Deacon Tom Writes,
Pushing Through The Darkness
Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A
Jesus gets some bad news in today’s gospel. He hears that his close friend and cousin, John the Baptist, has been brutally murdered. It is only natural that He wanted to escape to a quiet spot and grieve. We all know this feeling, the need to withdraw, get away to our favorite place and just “be” and recover from whatever it is that has stopped us in our tracks, sucked the oxygen out of us or dropped us to our knees. It’s good for us to know that Jesus is just like us in this way. When He hears about John, Jesus needs time to process the loss of someone that He loved so much.
But that’s not what happened! Jesus’ followers wouldn’t give him the chance to get away. When Jesus saw that the crowd pursuing Him, “his heart was moved with pity for them, and he cured their sick.” Jesus’ sorrow and pain at the loss of John is redirected outward to others who were suffering in so many ways. As Jesus grieves the loss of a loved one, He acts with compassion and mercy to alleviate the pain and suffering of others.
Christ gives us a good example here. We relate to one another in our common experiences of life… the good and the bad, the happy and the sad. The good times and the happy events seem to take care of themselves. We want to come together and share those moments of joy. On the other hand, the sad events of life, the sicknesses, the disappointments, the deaths or the loss of things that are important to us are all very difficult for us to take and it helps when others stand by our side in these dark experiences in our lives. On these occasions we tend to isolate and withdraw from everyone else. But even when we are suffering ourselves, like Christ, we must not neglect the need of others. It is by giving of self during these times of darkness that we experience God’s goodness just as Christ did. For the multiplication of the loaves would not have occurred had Jesus withdrawn into himself. The crowd would not have experienced this astonishing miracle that gives us a foretaste of the mystery of the Eucharist. Jesus endured his own time of darkness and ended the darkness of others because he trusted God in all things. He asks us to do the same as we continue our journey of faith and as we struggle to overcome the divisions we face on so many fronts.
Enjoy the day!
Deacon Tom
Please Visit www.deaconspod.com where you will find contemporary conversations with several Paulist Deacon Affiliates and their guests exploring the treasures our Catholic faith has to offer to those on the threshold of our church… those thinking of joining our Catholic Community or walking away from it.
OTHER RESOURCE
Recommended Reading: The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis is a satirical look at Christian morality, argued from the perspective of a senior demon, Screwtape, training his nephew, Wormwood, to corrupt a human soul. The core message is that evil is subtle and insidious, targeting people through mundane temptations, distractions, pride, and apathy rather than dramatic villainy. This is a great leisurely read with a profound message.
Recommended YouTube Video: The Screwtape Letters Lecture Series. Taken from the C.S. Lewis Study Program, this six-part video study guide of one of C.S. Lewis's most popular and profound works. Dr. Jerry Root, the C.S. Lewis Institute Christopher W. Mitchell Senior Fellow for C.S. Lewis Studies, guides us through The Screwtape Letters by highlighting the central themes and underlying issues to cultivate a clear grasp of Lewis’s insights into how the forces of evil work against human beings
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