Saturdays With Jesus

By Lawrence G. Wrenn

A collection of 79 catechetical homilies given at Saturday morning liturgies. As in the earlier e-book, Teaching Daily in the Temple, the homilies are arranged under four headings: 1) Evangelists, Apostles, Disciples, 2) Jesus, 3) Liturgical Seasons and Events, and 4) Teachings, Parables, Discourses. A Chronological Index is provided to allow a reader to locate a particular homily as it appears on a given day during the Church year.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lawrence G. Wrenn
• Release date: Jan 9, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310991424

Lawrence G. Wrenn

Fr. Lawrence G. Wrenn is a Catholic priest of the Hartford Archdiocese. He was born in New Haven, CT in 1928 and ordained in 1953. Fr. Wrenn received a Licentiate (1960) and Doctorate (1976) in Canon Law from the Lateran University in Rome. His responsibilities for Hartford included service as the Judicial Vicar both for the Metropolitan Tribunal of the Archdiocese of Hartford and for the Provincial Court of Appeals. In addition to archdiocesan responsibilities, Fr.Wrenn also served as a lecturer for the Tribunal Institute of Catholic University of America, a consultant for the NCCB Committee on Canonical Affairs and a consultor for the Pontifical Commission for the Authentic Interpretation of Legislative Texts. His work in canon law has been recognized with numerous awards from the Canon Law Society of America including the “Role of Law Award” (1976), being named an “Honorary Member” (1994) and having a Festschrift commissioned (1999) and published (2002). He also received the Johannes Quasten Medal (2000) from the School of Religious Studies, Catholic University of America and was the James H. Provost lecturer (2007) for the School of Canon Law, Catholic University of America. Fr.Wrenn’s publications include texts on Marriage Tribunal procedures, decisions and case studies as well as interpretation of canon law. He has contributed articles to numerous publications including the New Catholic Encyclopedia, The Jurist, NCR, The American Ecclesiastical Review, Studia Canonica and The Catholic Lawyer. He also contributed articles in The Code of Canon Law: a Text and Commentary (1985) and The New Commentary on the Code of Canon Law (2000). Now in retirement in Sarasota, FL, Fr. Wrenn enjoys sharing his love of scripture in occasional daily homilies with the parishioners of St. Thomas More Catholic Church and exercising his golfing skills with friends at Stoneybrook.

Book preview

Since Saturdays With Jesus is a sequel to Teaching Daily in the Temple, the homilies in the present work have been grouped under the same four headings found in Teaching Daily: Evangelists, Apostles, Disciples / Jesus / Liturgical Seasons and Events / and Teachings, Parables, Discourses.

For those, however, who are interested in locating a particular homily as it appears in the Church year, beginning with Advent and ending with the last week in Ordinary Time, the final pages of the book contain a Chronological Index.

As in Teaching Daily, the reader is once again urged, before reading a particular homily, to read the all-important Scripture passage on which the homily is based, because ultimately the goal of this little e-book is for all of us to become more thoroughly acquainted with the Sacred Scriptures on which our Christian faith is largely based.

Finally, as you have probably guessed, the title of this collection comes from the fact that all of the homilies that follow were given at a Saturday morning Mass, here at the wonderful parish of St. Thomas More, Sarasota, Florida.

And speaking of Saturdays in Sarasota, one is likely to see more boats out on Sarasota Bay on a Saturday than on any other day of the week, which is why the cover of this book shows Jesus teaching his disciples while sitting in a boat. The Gospel passages that describe this charming scene appear on the next page.

Lawrence G. Wrenn

November 29, 2014

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EVANGELISTS, APOSTLES, DISCIPLES

The Key to Mark’s Gospel

Mk 6: 30-34

Saturday – 4th Week Ordinary Time

Mark’s Gospel is in two parts. Today’s Gospel reading is from chapter 6 of Mark’s Gospel and this reading along with the rest of chapter 6, all of chapter 7 and most of chapter 8 are the passages that bring Part One of the Gospel to a close. These same chapters, furthermore, are the key, the absolute key to understanding Mark’s Gospel. So I want to urge each of you to read these chapters at home sometime this week, and if you do I promise you that you will come to understand Mark’s Gospel in a way you never have before.

But let me give you a quick overview this morning of what’s in store for you. First Jesus feeds five thousand people with just four loaves of bread and two fish. Then he walks on water. Then he cures countless people in the land of Gennesaret, some of whom are brought to him on stretchers. Then he heals the daughter of the Syrophoenician woman. Then a deaf man. Next he feeds four thousand people with seven loaves of bread. And finally a blind man at Bethsaida.

