This has been a tough week for this guy spiritually. I felt a little dry, a lot tempted, and almost gave up the mission I maybe too ambitiously laid out for myself to do a blog and a video post every week. But then earlier today I saw this quote from a saint we honor today, one of the first martyrs in North America, St. Issac Jourges:
My confidence is placed in God who does not need our help for accomplishing his designs. Our single endeavor should be to give ourselves to the work and to be faithful to him, and not to spoil his work by our shortcomings" (from a letter of Isaac Jogues to a Jesuit friend in France, September 12, 1646, a month before he died)...now this dude was tortured and had some of his fingers chewed off and still had the bravery to not let his spiritual, or physical, dis-ability (his "shortcomings" in doing God's will) stop him from living out what God wanted for him. He got a special dispensation from the Pope to celebrate mass with his missing fingers then RETURNED to the Americas where he was martyred preaching the gospel and baptizing Native Americans.
It could be said that St. Issac Jourges was kind of the saintly Jerry Garcia of his day, at least in that both continued going with hand-some hardships and it will make a good transition point for the blog. Though it is tough to do this OneCatholicGuy blog/videos/twitter knowing that I am not necessarily good at any of these social mediums, I know that I will get by.
SO that brings us to today's topic: Jesus as a man in the Gospel of Mark.
Mark has always been an interesting gospel to me. These past few days I've been listening to a dramatized version on an app called Truth&Life, a free bible reading by celebrities bringing the Bible to life.
As I've listened some old recollections of Mark's gospel came to mind. Two moment always stand out to me from this Gospel and both have to do with Jesus on the sea.
Fist is the instance in Mark 4:37-41 where Jesus is asleep on the ship and the apostles freak out because a storm threatens them. Here's the scene:
37 And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that the ship was filled. 38 And he was in the hinder part of the ship, sleeping upon a pillow; and they awake him, and say to him: Master, does it not concern you that we perish? 39 And rising up, he rebuked the wind, and said to the sea: Peace, be still. And the wind ceased: and there was made a great calm. 40 And he said to them: Why are you fearful? Have you not faith yet? 41 And they feared exceedingly: and they said one to another: Who is this (do you think) that both wind and sea obey him?One thing that is immediately striking is Jesus' command to the wind: "Peace, be still"! The fact that He commands nature is one thing, a question the apostles themselves ask later on. But, the fact that He urges peace to the appease the wind is also pretty cool. Jesus is the Prince of Peace and the world recognizes this authority even down to the winds. This peace is the same as Jesus says in John 14:27 "Peace I leave with you: my peace I give unto you: not as the world gives, do I give unto you. " This is a topic to be fully explored later I think.
The other cool thing with this scene is Jesus' wondering why they are afraid. It's almost as if He is asking, "How can you be afraid? Don't you understand? Don't you know who I am? " This question too will be asked later in the Gospel and tells us something of the man Christ is and His dual nature being both fully God and Man.
The second sea scene is Jesus walking on the water.
Now I don't quite understand this scene and never have but I know in my heart it is very telling of our Lord's nature. The quote about the walking is as follows: And seeing them labouring in rowing, (for the wind was against them), and about the fourth watch of the night, he comes to them walking upon the sea, and he would have passed by them. (Mark 6:48- my emphasis). The Lord approaches them seeing them struggle but it says He would have passed them by. Is this perhaps because His presence on the sea would have calmed it, as he commanded the wind before? I cannot understand the Lord's mind but here, He intended to pass by and then had to reassure the apostles that it was Him walking and they had no reason to fear.
For me, these passages both raise the question: How does Jesus think similarly or dissimilarly to men? We have to remember that Mark has no genealogy of Christ or nativity story. When we first see the Lord, He is a grown man being baptized by John. It is soon after this that He is led away by the Spirit to the dessert to be tempted for 40 days. His baptized humanity begins immediately with temptation. And why must Jesus be tempted? Because He is a man, because that is truth of humanity, that we are all tempted. No one can look at Jesus and say, "You don't know what it's like" because He has been through all the results of humanity's fall: temptation, suffering, even death. But He is God, Jesus never sinned so why does He have to be baptized even?
