Thursday, February 9, 2017

Homily for 10 Feb 2017

10 Feb 2017

You’d think with as much good that Jesus does, he would want people to know about it.  But he doesn’t (at least, in the Gospel of Mark).  Jesus prefers to keep a low profile.  He doesn’t want people going off and telling others what he did for them. 

Jesus doesn’t want his reputation to precede him; because he knows that if it does, someone may be expecting one thing from him, while he’s trying to do something else for that person.  And we know what happens when others—especially God—let us down: people lose faith.  And Jesus doesn’t want that; he doesn’t want people to lose faith in him, just because he didn’t deliver what someone was expecting him to deliver.

I’m sure we all know someone who left the church or left the faith simply because their expectations were not met.  It’s a very real thing.  And so, Jesus’ concerns are not unreasonable.  Jesus is able to help us and others, but only if we let him do what he does . . . on his terms; without any expectations.

Someone said, “If you don’t expect anything, then everything is a gift.”  And that seems to be the attitude Jesus would like us to have toward him: an attitude of just letting Jesus be Jesus, and letting him do what he does, as he does it, whenever and however he does it.  With that attitude, everything from God will be a surprise, everything will be a gift, everything will be a reason to give thanks.     

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