What the Pharisees and scribes had not counted on was the fact that Jesus was very much free. Because of his loving relationship with God the Father, Jesus was very much free of all their preoccupations, hang-ups and obsessions. For Jesus knows that the only real and true authority belongs to God. In point of fact, oppressors come and go but the only authority that really matters is God’s and the good news is that God only wishes to set us free.

This is the freedom which Jesus enjoyed. He had a unique relationship with God, his Father. He experienced God as one who set him free and so shared this insight, as well as his relationship with the Father, with all who would hear his good news. God’s gifts of faith, hope and love free us to be men and women liberated from the tyranny of others. This three-fold gift never enslaves us but can only set us free.

And so, Jesus skillfully escapes the trap set for him by his adversaries. How? By pointing out the irony of their own situation. In seeking to follow the law they had forgotten the justice of the whole law. Jesus accuses them of hypocrisy and echoes the words of Isaiah: “their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts.”

You and I are also hypocrites if we imitate the behavior which Jesus describes in the gospel as people who pay lip service to the Lord while their hearts are far from him. If we allow ourselves to become entrapped in each other’s snares, especially those laid by people who themselves are enslaved, then we imitate not Jesus but his adversaries. We must instead follow the advice of St. James in the second reading: “Humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you and is able to save your souls. Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves.”

If we look at our day to day lives, it is interesting to note how we so often avoid allowing the Word of God to control us. We foster the illusion that we alone are in control of our lives. We try to work for companies that give good benefits and a solid pension. We buy house insurance, health insurance . . . we save money for emergencies . . . and all this is very wise . . . it is better to be prepared than not. But this can give us a false sense of security . . . at times even a sense of immortality.

But now and again something happens that shatters our illusions, and we stand naked, as it were, in the glare of reality. It is at those times that we realize how vulnerable we are to unpredictable circumstances, circumstances beyond our control.

How many across our nation, in seconds, have their lives, homes and possessions taken from them because of a hurricane or tornado? How many experience the reality of a medical diagnosis or an unexpected death in the family? And despite our best efforts, how many of our children somehow never turn out the way we expected? In fact, how many of our own lives never turned out the way we thought they would. We may have expected better things of others, and perhaps of ourselves. So many, many times we have to start over with renewed faith, hope and love.

Today’s gospel speaks to us of this. It tells us something about our own lives. When St. Mark wrote this gospel, his community was being actively persecuted, and adjusting to the idea that the second coming of Jesus was not going to be as soon as they had thought it would be. They had to cope with an extended period of waiting for the Lord.

And so, things happen in life that we do not expect, and it makes us feel frightened or out of control but from this we can learn that God is in control of our lives, that Jesus Christ is our Savior, not other people, not ourselves. The Lord stretches forth his hand to save us and our faith allows us to hold on tightly.

It is so easy to become discouraged. The world praises those who are successful, those who make it to the top, those who come in first. But even with people who have a claim to fame for what they have done, if their successes are followed by failures, they soon find themselves shoved aside to make way for much more recent arrivals on the scenes of achievement.

How many of the even really successful people are now living somewhere in seclusion or forgotten in nursing homes while others have taken their places on the front pages of publicity? Only a few are acclaimed and honored by the public all their lives. Where does that leave the rest of us? We might try to do well. We might even have accomplished some notable feats. But as each generation comes forward, the former ones go into the shadows and are largely forgotten.

Sometimes it seems that we have forgotten just why we are in this world. And that is probably the reason for most of our troubles. We know that God created the world and saw that it was good. Then he created us in his own image. Our first parents decided to do their own thing instead of God’s thing. And, therefore, instead of accomplishing what God wanted, they horrendously messed up God’s creation, and us along with it. So, God sent his Son to begin the process of getting us back on the right track as he had promised soon after the fall.

