Faith

When the heart does not process what the lips proclaim – Thursday, 6th Week in ordinary time – Mark 8:27-33

To read an exegetical teaching on this same Gospel text please click on this link https://www.pottypadre.com/thursday-6th-week-in-ordinary-time-year-2-title-right-meaning-wrong-mark-8-27-33/

Some of us have a twisted dependence on the opinions of others. Jesus was certainly not dependent on the views of others. They had already aired their views previously. In Mark chapter 3 they thought him to be working for Beelzebub, the prince of demons. In Chapter four they ask, “who is this?” In chapter six his disciples think him to be a ghost. The Syrophoenician woman called him Lord, some called him master, Herod thought he was John the Baptist raised again; the list of opinions is endless. Now when Jesus asks his disciples who do people say that I am, he is not seeking an opinion poll. His intention was to clarify the misconceptions that they had of him.

In the previous text we know that Jesus was in Bethsaida (8:22-26), a town on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee. Our Gospel of today finds him in Caesarea Philippi, about forty kilometers further north, at the foot of Mount Hermon. It is here that he popped the question because what he really wanted to do was to deepen his relationship with them. Jesus had to ask them, as individuals, what they believed; who they thought he was.

While the disciples echo popular opinion about who people think Jesus is, and that opinion ranges from one spectrum to the other, it is Peter who declares Jesus to be the Messiah, the Christos, the anointed one.

Ironically in Mark’s Gospel, Jesus does not applaud this bold and brave answer of Peter rather they are all ‘sternly ordered not to tell anyone about it.” Mark remembers this detail as do we when someone asks us to keep something a secret (that we do not do is another matter). But Mark remembers this stern order because for the Gospel of Mark it is the centurion, a Gentile, who in Mark 15:39 will declare the crucified Christ to be, “truly, the son of God.”

But for now, Jesus has to clarify even what Peter has professed and proclaimed. Ironically, his lips have proclaimed what his heart has not processed. We know this because in a few verses from now Jesus will rebuke Peter. But for now, Jesus has to clarify what Messiah means.

At the time of Jesus, the word Messiah was used loosely for any one seen as some sort of saviour, as we do in our lingo today. Jesus was no Harry Houdini or a King David, he was a suffering Christ who had come to be rejected and be killed but one who would conquer death and rise again. This was the whole package and Jesus proclaimed this mystery of the ‘Passion Death and Resurrection’ twice more in this very Gospel; each time with a growing lack of understanding on the part of the twelve.

So, Jesus “taught them! (8:31). He teaches them not to fall for popular opinion or be swayed by it but to discern and learn at his feet. Let this be a learning for us too. We are so often swayed by the popular opinion of others, or worse, we are driven by the opinion of others. To thine own self be true!

It is interesting to see the dynamics that play out when people who hail you one moment disagree with you when you take a stand on an issue. Peter was Jesus’ de facto prime Minister; a man who was given the keys of the kingdom with power to bind and loose. Yet this ‘prime minister’ saw his seat of power shaken the minute Jesus taught the true meaning of the word Messiah. Peter’s heart sank as he saw his chair of authority take the shape of a cross of suffering. He instinctively rebukes Jesus and rebukes his own would be suffering!

That’s a strong word to use, “he rebuked Jesus.” Let me break down that word for you in Greek; it translates as “epitimao” or in slang, “shut up.” Yes, that’s what we can end up saying to God when he unfolds his plans for us! While Peter showed some sensitivity in taking Jesus aside before rebuking him, Jesus did more than rap Peter on his knuckles in private. He publicly, reprimands him with a similar “you shut up.”

This text when broken down sounds like a very difficult conversation to read or to hear. This is not the gentle Jesus meek and mild; sometimes he is not mild but riled! Here is what Peter is told, “you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

The ability to be swing from a congratulations from the Lord to becoming an instrument of satan can take place in a flash. Peter goes from being the holder of the keys of the kingdom to being called Satan. Keep your eyes on Jesus and not on the opinion of others. That’s the challenge of the spiritual life.

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Faith

Leading us out of sin city – Wednesday, 6th Week in ordinary time – Mark 8:22-26

Read also https://www.pottypadre.com/the-man-behind-the-miracle/

This is another miracle story, in fact one of the many in the Gospel of Mark. The Gospel highlights the ‘some people’ who bring a blind man, begging him to touch him. Like the many Markan miracles, this one has nameless faces with desperation written all over the narrative and a plea for help. At its centre is a person who may or may not have had faith in Jesus. Yet this is a narrative where the twist is not in the miracle but in the details of the setting of the narrative.

