Thursday,
January 18, 2018
2nd Week in
Ordinary Time
1st Reading:
1 Sam 18:6-9; 19:1-7
Gospel: Mk 3:7–12
Jesus and his disciples withdrew to the lakeside and a large crowd from Galilee followed him. A great number of people also came from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, Transjordan and from the region of Tyre and Sidon, for they had heard of all that he was doing. Because of the crowd, Jesus told his disciples to have a boat ready for him, to prevent the people from crushing him. He healed so many that all who had diseases kept pressing towards him to touch him. Even the people who had evil spirits, whenever they saw him, would fall down before him and cry out, “You are the Son of God.” But he warned them sternly not to tell anyone who he was.
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the
Assimilated Life
Experience)
With his mission to spread the kingdom of God on earth Jesus was like a businessmen with a product to promote. Like any businessman he also had to go public because promotion requires publicity. We are puzzled, however, why in today’s Gospel reading he silenced the devil that was about to squeal his identity as the Messiah. The devil would have sounded credible. Who could be more convincing than a person promoting the positive side of his enemy?
To understand why Jesus silenced the devil (Mark 3:12) we need to analyze the impact of the devil’s proclamation on Jesus’ mission-vision. Jesus envisioned a creation united with the Creator. His mission was to save all. Had Jesus allowed the devil to do PR work for him, the devil would have stirred a hornet’s nest, inciting people to rebellion thinking that the political messiah had already come. But the kingdom of God was too big for that myopic expectation of political liberation. The kingdom Jesus was promoting was for something deeper, something more noble and divine: the liberation of souls. To what avail is liberating the body if spirits remain vagabonds wandering in the labyrinth of sin?
It was not the proper time to divulge the truth. They needed to know not just the fact that the Messiah had already come, but also what kind of a liberator he was. They had in mind a political liberator, not a spiritual Messiah. Jesus had to pulverize this big boulder that hindered their salvation.
Like any businessman, Jesus needed publicity to make his “product” of salvation known. But the kind of publicity he needed was one that was compatible with the nature of truth. Truth, by nature, goes with proper timing. When truth is unleashed at the wrong time the results could be destructive. Such could have happened had Jesus allowed the devil to speak up and divulge his true identity that early. – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M.
May comment ka ba sa column ni Father Dan? May tanong ka ba sa kanya?
I-type ang BANDERA REACT
Disclaimer: The comments uploaded on this site do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of management and owner of Bandera. We reserve the right to exclude comments that we deem to be inconsistent with our editorial standards.