Reflection on the Gospel of the Tuesday Of The Sixth Week In Ordinary Time |
Mark 8:14-21 |
There are two thoughts present in this Gospel Passage. One is the process that Jesus is going through and the other is the process of the disciples.
Jesus presents to the disciples a lesson that need to pick from the events of the day. The Pharisees, and also Herod were in important positions in society. Herod as King, and the Pharisees as teachers of the people to the good and bad, what is of God and what is of man. Putting it differently they were shepherds of the people, but they failed in their role, either through deceit in the case of Herod or in the self serving nature of the Pharisees, where all their good intentions failed because they knew not the meaning of how to treat their brother. And we should place Jesus’ statement of being shrewd as wolves, but gentle as dove, in this context. We should evaluate things for what they are, but that should not spoil the way we engage them. Yes they are at fault in the way they are doing things, and we must not follow them in this, yet we need to look at them as family for they too are our brothers, and hence we should be patient with them.
So the yeast is the blindness that we have, that is the failure to understand, accept and act, with those around us, as our brothers and sisters, belonging to the one family of God.
On the other hand, the disciples, as was required, were bothered like Martha (Lazarus’ & Mary’s Sister), were engaged with the requirement of providing for the teacher/master/rabbi. Jesus points to them, with Him and God, physical food is never the primary focus, because God can provide for them, not just in the desert, when the Jews were in their Exodus to the Promised Land, but much more even now (Jesus’ time), as when God through them fed the Five Thousand and the Four Thousand.
Do you believe God even does this in modern times? There are many stories out there when the generosity of people was blessed with multiplication. The only reason we do not know, is because we have not/are not acquainted with the mighty work God accomplishes in modern times. I was given the privilege of being able to read a book called “Is That Really You, God? by Loren Cunningham”, and I believed.