We are told that Jesus has arrived in Bethsaida. Bethsaida translates as the house of the hunter or the fisherman. It is mentioned frequently in the Gospels and was situated by the Jordan River on the Sea of Galilee. According to Luke, it was the place of the feeding of the five thousand. The synoptic writers attest that Jesus performed “mighty works” here. Bethsaida was also the home of Peter, Andrew, and Philip, according to the Gospel of John. It probably also was home to James and John who were partners in the fishing business with Peter and Andrew.

But Matthew’s Gospel gives us a little interesting information. It is in Matthew 11:21 that Jesus says, “Woe to you, Chorazin! woe to you, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.

Jesus emphatically declares two things; that he had worked mighty miracles here and yet they, having seen the power of God, had not repented. It is in this same village of Bethsaida that some people beg Jesus to do another ‘mighty work ‘for them. It is evident that Jesus worked the miracle at their request because he saw the faith of the man and the faith of his friends. They had come to Jesus that he might touch the man (and heal him).

The next few actions of Jesus tell us that Bethsaida is doomed and Matthew’s Gospel gives us the details. Matthew tells us why Jesus pronounced a woe against this city; they refuse to repent even though they saw the miracles. It is clear that Bethsaida had made up its mind. No matter what the lord did there they were not ready to repent. These were hardened hearts and so Jesus leads the man by the hand out of the village of hardened souls.

The miracle having been performed, Christ commands the man to go to his home. Clearly the man was not a resident of that faithless village for he is specifically commanded not to go into the village but to go home. This village was not a place where one who was saved should find refuge.

Archeologist have not been able to pin point for certain where Bethsaida is today. The woe of Jesus, harsh as it may be, wiped this city off the face of the earth. Bethsaida was that errant child who refused to mend its ways no matter how much he or she was loved. Stubbornness had taken root and the cancer of sin had spread.

Christ is leading many of us by the hand out of our sin situation, out of our village of sin; what or whoever that may be. In order to be healed we first need to make a clean break from the attachment to that which is sinful; be it a person an object or a place. Christ came to love the sinner not accept the sinner while they cling on to their sin. Allow Christ to first hold your hand, allow him to lead you away from your village of sin, allow him to guide you and then experience the gift of true sight that he wants to give you.

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Faith

Did you make Jesus sigh today? Monday, 6th Week in ordinary time – Mark 8:11-13

Read also https://www.pottypadre.com/hardened-hearts/

In chapter six Jesus has worked a miracle and fed five thousand people. In chapter eight he has worked another mega miracle and fed four thousand. He has healed the lepers, raised the dead, cured the sick in Jewish areas and in Gentile territory and has taught with authority. In the sane world this qualifies for praise not persecution. Yet persecution is what follows Jesus because it has become sufficiently evident that the religious establishment of the day has flopped and failed and their failings are now more than evident than their fervour.

When faced with the reality of the truth the wise make course correction, the foolish on the other hand go into attack mode. They will stop at nothing because it is hatred that drives them and jealously that fuels them. These words are not just cleverly written lines, they are the experience of the righteous when faced with the malice of the wicked.

I want to recall the words of St Paul in the second letter to the Corinthians when he says, “ We put no obstacle in any one’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, tumults, labours, watching, hunger; by purity, knowledge, forbearance, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; in honour and dishonour, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold we live; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.” (2 Corinthians 6:3-10)

Our Lord was innocent and yet the Jewish authority of the day come to ‘argue’ with him. He has worked miracles on earth but they want a ‘sign from heaven’. It is their intention to ‘test him.’ Did Our Lord experience sorrow? Yes indeed he did when he ‘sighed deeply in his spirit.’ Scripture tells us, ‘he left them’ and maybe even us when we become consumed by jealousy, when we falsely tear each other up into shreds even in the Church.

Hear the agony and the deep sighs of Our Lord you who speak evil out of a wicked heart. You who are jealous, you who see the miracles and good works done by your brother or sister on earth and yet demand a sign from heaven, beware! You will get the sign the Pharisees got; our Lord got into a boat and left them. Pray that he may not leave you.

