Word to the Wise
Thursday, January 19, 2017 - Thursday in the 2nd Week in Ordinary Time
[Heb 7:25—8:6 and Mark 3:7-12]Hearing what he was doing, a large number of people came to him also from Jerusalem, from Idumea, from beyond the Jordan, and from the neighborhood of Tyre and Sidon. He told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, so that they would not crush him. He had cured many and, as a result, those who had diseases were pressing upon him to touch him. And whenever unclean spirits saw him they would fall down before him and shout, "You are the Son of God." He warned them severely not to make him known. [Mark]
Those who like action-packed stories should really enjoy the Gospel of Mark. From the very first chapters the dramatic action of Jesus' life and ministry move. There is the tension between Jesus' teaching and ministry and the "establishment" represented by the scribes, Pharisees and Herodians (not to mention the uneasy eye of the Roman empire). There is the command that he shows over "unclean spirits" and illnesses. Today's gospel passage shows that folks were coming in from all over the place. Given the nature of communications in those days of no electricity, telephones, etc., the word still got around. It's Mark's way of saying that Jesus' went "viral!" There is the amusing but practical consequence of keeping things orderly! Jesus has to arrange for a "getaway boat!" Last but not least, there is the drama of the "Messianic secret" (which I somewhat mislabeled recently with "Marcan secret"). The unclean spirits can't help but know who Jesus is, but Jesus does not want his full identity known in the story. Perhaps this is the agenda of the evangelist because Mark also shows the disciples as uncomprehending until Jesus is crucified and risen! All of this is jam-packed in the Gospel of Mark.
Can we read this and still have a kind of "spiritual ho-hum?" Pope Bl. Paul VI once mentioned in his encyclical on evangelization the "hidden energy of the gospel" and lamented what seemed to be its loss. Can we spread Jesus' fame? We know who he is. Or has the story become so familiar that we simply lose our enthusiasm? The "New Evangelization" and our baptismal commitment urge us to make the story of Jesus "viral" again. AMEN
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