Friday, June 1, 2007: 8th week in Ordinary Time

Scripture: Sirach 44:1,8-13. Psalm 149. Mark 11:11-25. Lectionary #351:

Young people both in college and high school have great difficulty with the
words and actions of Jesus in this particular part of the Gospel of Mark.
I think it is so because of their image of who Jesus is supposed to be in
their minds. No matter how much a teacher tries to get them to see him
differently and create ongoing images of who Jesus is for us, they do not
like these two incidents--which were probably among the real historical
things Jesus did and said! I do not label them among the "hard or
difficult passages" of the Gospel, but students do. Jesus is cursing a fig
tree out of its season for producing figs and then he goes on a rampage in
the temple area casting out those who were the money changers with a whip.
It never says he hit any of them, but he displayed his anger--a "No!No!"
from us Americans who see and read nothing but violence in our papers, on
T.V. and in the reality of wars and terrorism. There is too much
"humanity" in Jesus in these two narratives. The tree is cursed and a few
days later Peter sees that it has dried up. This is a prophetic and
symbolic narrative which has a deeper connotation than just a cursed fig
tree. As readers we are required to reflect and contemplate the text.
The driving out of the merchants in the temple presinct is a fulfillment of
the justified anger Jesus has about what should really be happening in the
temple. "The zeal for thy house has eaten me up." Emotions, passion, and
sin are things that are very difficult to handle for each of us; most of
the time these are the areas where we get out of control and do some stupid
things and then rationalize about them. In Jesus we believe that he is the
Son of God (hence divine--even though Mark does not emphasize this) and Son
of Man (all too human as we, yet without sin). All of us have to leave
aside our childish images of who Jesus is and grow into what the Gospels
are really saying about him and how we,too, must grow beyond what we knew
from our catechism lessons and what we have heard from the pulpit when the
preacher was not prepared. Moreover, we need to be
critical--hyper-critical about some of the apocryphal, novel like, and
highly imaginative books that come out about Jesus. Some people pay more
attention to these stories than they do the historical truth of the
Gospels. We learn that our image of God and Jesus has to keep changing as
we move on in our journey of life. We need to learn how to handle the
divinity issues and the humanity issues of the Son of God become Son of Man
through Mary a real living woman who was totally human and gave birth to
Jesus of Nazareth without the help of Joseph sexually. Joseph is never
mentioned in Mark for Jesus has only God as his Father. Our religious
beliefs and our ritualistic devotions need to grow into the mature mind of
Christ (see Philippians chapter 2:1-4, and then read Philippians chapter
2:5-11). I personally believe we are challenged to accept even the hard and
difficult passages and stronger scenes without losing what Mark's purpose
and perspective is as he preaches a Christ Jesus of the Cross who is
totally human and transcendently divine. Mark is consistent with his use
of Son of God and Son of Man. That is why I love the opening verse of Mark:
"A beginningof the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God." Amen.