The curing of that deaf and dumb man in today’s gospel is symbolic of what Jesus was sent to do for all of us. He said, “Ephphatha!—that is, Be Opened!” In other words, he asks us to listen while he tells us the very purpose for our existence. And he wants us to share this truth with others so they too may understand. Jesus wants the deaf to be able to hear, and the mute to be able to speak. But he wants us to hear and to speak correctly. He wants us to pass his truth (the only truth) onto others, the truth of living the life of faith, the virtuous life, the moral life. He wants us to quit filling each other with notions that are far from the truth.

You and I are in this world to help in God’s work of salvation. In so doing, we are to remain faithful. How? By doing God’s will. Anything we do, not in accordance with God’s will, is not only a grand waste of time, but damages much good that has already been accomplished.

We all need to look at life from God’s perspective. The world is not our private domain where we are to establish a permanent, secure, and eternal home for ourselves. It is the place where we are to learn the value of loving God, to learn how to appreciate and use his good gifts well, and to share the spiritual treasures of our Catholic faith with others. After that, we take our leave into the invisible world of everlasting perfection. Only those who have learned how to live life here will be able to enjoy life there. Only those who have put forth lots of effort in this life will be able to obtain and appreciate the rewards of unending life in heaven. To use the words of St. James: God chooses us “to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he promised to those who love him.”

In a world that so often worries about being successful in the eyes of others, we must focus in on being successful in the eyes of God. And being successful in the eyes of God is to be faithful. The world is going to forget us. God never will. Trying to discover what God’s will is for us, and then doing it is what is important. God counts our efforts as successes. The world doesn’t!

As long as we try, as long as we remain faithful, we are successful in God’s eyes. If we actually try to live our Christian lives faithfully, that’s the important thing to God.

The words of the prophet Isaiah should be a source of encouragement for us: “Be strong, fear not! Here is your God, he comes with vindication; with divine recompense he comes to save you.”

The particular episode that caught my attention has Elizabeth—a little girl who has just started school—playing with her dolls in the backyard. She has them all lined up and is lecturing them on their behavior and the things they have to do.

If memory serves me right, Elizabeth says sternly to one: “You’re to clean up your room and not come out until you’re finished.” At another doll, she yells: “No more television tonight because you have been a bad girl.” Still another, she warns: “And you will get no dessert until you finish all your supper.” As for the rest, she seems on the verge of barking out a whole series of orders and threats.

While all this is going on, Elizabeth’s mother, Ellie, is watching her through a window. Suddenly, John, the father, enters the room and observes his wife monitoring little Elizabeth’s actions. And so, he asks his wife: “What are you doing? Watching Elizabeth play?” And Ellie turns to her husband and answers: “No, I’m watching myself!”

The truth of the matter is that most of us—whether we realize it or not—learn by example how to act in life for better or for worse. Important human values and basic patterns of living become our own—almost unconsciously—through the example of others especially our family and friends.

Is it any wonder then that Jesus was so intent upon not only preaching the gospel but also living it? He knew the profound effect personal example has upon the lives of people.

The gospel today challenges us to put aside our own personal, at times misguided, agendas and literally to line up behind Jesus Christ and what he is trying to do, namely, save us. This fundamental decision for Christ necessarily includes suffering: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.”

We read in the gospel passage how Jesus reprimands Peter for trying to dissuade him from his destiny to embrace the cross. Peter, the Rock, is happy with and supportive of the Lord in good times but not in bad when Jesus begins to speak of rejection and death. He is blind to the painful truth that the Messiah must suffer. And so the Lord says to him: “Get behind me, Satan. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”

Anyone, even Peter, who would distract the Messiah and Lord from his God-appointed task, is playing Satan’s role. Such a person is not a true follower. The real disciple must learn to get in line and walk behind Jesus, following in Christ’s very footsteps even to the cross.

As a believing community, we must make the Lord’s agenda our own. We must line up behind him and his Church. We must make every effort to build up his body here on earth. We must accept our responsibility and obligation to lead others to him by our example and way of life. We must incarnate, give flesh to, our faith. We must take to heart St. James’s admonition: “What good is it . . . if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? . . . [such faith] if it does not have works is dead.”

