This is my homily for today, the 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B. Todays' readings are here.
That was a powerful deed by Jesus – curing the deaf man with the speech impediment. We could classify it as a miracle.
Quite a few of the Gospel miracles are stories of healing. Jesus gives sight to a man born blind. He cures a lame man and tells him to pick up his mat and walk. He heals those inflicted with leprosy. He cures a woman with a bleeding disorder. He even brings a few dead people back to life. And that is far from the complete list.
Jesus’s miracles are wonderful in several different ways. First of all, and most obviously, they are life-changing encounters for those who are recipients of the miracles. For a deaf person to be given the gift of hearing is more than just activating another of the five senses; it lifts him out of the ranks of the disabled and pitiable and shunned and allows him to assume a place in society with those who are deemed normal. Being able to hear what others are saying to him transforms every relationship in his life and opens the prospect of other relationships that formerly would have been impossible. Now he can converse with others on an equal footing. The impact of that change is not something to be underestimated.
Second, many of Jesus’s healing miracles seem to have spiritual meanings or lessons for the rest of us – even those of us who are not direct recipients of these miracles. Having eyes or ears miraculously opened may strike us as a metaphor for what happens to us when Jesus comes into our lives. Our eyes are opened: we see the world as Jesus sees it! Our ears are opened: his life-changing words seem to course directly to our hearts! Likewise, the curing of disease seems a metaphor for his forgiving our sins. We are washed clean and get a new start. It seems Jesus used miracles as a vehicle for teaching us about himself.
Third – and I happen to think this is the crucial point about Jesus’s miracles - they are signs and symbols. They are tokens of the truth of what Jesus preached, from the first time he rose and uttered words in public in his ministry: this is the time of fulfillment: God’s kingdom is not far off in the distance or the future: it is beginning here, now, breaking in all about us. Miracles symbolize this new reality.
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Jesus’s miracles were wonderful. It’s no wonder that those who were present when Jesus cured the deaf man with the speech impediment, immediately ran out to tell everyone what happened. But here we encounter a puzzle: running out to tell everyone is not what Jesus wished. As we just heard, he ordered these witnesses not to tell anyone. Why is it that Jesus would do something so powerful, so revealing of his authority – we might even say, his divinity – and yet not wish the world to know about it?
This puzzle of Jesus’s wish to keep the lid on some of his mighty deeds, has been called the Messianic Secret. “Messianic” as in “Messiah”. “Messiah” means “anointed one”; the Greek word for the same concept has become our word “Christ”.
The idea here seems to be: whatever it was that Jesus wanted to be known for, it wasn’t primarily as a worker of miracles. He didn’t come to us to be a magician. Nor did he see himself as a sort of kindly bestower of cures, a sort of Santa Claus for the ill. Rather these miracles were means to other purposes: primarily, to reveal God’s Kingdom breaking in among us. And until his ministry had run its course – that is, until he had entered Jerusalem, and was arrested, tried, convicted, suffered and died, and then rose from the dead – the full meaning of who Jesus was, and what he had come to do, wasn’t clear. Jesus would reveal the fullness of himself when the time was ripe, but at this point in his ministry, when he cured the deaf man with the speech impediment, the time had not yet reached full ripeness. Hence his wish to hold off on the proclamation.
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Miracles are contemporary, too. I’ve talked before about the words posted in our Narthex, above the doors entering the church: “In this place, extraordinary miracles happen from time to time. Quiet wonders occur every day.” Those words affirm our faith that miracles aren’t just something that happened long ago, in the Bible; we believe they can still happen today, among us. And in fact, some of us can offer testimony of something miraculous that has happened, either to ourselves or to a loved one.
But I suspect that many more of us can talk about times when we prayed for a miracle, but no miracle was forthcoming. From “Lord, let me pass this math test”, to “Lord, let me not be laid off” to “Lord, please don’t let my mother die.” It can seem to us that God isn’t listening to us. Or even that there is no God. I have known people who have lost their faith because their urgent, fervent prayers weren’t answered.
