerthoughts

a. Jesus visited many areas with his message of the Kingdom of God. In the different places of my life, do I show the virtues of the Kingdom to others?

b. There are handicapped people among the people that I know. Do I show them the Lord’s love without being condescending to them?

c. The Lord took the man away from the crowd. Am I controlled by the “crowd,” that is, people that I want to like me?

d. Jesus prays for the man to be cured. Am I praying enough for the people who are sick and are close to me? (This is the task of the meditation.)

e. In general, Jesus did not want his actions to be praised. Do I seek too much the admiration of others?

f. One of the descriptions of me should be that I have tried to do all things well. Am I accomplishing this in my life?

g. My prayerthoughts…

Today, I will list the people that I should pray for by name

and pray for them silently.

Some Thoughts on the Liturgy

UNDERSTANDING “THE CROWD”

+ I was the director of discipline at a high school at one time in my life

- one of the things that always bothered me—and something I could never quite do anything about—

- was the language of the young people

- when they were together, I often found their language to be quite objectionable

- my office was in a place that was blocked from general view by walls

- so I could always enter it without anyone seeing me coming

-that’s how I learned about their language

- and rather than listen to the language

- I would always announce as soon as I entered the room-- “priest present”

- and it always cleaned up their language

- you call that running away from the problem

+ One of the questions of our discipline team was why the young people had such bad language when they were together

- some parents blamed it on us Capuchins for not doing enough to stop it, especially because many of us taught them religion

- some adults looked at the teenagers as if they were evil people

- some of us looked as if it were some rite of passage—part of the problem of growing up

- I don’t believe any of that

- I believe the answer is “the crowd”

+ Interestingly, the crowd played a part in the Gospel today

- the man Jesus finally cured had a physical problem

- he didn’t hear and he couldn’t speak because those parts of his body didn’t work

- and the first thing that Jesus did before he healed him, I believe, is quite significant—he took him away from the crowd

- as if the crowd may have been part of the problem

+ In fact, as one studies a number of situations, the reason why people do things is because of “the crowd”

- why do people run other people down in social conversations

- why do we gossip and say slightly untrue things when we really don’t know the facts

- when we are speaking of ourselves around others why do we like to put ourselves in a good light

- I think the answer to those questions is not that we are so bad

- I think it’s simply a matter of “the crowd”

- namely, the others, the ones who are listening to us, who are with us, people that we want to somehow impress, people whom we want to like us

- that is the reason why the young people use questionable language when they are together

+ Of course, the crowd did not cause the problems of the man that Jesus cured,

- but studying the situation of what Jesus did, and our own psychology, there are some things to learn here:

- at times, we must physically remove ourselves from everyone

- we must choose to be totally by ourselves with our God, away from the crowd, give ourselves to private prayer, with the specific purpose of asking the Holy Spirit to help us see and understand our actions

- also, we must acknowledge the fact that our behavior is influenced, often negatively, by the presence of others

- not because of any fault of those other people, but because of what we do when we are around them—recognizing that it is our problem

+ Jesus healed that man in the Gospel away from the crowd for some reason

- perhaps he knew that the crowd was part of the problem since the man he healed had to study himself and his problems

- “the crowd” may very well be a problem in our lives, and it is important for our spiritual lives that we do something about it.

MEDIA PRESENTATION

Movie: "Dark Waters"--final session
CONFRONTING A WRONG IN SOCIETY

The Gospel

MARK 15:42-46

[After Jesus died,] when it was already evening, since it was the day of preparation, the day before the sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, a distinguished member of the council, who was himself awaiting the kingdom of God, came and courageously went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Pilate was amazed that he was already dead. He summoned the centurion and asked him if Jesus had already died. And when he learned of it from the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph. Having bought a linen cloth, he took him down, wrapped him in the linen cloth and laid him in a tomb that had been hewn out of the rock. Then he rolled a stone against the entrance to the tomb.

Gospelthink: Joseph of Arimathea was a brave man. He knew he would receive criticism because of what he did for me. Am I willing to be criticized because of my belief?

In the movie "Dark Waters," Bob Bilott finally discovered that the Dupont Chemical corporation was supposedly unwittingly poisoning the people of Parkersburg, West Virginia area. He found that Dupont had been running tests of the chemical PFOA or C8 for decades on their own, tests that had shown that it caused cancer, and they never said a thing. They dumped hundreds of gallons of toxic sludge in the Ohio River and some of it on Earl Tennant's farm who had complained to Bob Bilott. The attorney earned a settlement for Earl, but after hearing further testimony from Dupont workers, Bilott decided to work further against Dupont. Receiving the help of some 70,000 people in the Parkersburg area, Bilott with the help of an independent scientific panel, after seven years, finally discovered that the chemical indeed caused a number of medical problems including cancer. Bilott himself worked so hard that he had medical problems, but he finally was able to receive multi-million dollar settlements against Dupont. And still is.

At the beginning of Jesus' ministry, as a member of the Sanhedrin Joseph of Arimathea had been against what Jesus taught, but had changed his mind the more he got to know him. When Jesus died, Joseph "courageously" approached the governor asking permission to bury this person in whom he had come to believe. He knew that he would receive criticism for his action, but he saw that he had to step up to help Jesus even after Jesus had died.

In the meditations on the movie "Dark Waters," we run across two very courageous people, people who were willing to endure criticism. They were willing to endure it because they knew that their cause was right. Earl Tennant alerted Bob Bilott to the problem of pollution on his land, and then the attorney Bilott took it from there. Both received verbal and even physical abuse from the people of the Dupont chemical corporation and even some people that they were trying to help in the Parkersburg area.

In the first meditation on this movie, we spent time on the courage of both Earl and Bob. This meditation adds to the courage the thought of the criticism both had to endure. It brings up the question of when and how we should condemn a problem.

Sometimes we are able to do nothing about the problem except to pray that the perpetrators will receive the graces of the Holy Spirit to change their ways. At times, it may help to write a letter or an email to explain our beliefs. But sometimes we can do something and it will cost us in the long run. We may loose some friends or money or prestige, but we should pursue what we know is right. Both Earl and Bob felt the ire of some people as they pursued their worthy goal, but it did not hold them back.

We must be prudent in our decisions to confront others about their behavior, and we must always do it with concern for the person we are confronting. But we should not shun our duty when it is called for.

PRAYER

Good and gracious God, it takes courage to believe in what is right. Please give me the grace to improve the world around me, even when I must confront others about the right thing to do. Be with us, we pray.

+++++

GUIDE FOR CLASSROOM PRESENTATION AND PERSONAL ENRICHMENT

Theme: When something is wrong, we should take action, even if it could end up hurting us.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
(session: approximately 59 minutes)
1. What scene during this session of the movie is most striking? Why?
2. There were some members of the inner circle of religious leaders in the Gospel who accepted Jesus, such as Joseph of Arimathea, while most rejected him. In your opinion, what caused the religious leaders to reject Jesus?
3. We do not know anything about Joseph of Arimathea's later life. What can you guess happened
4. What would most people have done with the complaint that there was something happening with the water around us.?
5. Do you believe that most adults are able to change their minds if they must when it comes to something truly important in their lives? Yes or no and why?
6. When is "courage" a problem for us?
7. Name the three most important problems in our world. What realistically can we do about them?
8. In your opinion, what does the meditation mean about "being prudent" in our decision to confront someone?
9. Do most people take into account the fact that we should be concerned about a person we are confronting? Yes or no and why?