"You are not far from the kingdom of God." What does it mean to be close to God's kingdom? In today's Gospel, Jesus is in a dialogue with teachers of the law. They know well the Law of Moses, with its complex codes, expectations,and punishments. What will Jesus say?"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength ... You shall love your neighbor as yourself."Jesus effortlessly distills all the books of law into two commands. The simplicity of the Gospel message doesn't mean it's easy to follow. Far from it! The simplicity of the Gospel indicates its totality. Anything that requires the passions of our heart, the choice of our soul, the reason in our mind, or the strength of our body - all of this ought to be animated by love. As you can imagine, that means pretty much everything! The love of God and love of neighbor is meant to flow into our entire lives.

The Gospel can appear complicated because life is complicated. Not ever y outcast is easy to love. We lack the knowledge or compassion to heal everyone who suffers. Personal sacrifice is not always noticed or valued. In the face of the unknown, fear can be easier than faith. Life's circumstances can seem like obstacles to God's love, not opportunities. And yet Jesus' command still stands. As you reflect this week, examine those areas where it's easy to love. Thank God for them! But take some time to consider the people and circumstances that challenge you. Ask God to show you what it means to love there. How is He inviting you to enlarge your heart, strengthen your soul, open your mind, and persevere in your strength? How is He inviting you to love?

"Son of David, have pity on me!" Has the cry of Bartimaeus ever escaped your lips? Today's Gospel tells the story of a blind man with a difficult lot in life. He made a living by begging coins off passing travelers. When word reaches him that Jesus will be passing by, this is when he begins is shouts for mercy. Jesus hears Bartimaeus' cry and beckons him forward.

"What do you wish me to do for you?" Jesus asks a similar question in different Gospel passages, but the request of James and John is not repeated on any other occasion. "Grant that in your glory we may sit one at your right and the other at your left." They ask not for knowledge of God, not for crooked limbs to be straightened nor for the blind to see. They ask for power and authority. Jesus' response should trouble them. "You do not know what you are asking."

Christian author C.S. Lewis once wrote that Christianity is not so much about being nice people but in being "new men." We see this contrast in today's Gospel. "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus first answers in the predictable way. Follow the commandments! "Teacher, all of these I have observed from my youth."

"Whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it." This verse is part of a beautiful reflection on childlike faith. We're reminded of the innocence of children, how eager they are to experience life and how quick they are to trust. Rarely do we hear it with the story that immediately proceeds it. The Pharisees question Jesus on the lawfulness of divorce! Hardly the sort of thorny moral conversation one typically has in front of children. Yet here we are. Jesus' response goes further back then the Mosaic law.

As we go about our days, we necessarily label, classify, and prioritize. What's "in" and what's "out" on our priority list? Because humans are social beings, we tend to do the same thing with people. We can only invite six people to the dinner party. Our young child wants to invite certain friends to her birthday, but we're keenly aware of who the parents are, and the prospect of spending several hours with them is enough to give us pause.

We live in a culture set on competition. The Oscars. The Super Bowl. TV talent shows. Your son's Little League championship. The desire to "be the best" goes beyond hobbies and into politics, the corporate world, and parenting comparisons at the park. This desire is as old as the human race, and it surely arose in Jesus' day. While Biblical society was significantly less open and upwardly mobile than our own, power was attractive. From what we know, many of Jesus' disciples had come from lowly backgrounds. Now they followed an increasingly popular rabbi who seemed primed to do something big.

We know the signs of defeat: slumped shoulders, downcast eyes, a chastened demeanor. For those of us sincerely trying to follow Jesus, defeat is inevitable. We commit to spending more time with our kids, but that one project still looms. We resolve to be a good person, but our selfishness strikes again. It can be easy to get discouraged over our moral failures. Today's Gospel is a small, intriguing look at this process in the life of St. Peter.

Judgment tends to have a bad reputation. We often associate it with condemnation, and in the Gospels, we associate it with the Pharisees. Today's Gospel features the Pharisees doing exactly what we expect. "They observed that some of his disciples ate their meals with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands." The Jewish people had strict purification laws that applied to all areas of life. The Pharisees attempt to accuse Jesus of not following the ancestral traditions. Jesus doesn't take offense at their judgments per se. He instead points out the hypocrisy of their words. "You hypocrites? this people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me."

Judgment tends to have a bad reputation. We often associate it with condemnation, and in the Gospels, we associate it with the Pharisees. Today's Gospel features the Pharisees doing exactly what we expect. "They observed that some of his disciples ate their meals with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands." The Jewish people had strict purification laws that applied to all areas of life. The Pharisees attempt to accuse Jesus of not following the ancestral traditions. Jesus doesn't take offense at their judgments per se. He instead points out the hypocrisy of their words. "You hypocrites? this people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me."

"This saying is hard; who can accept it?" The words of Jesus' disciples in today's Gospel must sound familiar. At some point in our lives, you and I have said it about some article of our faith. Christianity makes firm demands on our ethical behavior and gives no easy answers for suffering. Many disciples were confused and dismayed by Jesus' words in the Bread of Life Discourse. Not all of them, however, had the same reaction.

In this Sunday's Gospel, the conflict escalates in the Bread of Life Discourse. Confusion is mounting in the crowd. "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" Their minds were thinking literally, not mystically. Jesus doesn't seem to help, however, and only drives his point home with more emphasis. "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you." Jesus would later institute the Eucharist at the Last Supper. There he would definitively establish the sacramental reality in which bread and wine become substantially his own Body and Blood. We celebrate this sacrament in the Mass.

Have you ever approached a hushed group and were certain they were talking about you? It's an uncomfortable feeling to catch people murmuring about what you did, said, or didn't do. It breeds division and exclusion.

In today's Gospel, Jesus invites us to just the opposite. The reading opens with the crowds "murmuring" their doubts about Jesus after he has proclaimed himself the Bread of Life. "Is this not  Jesus, the son of Joseph? how can he say 'I have come down from heaven'?" In his response, Jesus brings up the Israelites and the manna God brought them in the desert. If you turn back to the story in Exodus, you'll see another similar word: murmuring. As the going got tough, the Israelites doubted Moses and God's plan to protect and care for them as a chosen people. Here, Jesus proposes a difficult theological concept. Jesus himself is "the living bread" and "flesh for the life of the world."

In an on-demand society, it's not always easy to imagine life with less. The crowds of Jesus' day depended on the weather and successful growing seasons for their livelihood. For many of Jesus' listeners, even "food that perishes" would have been a welcome relief. Jesus acknowledges this but tries to draw them deeper. "You are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled." For people who have just witnessed a miracle, the response is strangely marked by ingratitude. "What can you do? Our ancestors ate manna in the desert." Jesus fed them for one day, but Moses interceded with God for 40 years of bread. "Jesus," they seem to say, "can't you just give us more?"