I don’t have a complete answer. In pondering this mystery of why some prayers are miraculously answered and some seemingly aren’t, we quickly run up against the mystery of human suffering. At least for his followers, avoiding all suffering doesn’t seem to be part of his plan. He accompanies us in our suffering, and he consoles us in our grief and suffering. But he doesn’t always make it go away.
Nevertheless, there is nothing wrong with asking God to intervene; Jesus himself urges us to ask him for what we need: he said, “Knock, and the door will be answered”. But what he has for us when he answers the door, may not be what we think we need.
It may also be helpful to keep this perspective: Jesus already has done more for us than we can ever repay, by giving his life for us on the cross. What’s more, he makes a gratuitous gift of himself to us in the Eucharist. In our relationship, it is not him who is beholden to us; it’s very much the inverse. Perhaps, when we pray, there is wisdom in asking, “Jesus, what can I do for you? How can I help you inaugurate this new kingdom?”
"God, how can I inaugurate your kingdom?" is a great prayer!
ReplyDeleteI have little patience with Christians who are so hung up on praying for big Jesus-type cures that they are blind to the more practical ways they could alleviate suffering.
I try to remember the people who did errands for or visited my very difficult parents when they were dying 50 miles away and I was dealing with my own cancer diagnosis, working full-time, and trying to support The Boy through college and a failed marriage.
I sure didn't get through that patch without some miraculous godsent help.
Their willingness to step in on days I was sidelined was a miraculous godsend to me. Hell, the stranger who spent two minutes joking with me in the probiotics aisle at the Kroger last week was a godsend.
May God send all these people a blessing every day in this life and turn my gratitude to their great joy in the next. And may God help me be somebody's miracle once in awhile.
"I sure didn't get through that patch without some miraculous godsent help."
DeleteSame here. I didn't have the same trials you had to go through, but some stuff.
Yeah, I can take one damn thing after another, but when things come in clusters like that it's easy to get overwhelmed. As my brother was fond of saying, "Now you know why we die. We want to."
DeleteI understand what your brother is getting at, unfortunately. This has been a very tough week .
DeleteAnne, I'm sorry. You and your husband are in my continued prayers.
DeleteThank you .I love being home but this first week has been full of challenges. I’m emotionally and physically exhausted from 11 months of high stress. I had hoped things would go smoothly here but they haven’t, unfortunately. I still pray for all of you here every night - but sometimes I fall asleep before I get through all the names ( including significant others and spouses by name).
DeleteGood thoughts, Jim.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing about miracles is that the world doesn't always rejoice in them or praise God for them. Arguably, the raising of Lazarus was the last straw that brought the authorities down on Jesus and led to his death. It's hard to imagine the crabbed and vitriolic world view that reacts to someone being restored to life by persecuting and killing the person who brought about the miracle. One can imagine them saying, "We don't need no stinking miracles!"
Sometimes there are slow miracles, too. One of the most unforgettable scenes I can remember is that "orbis et urbi" address by Pope Francis in 2020 at the beginning of the Covid pandemic. It was the pope speaking, nearly alone in a darkened and rainy St. Peter's square, and then carrying the Blessed Sacrament into the basilica. And sitting for a time of silent prayer. The same prayers everyone was saying, while wondering if God even was listening. We wondered if God was listening for a long time, and if we would ever get through this trial. But somehow we did, by the grace of God and his action through the efforts of countless helpers.
"It's hard to imagine the crabbed and vitriolic world view that reacts to someone being restored to life by persecuting and killing the person who brought about the miracle. One can imagine them saying, 'We don't need no stinking miracles!'"
DeleteI dunno. In that volatile time--Roman authorities cracking down on Jews, infighting among Jewish factions, ideas about messiah and end times running rampant--lots of people would see the Lazarus story as fake news. Hard times can breed a lot of cynicism.
Going to get my COVID shot today. But many millions would say I'm an idiot for believing in that miracle.
Getting my Covid shot too this fall. Think I will get Novavax this time now that it is approved.
