Friday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time
Do you ever think about Jesus being hungry? I tend to think of Jesus tending to others’ needs, like the feeding of the five thousand, or allowing his disciples to eat the grain in the fields when they were hungry on the Sabbath. Today’s gospel from Mark includes the very familiar passage referred to as The Cleansing of the Temple that speaks of Jesus’ anger, but there’s also this somewhat strange story about Jesus being hungry that stood out to me today.
Jesus got hungry just like you and I. And it seems like he was not having a good day when he went to find some figs on a tree he saw from a distance and was obviously disappointed and even irritated that he could find none, so he cursed it! “May no one ever eat of your fruit again!”
We’re taken from that scene to the cleansing of the temple (did Jesus get anything to eat in the meantime?) and now he seems to be really angry. Driving people out who are selling and buying; overturning the money changers’ tables; preaching about the text, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples? But you have made it a den of thieves.” Dare I say Jesus’ day went from bad to worse?!
Fully human, fully divine. Sometimes I forget the “fully human” part of which today’s gospel reminds me. Yet it also reminds us not to let our human needs and emotions get the best of us, so-to-speak. The final verse is about prayer and the importance not only of faith, but of forgiveness. “When you stand to pray, forgive anyone against whom you have a grievance, so that your heavenly Father may in turn forgive you your transgressions.”
Yes, this can be difficult; we’re not “fully divine,” but Mark also tells us that Jesus instructed his disciples (and us) to believe you will receive all that you ask for in prayer. So let us prayerfully ask for the grace to forgive one another and to be forgiven, for Jesus knows that we, too, are fully human.
—Eileen Miller