Tuesday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time
Have you ever misunderstood someone, or has someone misunderstood you?
One such time for me was when I was talking to my dad. He told me that he was going to send me an email. For the whole week, I waited for it, but I never received anything. When I spoke to him again at the end of the week, I asked if he had sent it. Perhaps I had missed it and it was buried in my inbox. However, he told me that he hadn’t sent it because I hadn’t emailed him yet. I was confused, so I told him that since he wanted to send me an email, he needed to email me. Nonetheless, he insisted that I send him one first. This went on for a while until my dad clarified that he couldn’t send me an email unless I sent him one so that he could reply to it. Then it occurred to me that all the email correspondence I had received from my dad had either been forwarded from someone else or had been replies to my messages. He didn’t actually know how to compose a new email. My dad’s misunderstanding of technology aside, we had misunderstood each other about how to communicate electronically.
Likewise, today’s Gospel is full of misunderstandings. Jesus talked about the Pharisees and Herod, but his disciples thought he was talking about bread. Then he became frustrated when they didn’t seem to understand the significance of feeding the five thousand.
So that we don’t misunderstand the message in this Gospel reading, it helps to look at what happened before this passage. At the beginning of chapter 8 of Mark’s Gospel, Jesus fed thousands of people. Then Jesus and his disciples went to another region. While they were there, the Pharisees asked him for a sign, but Jesus chastised them for their lack of faith in seeking one. After that, we come to today’s reading, which seems to combine the two previous stories as Jesus warned the disciples, “Watch out, guard against the leaven of the Pharisees” (Mark 8:15). He then asked them about what they had seen in the feeding of the thousands. The disciples recalled the event but didn’t comprehend its significance, and it concludes with his question, “Do you still not understand?” (Mark 8:21).
Jesus asks that question of us too. Do we understand where God is in our lives? Ironically, the Pharisees asked for a sign even though there had already been many signs throughout the Gospel up to this point: the feedings of the four and five thousand, the healing of the Syrophoenician woman’s daughter, the healing of the deaf man, walking on water, and more. The signs in our lives can be as big as the birth of a child or healing from a serious illness or as small as flowers growing in spring or someone’s smile. Jesus calls us to be aware of his presence in our lives.
Like the disciples, are our hearts so hardened that we also miss the signs from God? Let us learn from this story and soften our hearts so that we can see and understand where God is at work in our lives.
—Sr. Emily Sandoval, FMI