DeleteMe, too, Katherine. Novamax is not mRNA-based and the Moderna has always made me sick and feverish the next day. Novamax is supposed to be 90% effective versus 95% for the mRNA vaccines. I never liked the idea of my body manufacturing the antigens. How much is too much or too little? No other vaccine ever made me sick.
DeleteEveryone is diff of course, but would appreciate knowing how folks did with Novavax. I got Moderna on Monday as usual, but I've been much sicker than usual with joint pain, stomach upset, and migraine-like headaches. Previous vaxes did not hit me this hard. Better than a week of covid, but if Novavax is milder, would go with that if available. Thanks.
DeleteI have not had mine yet, I have to find out where Novavax is available. County health dept. is probably my best bet. But my sister got it in January (before the update). She had no side effects. She had gotten quite sick for a day or two with the mRNA kind and wanted to avoid that.
DeleteRight now I have a sore arm from the pneumonia booster yesterday that my doctor wanted me to get, but no other effects
CVS Website says it has Novavax. We would have to drive 30 miles to get to a CVS (vs local Walgreen), but would be worth it next year.
DeleteOur health department is useless. Republicans consolidated rural counties into regional departments and slashed budgets. This had real implications for COVID reporting. Was disgusted that neither Trump nor Harris addressed problems at CDC. If they don't streamline reporting, confusion and deaths during the next pandemic will be worse.
Our health department is also several consolidated counties. But at least they had the Moderna vax a few years back when no one else did. When we lived in a different county I was able to get the kids' shots updated for a moderate cost at district health. I think they are okay for immunizations, maybe not so much if you need a doctor visit. Our doctor was actually sending his patients over there for vaxes to save them some money.
DeleteI was able to get mammograms and Pap tests there before Obamacare. But the health dept now does not have staff to provide those services.
DeleteDuring COVID the consolidated dept did not pay on any extra staff, so only very limited testing and vaccinations, and no $$ to upgrade reporting to the CDC. As a result, positivity rates were underreported. That had implications for testing availability and hospital equipment and supplies. It also led to the false notion that covid wasn't that bad here, and that the Democratic governor's lockdown was just an election year stunt to make Trump look bad.
Great plot for somebody's dystopian novel ...
I mean this in the friendliest way possible: this conversation illustrates one or two of the reasons that some of us would prefer to keep health care private, to the extent it makes sense.
DeleteIt also illustrates that the GOP is failing to provide a preferential option for the poor. But perhaps the Christians who tend to have influence in the GOP these days aren't particularly immersed in that principle.
Ours is the only system based on profit of the world’s rich countries. So America spends between two and eight times more for healthcare than any other rich country - with the exception of England, all of the other countries provide universal healthcare using various models of private- public resources. But since the healthcare system isn’t run by huge, profit making corporations, they provide better care to ALL their citizens at a far lower cost than the US. England’s fully government run healthcare system has many problems. The other nations do just fine and way better than America does - better care and much lower cost , and every citizen is covered., We need to learn from them.
DeleteIt seems to me (especially as someone who wavers between belief and atheism) better not to pray for miracles. It is difficult for me to believe, wherever I am on the spectrum between belief and atheism at any given time, that God intervenes to grant requests. And even if miracles are occasionally granted, I think it is better for one's mental health not to ask for them.
ReplyDeleteI think atheists and believers alike can say that in the vast majority of cases, miraculous intervention does not occur. So disappointment is either almost certainly guaranteed or absolutely guaranteed. It seems to me preferable to believe that if God exists and is interested in our welfare, he know what to do without being told. You can't be disappointed if you don't hope for miracles.
I have a visceral reaction to people who want to pray away my cancer. One of the new Church Ladies got me on the phone during covid and wanted me to kneel down while she prayed, like some kind of scene from the last days of Nixon and Kissinger. I told her to pray for the young people who get this and that their parents can afford to pay for treatment without going bankrupt. The hot new interferon injections with best hope of remission are $6k per month. I'm good with my generic oral chemo. Then I hung up. Not my finest moment, but she was nuts.
