Ok, so I lied. I technically didn't get this in before the day was up, but here goes anyway. I guess I should preclude this by saying that many of my ideas on this are by no means error-free, so anyone is welcome to scrutinize them after reading this. In fact, if it would help me grow in my love, appreciation and knowledge of God, I fully encourage you to do so.
After Jesus sat down and told the twelve disciples to gather around him, he said, "If you want the place of honor you must become a slave and serve others!" (Mark 9:35)
But Jesus called the disciples together and said: "You know those foreigners who call themselves kings like to order their people around. And their great leaders have full power over the people they rule. But don't act like them. If you want to be great, you must be the servant of all the others. And if you want to be first, you must be everyone's slave. The Son of Man did not come to be a slave master but a slave who will give his life to rescue many people."
(Mark 10:43 - 45)
Both of these teachings by Jesus came as a response to the disciples bickering about who will be first in God's kingdom, who will sit at Christ's right and left side when he returns and basically who is going to be the greatest. He then answers them in the most beautifully humbling way… a way in which all of this thirst for power or prestige or whatever you want to call it becomes a moot point. In order to be the greatest, you must be willing to serve everyone. The homeless man asking you for change, fellow students or co-workers, the money-grubbing and condemning preacher, the alcoholic father... everyone. Many times my pride will get in the way of me doing this. There is a part of me that feels there are those out there that are lower than I am on the totem pole (be it socially, intellectually, spiritually, etc.). However, Jesus gave us the perfect example of this with his life and crucifixion. Christ, being God in flesh—actually far and away better than all humans—heals the sick, feeds the poor, washes the feet of His disciples and gives up His life for the entire human race... for you and for me. By seeing it this way, how could we ever justify not feeling the need to serve all those around us, even those we don't like and sometimes feel better than?
Jesus then told the crowd and disciples to come closer, and he said: "If any of you want to be my followers, you must forget about yourself. You must take up your cross and follow me. If you want to save your life, you will destroy it. But if you give up your life for me and for the good news, you will save it. What will you gain, if you own the whole world but destroy yourself? What could you give to get back your soul?" (Mark 34-38)
"I promise you that you cannot get into God's kingdom unless you accept it the way a child does." (Mark 10:15)
By being sacrificed, Jesus again shows us the ultimate example of giving up your life for the good news and its saving effects. However, practically speaking I can see the significance of these ideas in my own life. I see that when there are things in my life that are not being used as a means to serve God, but ends upon themselves (school, relationships, favor from others, etc.) I feel burdened and not in tune with God. But by letting them go and not setting them up as a measurement stick for success in my life, I feel closer to God, and I feel more at peace with my life. So for the what-seems-like 2% of my life when I really love God through my actions more than everything else, I feel most complete. I kind of threw the verse about accepting God with the faith of a child because to me it relates to this idea of giving up your life for the gospel pretty well. To me there is hardly any rhyme or reason to put God—an abstract deity that I never physically see or hear or feel—as the most important care in my life, and the only way I can think to do this is to just accept it like a child accepts the words of his father who knows what's best for him.
Again here is a warning that what I'm about to say are my thoughts, which may or may not be right, and if you have good reason to think I'm wrong, please tell me. But I often get upset with the idea of being a Christian either to get to Heaven or get away from Hell. To me, that seems pretty cheap. I bring this up now, because it seems that Jesus talks about the
My last point is about Jesus' miracles and healings. There are many things I can get into when talking about this, like how much we may or may not need healing these days as opposed to the need in Jesus' days and who does or does not "deserve" to be healed and why, but I would go on forever if I did, so I'll simply leave you with this. Miracles and healing seem to be a huge part of Jesus' ministry, and this is a big deal in the Book of Mark, which seems to put a bigger emphasis on Jesus’ actions. To me, there seem to be two extreme sides of opinions on miracles today. One side is that God wants to heal all sick and ailing in the world, and that we're just not doing our job to see everyone cured. Either that or we or they don't have enough faith to see it happen. The other is that these healings and miracles were stuff that people in the Bible did, and that they can no longer happen. I have thoughts that kind of lean toward both sides of that argument, but I think they're both wrong. I feel that we cannot neglect the miracles that Jesus performed, and if we are to take Jesus' life and ministry as an example we should have them be a part of spreading the gospel. At the same time, I feel that there are many out there who are going through sickness and suffering that God may be using to develop His people. I realize that that is pretty easy for me to say, seeing as I'm not deathly ill or going through a lot of suffering. If I were, maybe I wouldn't be so quick so say something like that. But something else to look at is that Jesus did not seem very selective on who He chose to heal. In fact, there are times that Jesus simply walked into a crowd and all who touched His clothes were healed (see Mark 6:53 - 56). I also realize that this does not simply explain away a lot of the questions we have about suffering in the world and why God would either allow or cause that to happen. On that I can only trust that God knows what's best for everyone and that His idea of justice is far beyond my own. However, that should not be used as an excuse not to reach out to those who are suffering and in need of help by feeding them, clothing them, giving them shelter and, yes, even praying for their healing with the faith that God will heal them if He is willing.
