Mark 10: 17-30
Lead in: In Mark 10, Jesus invites a young man to sell
what he owns so he can follow as his disciple. But that’s the last thing the young man was expecting to hear. So, he went away sad for he was hanging on to things that he was not yet ready to let go of.
Prompt: What is it in your life that is hard to give up, simply because there’s a part of you that is not yet ready to let go if it?
Lead in: Jesus’ affection for people was obvious. We see it in Mark 10 in his brief encounter with the young man who approaches him. We’re told that Jesus gazed at him with love. To be gazed at with love, is that not what we humans crave? If you have ever felt the gaze of another’s love, there’s no mistaking it. That’s how it is with God. God gazes at us with love. What if, when we prayed, we could feel that gaze of God’s love? How different might our lives be?
Prompt: What kind of God do you pray to, a God who is frowning at you or a God who is gazing at you with love? What kind of God do you want to pray to?
Prompt: Reflect on a time when you most needed to feel the gaze of the God’s love.
Lead in: “How hard is it is for those who have wealth to enter into the kingdom of God.” After saying this, Jesus tells his disciples that it’s easier for a heavily laden camel struggling to wriggle through a tiny opening with all its cargo intact, than for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of God. Writer Barbara Ried puts it this way, “To hold on to the power, control, and security that possessions bring is antithetical to the vulnerability, receptivity, and risk that abandoning one’s self to what one loves requires.”
Prompt: Where is it that you are most tempted to hold on to either power, control, or security as the possession you cling to?
Lead in: In Wisdom 7, God invites King Solomon to pray for anything he wants. Solomon prays for the gift of wisdom. The Book of Wisdom speaks of what that gift means to Solomon.
Prompt: If God invited you to pray for any gift you want, what gift would you want?
Lead in: In the second reading from Hebrews, we hear how the word of God is “living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating even between soul and spirit, joints and marrow.” Using the image of a sword, we hear how God’s word can pierce our hearts if we let it.
Prompt: As you hear Mark 10:17-30, what verse most speaks to your heart?