Hopefully, we are men and women who profess and live our faith. Hopefully, we are a people who are ever ready to line up behind the Lord. Hopefully, we never forget the importance and impact of our own personal witness and example upon others whom we wish to introduce to Christ. Hopefully, we mean to be true disciples who always listen to the Lord and follow him with open and willing hearts as St. Peter himself would ultimately do unto death.

It isn’t easy to choose Christ. It never was. It isn’t easy to live the Catholic faith of which Our Lord has so abundantly blessed us with. It never was. It is often embarrassing. It is sometimes humiliating. We take comfort in the words of Isaiah: “The Lord God is my help, therefore I am not disgraced.” To imitate Christ is always a maturing experience for the individual and a unifying experience for the community, not without the cross. We must pray for God’s grace and use all available means to stand with Christ always and everywhere. In a world that speaks so often about the right to do so many things, it is much more important to do the right thing.

Let me suggest to you that these words of Jesus continue to be fulfilled in our own day. Just think of it: The Son of Man is to be handed over to men and women who will kill. . . . Over and over Jesus is being killed through those who live the life of faith. Why? Because, as St. James warns in the second reading: “Where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and ever foul practice.” Our culture of death and violence seeks to kill the Christian’s honest effort to live the moral life, the virtuous life, the Catholic faith.

In every age Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is handed over to those who would kill him through his followers. Countless martyrs, known and unknown, have gone to their death for the crime of being believers. In our own day this spiritual, psychological, and emotional killing of Christ continues through the members of the Body of Christ.

Hatred against the Church of Christ runs deep. As Catholics we find anti-Catholic attacks everywhere we turn. They’re in abundance in newspapers, in schools and colleges across the nation, on television talk shows and popular sitcoms. In fact, the Church is constantly being attacked through media sound bites, magazine articles, on the street corner, at the local market and just about everywhere else.

This very day, my friends, thousands of babies are being conceived in the United States. And these babies, these new creations, will be delivered into the hands of mothers and fathers, women and men. Some of them will be embraced with love and concern—with open arms, and will be blessed and cherished. Others will be rejected and abused—will be accepted only with closed fists, with distance and insensitivity. They will be delivered into the hands of men and women who will kill. . . . Many will even be dismembered and thrown to the trash bins before they are given the opportunity to take their first independent breath.

Over the last couple of weeks our own children have been returning to school and I’m sure it is the prayer of all parents that their children be accepted with open arms and genuine care by teachers, administrators and fellow students. But sometimes, even going to school is not so easy. Some of our children are being delivered into the hands of men and women who don’t always embrace them lovingly. Where once they were taught lessons of purity, in many schools across the nation they are now being taught lessons in promiscuity. Where once show and tell was used as a way to learn and to experience the pleasant side of life, show and tell is now a mechanism to promote instruments of selfishness and promiscuity.

For some reason there is great interest in making a mockery of all things Catholic. Special interest groups, militant Catholic-bashing radicals, and many in the media are high on the list. Ridiculing Catholic teaching through word and action has become commonplace in the public forum and those who follow this path leave behind nothing but heartache and destruction. This is diametrically opposed to the mind and heart of Jesus Christ.

As Catholics we must stand tall in this atmosphere of secular dis-values. We must not become immune to Catholic-bashing. To do so is dangerous because it suggests that we are indifferent and willing to live our faith only in times of ease and not in times of difficulty. We must not be afraid. For, according to our first reading from the Book of Wisdom, even the wicked know that “God will defend” the just and deliver them from their foes.

So, my fellow Catholics, it’s really a question of you and I trying to do with our Catholic faith, and with all that God has so generously blessed us with, the difficult but not the impossible. At work and at home, in private and in public, when others are delivered into our hands by circumstance or choice, by coincidence or providence, we must not take that person or that encounter for granted but must embrace them as if they were Jesus Christ himself—with compassion and love. And we must be vigilant when we place ourselves or others into the hands of another that they be given that same compassion and love of Jesus Christ. And hopefully, they too will offer that same compassion and love in return.