And after Jesus has performed all these miracles, all these mighty deeds, the moment of truth arrives. Jesus says to his disciples, Now, who do people say that I am? and Who do you say that I am? And sadly it is clear to us that even after his disciples have witnessed Jesus perform all these miracles, they still think that he is just another prophet, or maybe the Messiah, but even if he is the Messiah, they have no real appreciation of what that means. And that’s the way Mark concludes Part One of his Gospel: with the realization that all the miracles in the world do not reveal who Jesus really is. Because Jesus is not just some miracle worker.

But now the stage is set for Part Two of Mark’s Gospel where we learn, and where his disciples learn, who Jesus really is. Part Two begins toward the end of chapter eight where Jesus prophesies for the first time that he will soon be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and be put to death. And the rest of Mark’s Gospel tells us, in effect, that the true Jesus is revealed, not in his miracles but in his suffering, in his suffering and his death, in his courage and his selflessness, in his love and his humanity, and finally, through his resurrection from the dead, in his divinity and his oneness with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

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Mark, Teller of the Truth

Mk 3: 20-21

Saturday – 2nd Week Ordinary Time

Our Gospel reading today is only two verses long and it is so succinct that some background is needed in order to know what’s really going on here. The opening sentence, for example, says that Jesus came with his disciples into the house. But what house is this and where is it located? And the answer is that this is the house in Capernaum where Jesus settled after spending the forty days in the wilderness following his baptism in the Jordan. (Mt 4:13) It’s the same house we read about last Friday when Jesus cured the paralyzed man after the man’s friends had opened up the roof of the house and had lowered the man on his mat down in front of Jesus. (Mk 2:1-12)

Next our Gospel reading says that when Jesus’ "relatives heard this they set out to seize him. In a moment we will hear exactly who these relatives are, but for the present let me just point out that the phrase set out" suggests that the relatives were going to travel some distance, and that’s because they were living in Nazareth and the trip from Nazareth to Capernaum was probably twenty miles or so as the crow flies. Which gives us some idea how concerned the family was over Jesus’ mental condition.

Let me now make a couple of observations on this event as a whole. First of all, perhaps you remember that on five occasions in his Gospel Mark uses a literary device known as sandwiching. What happens in sandwiching is that an author starts off recounting an event but then, part way through, he sort of puts that event on hold while he goes off on an apparent tangent to relate an entirely different event, and only after that does he return to finish off his original story. Well that’s exactly what’s happening here. After Mark tells his readers that the relatives of Jesus set out from Nazareth to Capernaum, he at that point interrupts his narrative and proceeds to write a paragraph about how the scribes accuse Jesus of casting out demons by the prince of demons, and only then does Mark return to the narrative about the relatives of Jesus, which then begins with these words (and I’m reading now from next Tuesday’s Gospel), His mother and brothers now arrived, and standing outside, sent in a message asking for him. (Mk 3:31) So now, to our surprise, we hear that it was Mary, the mother of Jesus who led the others to Capernaum to take charge of Jesus because she and the others were, as Mark says, concerned that Jesus was out of his mind.

In fact, of course, Jesus was not at all out of his mind. It was just that his baptism experience had dramatically changed him. He was now a miracle worker who was absolutely filled with the Holy Spirit and was therefore a much different man from the one Mary and the others had known only a few months earlier when he was just the humble carpenter of Nazareth.

But the point I want to make is that the fact that Mark included this incident in his Gospel and the fact that no one else had deleted it is an amazing piece of transparency. I mean Mark is clearly wanting his readers to know the whole truth, warts and all. Jesus is Mark’s hero and Mark wants his readers to see Jesus as he sees him, but he also wants his readers to know the whole truth. And while this incident may be shocking on first hearing, ultimately it is reassuring; for now, when Mark tells us that Jesus actually rose from the dead, he has our confidence and our trust, because we know that Mark is a teller of the truth.

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Mark 16, The Mystery Chapter

Mk 16: 9-15

Saturday Within the Octave of Easter

Our Gospel reading today is from the final chapter of Mark’s Gospel, which is chapter 16. Chapter 16 consists of two distinct and very different, very different parts. Part one is verses 1 through 8. Part two, which is the part we just read, is verses 9 through 15.

What I’d like you to take note of in today’s reading is that there are three post-Resurrection appearances by Jesus and that all three take place in or around the city of Jerusalem. The first appearance is to Mary Magdalen, which obviously takes place right outside the tomb where Jesus had been buried. The second is to the two disciples on a road right outside Jerusalem. And the third is to the Eleven who are pretty much in hiding but still in the city. So that’s part two of Mark’s final chapter, where there are three appearances by Jesus, all of which take place in or around Jerusalem.

But what about part one? I’ll read part one in a minute, but first let me give you a quick rundown so you’ll know what to expect. Part one says that three women, one of whom is Mary Magdalen, go to the tomb at sunrise. When they get there they see an angel. The Gospel actually says that they saw a young man in a white robe, but clearly it’s an angel. The angel tells the women not to be alarmed. Jesus, he tells them, is risen and is no longer here and you won’t find him here. What I need you to do, says the angel, is to go tell Peter that Jesus is going to Galilee (which is 50 or 60 miles away), Jesus is going to Galilee and that’s where they will see him. Not here in Jerusalem but in Galilee.

So let me read for you now verses 1 through 8:

When the Sabbath was over, Mary of Magdala, Mary the mother of James, and Salóme, bought spices with which to go and anoint him. And very early in the morning on the first day of the week they went to the tomb, just as the sun was rising.

They had been saying to one another, Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb? But when they looked they could see that the stone—which was very big—had already been rolled back. On entering the tomb they saw a young man in a white robe seated on the right-hand side, and they were struck with amazement. But he said to them, There is no need for alarm. You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified: he has risen, he is not here. See, here is the place where they laid him. But you must go and tell his disciples and Peter, He is going before you to Galilee; it is there you will see him, just as he told you."

So this is part one of Mark’s final chapter. However, as we’ve seen, in part two, exactly the opposite happens. Part two speaks of three appearances but all three take place not in Galilee but in or around Jerusalem.

So what’s the explanation? The explanation is that Mark himself did not write part two of chapter 16. Mark did write the first eight verses of chapter 16, but then either he decided to end his Gospel with verse 8 or he actually wrote his own ending (which presumably was about the appearances in Galilee), but unfortunately, very unfortunately, this ending that Mark himself wrote, got lost. At any rate, many years later someone else wrote verses 9 through 15 and these verses eventually became accepted as part of the canonical Gospel.

But the bottom line is this: after his Resurrection, Jesus made several appearances both in Jerusalem and in Galilee. St. Luke, in the Acts of the Apostles, for example, says, He (Jesus) had shown himself alive to them after his Passion by many demonstrations: for forty days he had continued to appear to them and tell them about the Kingdom of God. (1:3) And St. Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians, says:

He was raised to life on the third day, in accordance with the Scriptures; …he appeared first to Cephas and secondly to the Twelve. Next he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time…then he appeared to James and then to all the Apostles; and last of all he appeared to me too. (15:4-8)

And in all these appearances Jesus convinced the early church that he was truly risen from the dead and that they must bring this Good News, this Great News, to all the world.

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Saying Nothing About the Resurrection

Mk 16:9-15

Saturday Within the Octave of Easter

I want to begin this morning by reading the passage from Mark’s Gospel where Mark talks about the three women who go to the tomb at dawn on the first Easter morning. According to many of the best ancient manuscripts, this paragraph about the three women was the final, closing paragraph of Mark’s Gospel. And that’s so important that I want to say it again. According to many of the best ancient manuscripts, this paragraph about the three women was the final, closing paragraph of Mark’s Gospel. However, because the ending of this passage is so strange, the passage itself is almost never used at Mass. As a matter of fact, unless I’m mistaken, it is not read either at any weekday Masses during the year or at any Sunday Masses during the year. To my knowledge, it is read at Mass only once every three years and that’s at the Easter vigil of year C.

So this is the passage. You will find it in your Bible in Mark’s Gospel, chapter 16, verses 1 through 8.

When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought perfumed oils with which they intended to go and anoint Jesus. Very early, just after sunrise, on the first day of the week they came to the tomb… On entering the tomb they saw a young man sitting at the right, dressed in a white robe. This frightened them thoroughly, but he reassured them: You need not be amazed! You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, the one who was crucified. He has been raised up; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. Go now and tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you to Galilee, where you will see him just as he told you.’ They made their way out and fled from the tomb bewildered and trembling; and because of their great fear, they said nothing to anyone.

Well, as you heard, the young man dressed in a white robe, who is certainly an angel, orders the three women to go tell Peter and the other disciples that Jesus had risen from the dead. The passage concludes, however, by saying that the women did not, in fact, do that; instead they fled from the tomb bewildered and trembling; and because of their great fear, they said nothing to anyone. Well