Jas 1:1-11/Psa 119:67-68,71-72,75-76/Mark 8:11-13
Apostle James identified and described mature Christians as those who face trials of any kind with joy (First Reading).
He explains that such believers know that the testing of their faith produces endurance which when allowed to have its full effect makes them mature and complete, lacking in nothing (ibid).
Basing the mature Christian life on the gift of wisdom, James exhorts the believers who lack the wisdom to ask God (ibid).
Though God gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, he insisted that we ask with faith for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind (ibid).
Saddened by the doubting attitude of the Pharisees who asked him for a sign, Jesus sighed deeply in the spirit and said: “Why does this generation ask for a sign? Truly I tell you, no sign will be given to this generation” (Gospel.
Having made his comments, Jesus avoided them by leaving them and getting into the boat and crossing to the other shore.