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Faith

The challenge we see or the champion we know? Saturday, 5th Week in ordinary time – Mark 8:1-10

Read also https://www.pottypadre.com/providing-for-our-need-not-our-greed/
The disciples, like us, have short term memory lapse. In Mark 6:30 Jesus has fed the 5000 in a Jewish area. Now he is in Gentile territory with four thousand and his compassion does not change because these are not people of his race. At an ordinary human level, we are given a glimpse of Jesus’ tender concern for the crowd. They have left their homes, followed him into the desert and remained with him for days: he is full of compassion, being very conscious of their tiredness and pangs of hunger.

In the face of this pastoral need of feeding the hungry, Jesus airs a thought hoping that one of his disciples would say, ‘I know my Lord, he has done it before and will do it again.’ On the contrary, the disciples are self-absorbed and recoil at the challenge they are faced with. The see a challenge ahead yet they failed to recognize the champion they know. So, Jesus must step in and ask, “how many loaves do you have?”

We can begin today by asking ourself if we are like the disciples? They had plenty of common sense, but they had little faith that Jesus could do extraordinary things. They do not yet see that with Jesus all things are possible; even though Jesus performed a similar miracle a little while earlier.

So, Jesus begins from where they were and what they had. He began with what they had to offer. “How many loves do you have” is a question He asked them and He asks us. Don’t tell me what you don’t have, tell me what you do and let me work the miracle with you. Jesus asked them to give up their own food this time. A chapter and a half before they used the food of the little boy, but this time Jesus made the disciples give what they had.

Jesus did what He only could do, he worked a miracle. But Jesus left to the disciples to do what they could do; the distribution of the bread. The same is true today. It is our task to feed the hungry, both physically and spiritually. The kingdom of God is a partnership. We can’t throw up our hands because we perceive the job appears too challenging. We can’t roll over because ministry is daunting. We do what we can do; offer our meagre seven loaves or simply give a hand and distribute the food. Don’t sit on the side-lines or even worse, the centre of the Church and lament the situation at hand. What can I do for Jesus is the mantra of the day not what can he do for me!

Scripture now tells us something interesting; a little detail that gets lots with the familiarity of this miracle narrated for two thousand years. Ask any one and they will mention the miracle of the five thousand or the four thousand was the miracle of loaves and fish. Yet, so far in the narrative there is no talk of fish. We are only told that they gave Jesus their loaves not the fish.

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Faith

When actions speak louder – Friday, 5th Week in ordinary time – Mark 7:31-37

Read also https://www.pottypadre.com/caught-with-his-compassion-down-friday-5th-week-in-ordinary-time-mark-731-37/

The Gospels are filled with desperate people characterized by the word ‘begged’. Yesterday’s Gospel text had the Syro-Phoenician woman on her knees, bowed at Jesus’ feet begging of him. Today, some unidentified persons who find mention in the Gospel by the generic third-person pronoun “they,” bring a man who is both deaf and who has a speech impediment to Jesus. There is desperation in their action for they too begged him. Yet there is a difference between the intercession of the Syro-Phoenician woman and these unnamed persons.

The Syro-Phoenician came with a specific plea; her daughter was possessed by a demon. These unnamed persons also are desperate yet they make no specific request for a healing. Scripture simply tells us that they wanted Jesus to lay his hands on the man they brought. This is reminiscent of the healing of the paralytic, whose friends brought him to Jesus (2:1-12). It seems rather obvious what they wanted yet their rather indirect request itself manifested their faith. It is the same faith and humility that lead so many lay people to ask a priest or a religious for a Sunday blessing as they bow their heads and join their hands. The request is never specific but their intention is clear.

The initiative for this healing miracle did not come from the deaf man himself. It was others who brought Jesus to him. It was these people of good will who “begged him to lay his hand on him”. Perhaps we should remember that many of the good things that happen to us come from the good will and prayers of others on our behalf.

This healing is very different from that of the woman’s daughter. In that story, Jesus took no action other than to report the healing to the mother (v. 29). If Jesus seemed too-little-engaged in that instance, he seems too-much-engaged in this one. He puts his fingers into the man’s ears. He spits and touches the man’s tongue. Yet to a Jewish audience, this would only reassure the person, for these actions were common healing procedures.

But within all this lies the humility of the Son of God who “Looking up to heaven, sighed, and said to him, ‘Ephphatha’ (v. 34).” Looking to heaven demonstrates Jesus’ dependency on the Father. His sigh demonstrates his sympathy and compassion. Jesus was distressed at the suffering of this man. This Gospel reassures us that Jesus cares for each of us his heart.

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