DeleteWe are looking at annual costs of $200,000-300,000 out of pocket to care for George. We will run through our retirement money real fast. My Greek friends here visited a day ago and Mike told me that when his brother in Greece was in his last year of life he had full time care at home. It cost $20,000 for the entire year. Americans pay by far the most for healthcare us get so little. It’s a sin - literally- that people can’t afford the care they need because our system is run by huge corporations and is focused on maximizing profit, not providing care.
DeleteI haven't done exhaustive research on the topic, but it seems to me the "Messianic secret" is almost entirely confined to the Gospel of Mark. So for some biblical scholars it says more about Mark's view of Jesus than it says about Jesus's view of himself and his mission. Also, Mark says, "He ordered them not to tell anyone. But the more he ordered them not to, the more they proclaimed it." While it is not my preferred approach to take the Gospels at face value, breaking my own rule I would ask how credible it is to imagine Jesus wouldn't have known people were going to talk, and indeed how credible it is to believe he would have been so naive about human nature that "the more he ordered them not to, the more they proclaimed it." So it's all the more plausible to me that we ask what Mark was intending to express rather than what Jesus was.
ReplyDeleteAgree
DeleteThe thought has occurred to me also that Jesus may have been using some "reverse psychology", whether actual, or a literary device by the evangelist. But also, once Palm Sunday happened (and people were proclaiming him the Messiah) it was less than a week until Good Friday. Jesus may not have been ready for that to play out yet at the time of this reading.
DeleteMark was likely the first Gospel written, before both Matthew and Luke. Many scholars think it was written at a time when persecution was threatening. I think Mark presents Jesus rather than the disciples or the Church as the model for Christian life.
DeleteAfter his baptism, Jesus goes about doing good. His preaching seems to take second place. Both cause him to get into trouble. They both lead to his death on the Cross.
So, while Jesus was indeed the Messiah, and Christians are literally followers of the “anointed one,” it is important to remember that Christian was a pejorative term first used by Romans and carried the flavor of our word “terrorist.”
Therefore, Jesus and Mark telling his flowers to keep a low profile was good advice both at the time of Jesus and at the time of Mark.
Of course, all this was modified by the Gospels of Matthew and Luke which are addressed to establish Jewish and Greek Communities as it was becoming apparent that the Church was surviving persecution. So much that it enabled Luke to write Acts, the Gospel of the Church.
Ignatius is supposed to have said that “nothing worthy of the Glory of God is without opposition.” He certainly experienced that in his life, as did many of the other reformer saints in the history of the Church.
So as Jean suggests maybe the real saints, the real followers of Jesus are those who quietly facilitate little miracles in the lives of people around them. And perhaps those who take out billboards are at least self-centered and maybe even given to fake news.
" it seems to me the "Messianic secret" is almost entirely confined to the Gospel of Mark. So for some biblical scholars it says more about Mark's view of Jesus than it says about Jesus's view of himself and his mission."
DeleteYes, that is true. There are some instances in Matthew and Luke of Jesus telling the disciples not to tell anyone, but those seem to be instances of Matthew and Luke using Mark as their source. (E.g. the "Who do you say that I am?" story; the Transfiguration story, when they are coming back down the mountain).
All four of the biblical evangelists had their own theological points of view, so they all adapted the material in various ways to suite the points they wished to make. Apparently this was part of Mark's point of view. I think Jack's speculation about persecution rings true. Also, there is this: Jesus doesn't fully reveal his lordship until he is being interrogated by the Sanhedrin. And that results in an immediate sentence of death. I think that observation harmonizes with what I said in the homily: when Jesus cured the blind man with the speech impediment, the time was not yet ripe for him to make that exalted claim about who he is.
Unrelated, the news today was that there was a shooting at an Omaha high school. Other area schools, including the one my 16 year old granddaughter attends, were locked down out of an abundance of caution. Fortunately the shooting victim lived and is in stable condition, and the perpetrator is in custody. It appears to have been an altercation between two students rather than a random thing
ReplyDeleteHad a message from my daughter in law that the grade school the younger two girls attend had also been locked down.
DeleteWhat a nightmare. I am glad no lives were lost, and I hope the kids will be able to weather this. I do not miss the shooter drills from my final years in the classroom.
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