Faith Daily | 24 May 2021

PRAYER of the DAY - PENTECOST APBA p519

O God,

you withdraw from our sight

that you may be known by our love:

help us to enter the cloud where you are hidden,

and to surrender all our certainty

to the darkness of faith

in Jesus Christ.

Amen.

GOSPEL for the Day: Mark 10: 17-27

17 As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honour your father and mother.’” 20 He said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.” 21 Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money[a] to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” 22 When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.

23 Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” 24 And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how hard it is[b] to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” 26 They were greatly astounded and said to one another,[c] “Then who can be saved?”

27 Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.”

GOSPEL Reflection: Contributed by: Cathy Grant

In this passage Jesus is ‘bailed up’ by a young man who asks a challenging question. Why did he ask the question? What was bothering him? When you are young you aren’t usually concerned about ‘Eternal Life’. He must have been very earnest, and wanted to be a ‘good’ man.

We are told that he had many possessions, and so Jesus reply was very confronting for him. ‘Sell what you own and give the money to the poor’.

Is this an instruction to us? No, I think it is a precise command to a particular person who worships a specific idol - wealth. We need to be aware of the ‘focus of attention’ in our lives. What do we value most in this world? How do we use what we have?

We have all been blessed with talents and gifts and maybe we need to focus on what good we can do by giving these. There are examples in the Bible of people who gave their precious possessions away, and Jesus used them to bless others – God used Moses’ staff to perform signs in front of Pharoah, a young boy had a picnic of 7 small loaves and 2 fishes and Jesus used it to feed a crowd of 5000 and a widow had just 2 copper coins and Jesus said it was the biggest gift of all.

This passage is about ‘Trust’. Trusting God in all things and offering what we have to His use and service.

FINAL PRAYER: Donal Harrington

We see Jesus’ trust in us

entrusting to us the work of God’s kingdom.

But we can only embrace this trust

by entrusting ourselves to him.

We can only respond to his letting go by letting go ourselves,

by trusting in his power

and not relying on ourselves alone.

We pray, in our little faith

to let go into his arms,

to let go, into his plan,

to let go, into his power,

to let go, into his future.

Amen