Meditation - Wed. 9th. Jan 2008 - SEEING CAN BE INSUFFICIENT

[BarbaraTherese]

I can think that if I walked and talked with Jesus, saw him each day, I would surely then believe. But would I? Faith is a step beyond our senses - what we can see, hear and touch. The apostles who indeed saw, heard and touched Jesus, had to go on a journey and one that begun with not understanding to incorrect understanding to the Fulness of Faith.

DAILY MASS READINGS

usccb.org/nab/010908.shtml

Meditation

wau.org/meditations/meditations.asp?month=01&day=09&year=2008&x=10&y=1

What is the source of the “perfect love” that John talks about? Nothing else but God, of course. The apostles in today’s Gospel had come face to face with the most perfect expression of God’s love, his Son Jesus Christ.

And if just being able to see Jesus wasn’t enough, they even saw him miraculously multiply a little bit of bread and a couple of fish to feed thousands. So why were they so utterly terrified of Jesus when he came walking toward them on the water?

Perhaps because seeing was not enough for them. They had to believe. Mark lets us know that they hadn’t understood the incident of the loaves and their “hearts were hardened” (Mark 6:52). They hadn’t yet come to the conclusion that Jesus was the Messiah. They thought they had him figured out: He was surely a great prophet and teacher, but nothing more. So when they saw him walking on water, they thought they were losing their minds!

We have all been afraid of something: perhaps death, terrorist attacks, failure, rejection, or something else. Sometimes these fears can paralyze us, and at other times they can sit in the back of our minds, ready to spring forward at a moment’s notice. However, we can usually trace them back to a lack of trust in God’s love and provision.

Perhaps, for example, life has hardened us and we’ve built up a layer of cynicism, mistrust, and pride. Or perhaps a trauma from our past continues to cast a shadow over us, and we can’t seem to shake it. The good news is that we can be set free!

What are you afraid of? Use these fears to help you discover areas of life that you still need to surrender to Jesus. Over and over, Jesus wants to tell us, “Do not be afraid!” He will take your fears and weaknesses and turn them into his strength. If you step out of the boat and let him lead you, you’ll find yourself walking on water!

“Lord, I surrender! I give my fears and insecurities to you. Take them and give me your mercy and love. I give you my future, and trust in your perfect plan for me!”

 

[BarbaraTherese]

Some background to today’s Readings from Lectio Divina for today in the Carmelite Tradition:

ocarm.org/lectio/annoA_eng/033eng.htm

• After the multiplication of the loaves (yesterday’s Gospel), Jesus ordered the disciples to go into the boat. Why? Mark does not explain this. The Gospel of John says the following. According to the hope people had at that time, the Messiah would repeat the gesture of Moses and would feed the multitude in the desert. This is why, before the multiplication of the loaves, the people concluded that Jesus must be the expected Messiah, announced by Moses (cf. Dt 18, 15-18) and they wanted to make him a King (cfr. Jn 6, 14-15). This decision of the people was a temptation for Jesus as well as for the disciples. And for this reason, Jesus obliged the disciples to take the boat and leave.

He wanted to avoid that they got contaminated with the dominating ideology, because the “leaven of Herod and of the Pharisees was very strong (Mk 8, 15). Jesus himself faces the temptation through prayer.

• Mark describes the events with great art. On one side, Jesus goes up to the mountain to pray. On the other, the disciples go toward the sea and get into the boat. It almost seems like a symbolical picture which foreshadows the future:

it is as if Jesus went up to Heaven, leaving the disciples alone in the midst of the contradictions of life

, in the fragile boat of the community. It was night. They are in the high seas, all together in the small boat, trying to advance, rowing, but the wind was strong and contrary to them. They were tired. It was night, between three and six o’clock in the morning. The communities of the time of Mark were like the disciples. In the night! Contrary wind! They caught no fish, in spite of the efforts made! Jesus seemed to be absent! But he was present and came close to them, but they, like the disciples of Emmaus, did not recognize him (Lk 24, 16).
• At the time of Mark, around the year 70, the small boat of the communities had to face the contrary wind on the part of some converted Jews who wished to reduce the mystery of Jesus to the prophecies and figures of the Old Testament, as well as some converted Pagans who thought it was possible to have a certain alliance of the faith in Jesus with the empire.

Mark tries to help the Christians to respect the Mystery of Jesus and not to want to reduce Jesus to their own desires and ideas

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• Jesus arrives walking on the water of the sea of life. They scream taken up by fear, because they think that it is a question of a phantasm. As it happens in the passage of the Disciples of Emmaus, Jesus pretends that he wants to continue to walk (Lk 24, 28). But they cry out and this causes him to change the way, he gets close to them and says: “Courage, it is I, do not be afraid!”. Here, once again, for one who knows the story of the Old Testament this recalls some very important facts: (a) Remember that the people, protected by God, crossed the Red Sea without fear; (b) Remember, that God calling Moses, declared his name several times, saying “I am he who is!” (cfr. Ex 3, 15); (c) Remember also the Book of Isaiah which represents the return from the exile as a new Exodus, where God appears repeating numerous times: “I am he who is!” (cfr. Is 42, 8; 43, 5-11-13; 44, 6.25; 45, 5-7). This way of recalling the Old Testament, of using the Bible, helped the communities to perceive better the presence of God in Jesus and in the facts of life. Do not be afraid!
• Jesus goes into the boat and the wind ceased. But the fear of the disciples, instead of disappearing, increases. Mark, the Evangelist, makes a commentary criticizing them and says: “They had not understood what the miracle of the loaves meant, their minds were closed” (6, 52). The affirmation their minds were closed reminds us of the heart of Pharaoh which was hardened (Ex 7, 3.13.22) and of the people in the desert (Ps 95, 8) who did not want to listen to Moses and thought only of returning to Egypt (Nb 20, 2-10), where there was plenty of bread and meat to satisfy them (Ex 16, 3).

Personal questions

• Night, stormy sea, contrary wind! Have you ever felt like this? What have you done to overcome it?
• Have you been afraid so many times because you have not known how to recognize Jesus present and acting in your life?