He is baptized, interestingly enough, to take on our sins. Pope Benedict says this quite elegantly in his book, Jesus of Nazareth where he describes Jesus submersion into the water as a moment where the Lord actually is taking our sins onto himself. After that, he is reaffirmed as God's Son, I'd like to think to give Jesus strength through the temptations He is about to face in the desert,
" And there came a voice from heaven: You are my beloved Son; in you I am well pleased." Mark 1:11We all need to have this encouragement to have the temptations of sin. Jesus perhaps knew this and that is one distinguishing mark in Mark of how He thinks. He has the same human experience but cannot understand our struggles to believe or hear God's word. This is a theme prevalent in Mark's gospel in several spots:
- The people in the synagogue not understanding "this new doctrine" of Jesus having authority to cast out demons despite the demons understanding his power (Mark 1:23-28)
- Jesus having compassion and healing the leper (Mark 1:41)
- Jesus healing the paraplegic after seeing his friends faith in cutting open the roof. The Scribes questioned him and couldn't understand the truth of what had happened spiritually so Jesus had to give them a physical sign, the man walking.
And I want to wrap up because a storm looms and threatens another loss of electricity. There is a phrase repeated throughout the gospel, "Anyone with ears, let him hear" that never really made sense to me. But one instance in particular helped me to understand today. It is in Mark when the Apostles start to freak out on the boat when they realized they only brought ONE loaf of bread with them for the whole journey.
Paraphrasing here but basically Jesus was like,
"yo, remember those 5000 folk I fed like 20 minutes ago? Come on guys!"
But the point is the apostles despite having seen Jesus perform this miracle twice already! still doubted and worried. And Jesus' reaction shows us His humanity as well as His Divinity:
16 And they reasoned among themselves, saying: Because we have no bread. 17 Which Jesus knowing, says to them: Why do you reason, because you have no bread? Do you not yet know nor understand? Have you still your heart blinded? 18 Having eyes, see you not? And having ears, hear you not? Neither do you remember?...21 And he said to them: How do you not yet understand? (Mark 8:16-18; 21)Jesus know the apostles and their concerns, He understands their hunger and has felt it Himself greatly for over forty days at a time. The fact that this is about bread shows a deeper meaning in Jesus' mind: He already knows He will institute the Eucharist out of love. He has prefigured it twice in this Gospel by feeding the 5000 and another 4000. He is the Bread of Life and they, His closest disciples, His chosen 12 who will become the foundation of His Church on Earth, cannot but fret over their starvation.
"Haven't you heard what I've told you? Don't you see? Didn't you taste the bread I gave you? Do you not know that is only the beginning? That I will lay myself down and give myself wholly for you, my beloved apostles? "
Jesus is upset that they cannot understand in His humanity but knows they cannot yet in His Divine mind. He speaks as a father tortured that His children cannot understand the depths of His love for them. In time they will know but cannot yet. Jesus became a man precisely to show them this love, to give Himself, the Father's only begotten Son, to do His Father's Will and save mankind. He has come into their physical world as any other man would: He was born of a mother, cared for by an earthly father, mocked by His townsfolk for being a man, a carpenter and a carpenter's son and nothing more (Mark 6:3), He hears and sees and loves and is tempted as all men are.
But, at the same time, He is the Son of God. The wind listens to His commands, He can forgive sins and drive out demons. He can give life-giving bread in impossible circumstances. He knows they cannot yet understand but is eager to tell them, as any man is to tell His friends good news. But Jesus is patient, meek and humble of heart. Completely void of the sins within that can allow the apostles to doubt (Mark 7:14 ff).
~OneCatholicGuy
Jesus, I pray that we may all see Your goodness, know Thy peace, and seek to understand as those first apostles did, to take courage in You despite our struggles and disability in belief. Heal us Lord and help us to follow and love You always. Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment