The Hope of Helplessness
by Fr. David M. Knight
Sunday, September 15, 2024
Twenty-Fourth Week of the Year
Lectionary 131
Is 50:4c-9a/Jas 2:14-18/Mk 8:27-35
How do you feel about your life right now? What you have accomplished and will accomplish? Your chances of success? Of living to see it?
The Lord God is my help
Isaiah 50:5-9: the “Servant” says:
I have not rebelled, have not turned back. I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard; My face I did not shield....
Jesus must have been sharing with us the fruit of his meditation on this when he taught that we don’t have to defend either our bodies or our reputation: “Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also.” (Matthew 5:39)
The Servant does not present this as his insight. It is not a human principle but divine: “The Lord God opens my ear that I may hear.” And it is not based on human hopes, but on trust in what God will do: “The Lord God is my help; therefore I am not disgraced.” The “poor in spirit” don’t count on anything from themselves. But they expect everything from God. That gives them peace.
The Son of Man
Isaiah is speaking in the context of this life: “I will walk in the presence of the Lord, in the land of the living.” He says,
When the cords of death encompassed me... I called upon the name of the Lord, “O Lord, save my life!”.... and he saved me.”
But now in Mark 8:27-35 Jesus takes us beyond “the land of the living” as we understand it, and focuses us on Life that transcends—is higher than, escapes the boundaries of—this “land of the living” that we know.
He tried to tell his disciples about it at the Last Supper, to prepare them for his death, but they did not understand:
Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.
He had spoken of his “Father’s house” earlier to Mary and Joseph for the same reason. After giving them a preview in “three days” of separation, he said:
Why were you searching for me? Did you not know I must be in my Father’s house?”
But they “did not understand” what he said to them either. And did not until Mary, separated from Jesus again in the same city, realized with inspired understanding, that he was “in his Father’s house” and she would see him again “after three days.” (John 14:1-6; Luke 2:42-50).
Now, when Jesus predicts that the “Son of Man” is going to “suffer much, be rejected by the elders, chief priests and scribes, be put to death, and rise three days later,” his disciples don’t understand what he is talking about—not because it is not clear, but because they cannot accept it. They can’t even “hear it.” For them, Jesus is the “Son of God.” Peter “took him aside and began to rebuke him: ‘God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.’” And Jesus blasted him:
Get out of my sight, you satan! You are not judging by God’s standards, but as humans do! See also Matthew 16:22-23. (For “Son of God” see Matthew 14:33; Luke 1:35; John1:34, 49; 11:27.)
Jesus saw in Peter’s attitude the greatest “stumbling block,” or “obstacle” in his path. The entire mystery of redemption, and the success of Christ’s followers in continuing his mission, depended on Christ’s dying and on their willingness to die with him. But, instead of removing the man he had just made pope, at the Last Supper Jesus promised his conversion:
Simon, Simon, listen! Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your own faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”
Peter was still over-confident. He answered: “Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death!” Jesus brought him back to reality: “I tell you, Peter, the cock will not crow this day, until you have denied three times that you know me.”
No one is immune to moral failure. Popes and presidents and prostitutes have all sold themselves for money, power or prestige, and will do so again. God has guaranteed, under very precise and strictly-defined conditions, to keep the pope from using all his authority to publicly and unconditionally force the Church into error. And he has promised that when the pope and bishops all unite together in defining the faith of the Church, he will be with them. But our faith is in his promise, not in their wisdom or virtue.
We place no trust in our understanding of God’s word or in our ability to live it. We say with the Servant: “The Lord God is my help.” This is the only source of our peace. And of the confidence we have that we will be able to fulfill our mission before we die.
In our work to establish the reign of God on earth we first must “die” to all that is human. In Baptism, not only our bodies, but our emotions, intellects and wills; our “gut instincts.” cultural conditioning, higher education and achievement of mature self-discipline in keeping the “Law” were all “crucified,” put to death with Christ and in Christ on the cross. We died to all that we were and could become as human beings on earth. The life God was giving us in his ongoing act of creation we returned to him. Then we rose again, in Christ, as a “new creation.” Each of us says, “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” In everything we do, our prayer is, “Lord, do this with me, do this in me, do this through me. Let me think with your thoughts and speak with your words and act as your body on earth.” If anyone is “in Christ,” there is a “new creation: everything old has passed away. Everything has become new!” (This is the WIT prayer: With, In, Through!)
This is what Jesus meant when he said, “Those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.” We trade mere human life for life that is both human and divine. We do this by dying and rising in Christ. That is the mystery of Baptism, the mystery of our new identity, of our enlightenment, our call to mission, our union with Christ in ministry and of the victory we work for. (Romans 6:3-11; Galatians 2:20; 6:14; 2Corinthians 5:14-17)
Human cooperation with God
James 2:14-18 tells us that, even though we have become divine, we are still human. When we “died in Christ” at Baptism, our bodies did not die; nor did anything imprinted physically on our brains through physical interaction with this world: cultural conditioning, our own choices carried out in action, anything we call “emotional woundedness.” As Paul described it:
I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my body another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin... in my body. (Romans 7:15-24. In the text “body” is “members.”)
So to live fully by the divine life within us we need to keep living it out it in action. We grow in grace by letting grace (God in us) express itself in our physical words and actions. But the power to do this is from God, as is the inspiration to do it, and the gift of faith, hope or love that we are expressing. All comes from God and is done by God’s power, but our free will has to choose.
Insight: Do I see how my weakness can be the source of my confidence and peace?
Initiative: Practice “letting go and letting God.” Combine humility and trust
Reflections brought to you by the Immersed in Christ Ministry
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