A man with leprosy came to Jesus and knelt down. He begged, "You have the power to make me well, if only you wanted to." Jesus felt sorry for the man. So he put his hand on him and said, "I want to! Now you are well." At once the man's leprosy disappeared, and he was well.
(Mark 1:40 - 42)
2 comments:
I really enjoyed your post, Mikey! My goodness - there is just so much good stuff. I'd like to just copy and paste in some quotes to amen your ideas.
Concerning the "love" of God which does not seek God first but instead desires His rewards, St. Thomas Aquinas says,
Mercenary love is that whereby God is loved for the sake of worldly goods, and this is, of itself, contrary to charity, so that mercenary love is always evil.
Concerning suffering, St. Paul says,
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and God of all encouragement, who encourages us in our every affliction, so that we may be able to encourage those who are in any affliction with the encouragement with which we ourselves are encouraged by God. For as Christ's sufferings overflow to us, so through Christ does our encouragement also overflow. If we are afflicted, it is for your encouragement and salvation; if we are encouraged, it is for your encouragement, which enables you to endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is firm, for we know that as you share in the sufferings, you also share in the encouragement.
2 Corinthians 1:3-7
And concerning being yourself as "an extension of (your) love for God," Thomas Merton says,
A tree gives glory to God by being a tree. For in being what God means it to be it is obeying Him. It “consents,” so to speak, to His creative love. It is expressing an idea which is in God and which is not distinct from the essence of God, and therefore a tree imitates God by being a tree.
The more a tree is like itself, the more it is like Him. If it tried to be like something else which it was never intended to be, it would be less like God and therefore it would give Him less glory.
No two created beings are exactly alike. And their individuality is no imperfection. On the contrary, the perfection of each created thing is not merely in its conformity to an abstract type but in its own individual identity with itself. This particular tree will give glory to God by spreading out its roots in the earth and raising its branches into the air and the light in a way that no other tree before or after ever did or will do.
Do you imagine that the individual created things in the world are imperfect attempts at reproducing an ideal type which the Creator never quite succeeded in actualizing on earth? If that is so they do not give Him glory but proclaim that He is not a perfect Creator.
Therefore each particular being, in its individuality, its concrete nature and entity, with all its own characteristics and its private qualities and its own inviolable identity, gives glory to God by being precisely what He wants it to be here and now, in the circumstances for it by His Love and His infinite Art.
...
BUT what about you? What about me?
Unlike the animals and the trees, it is not enough for us to be what our nature intends. It is not enough for us to be individual men. For us, holiness is more than humanity. If we are never anything but men, never anything but people, we will not be saints and we will not be able to offer to God the worship of our imitation, which is sanctity.
It is true to say that for me sanctity consists in being myself and for you sanctity consists in being your self and that, in the last analysis, your sanctity will never be mine and mine will never be yours, except in the communism of charity and grace.
FOR me to be a saint means to be myself. Therefore the problem of sanctity and salvation is in fact the problem of finding out who I am and of discovering my true self.
Trees and animals have no problem. God makes them what they are without consulting them, and they are perfectly satisfied.
With us it is different. God leaves us free to be whatever we like. We can be ourselves or not, as we please. We are at liberty to be real, or to be unreal. We may be true or false, the choice is ours. We may wear now one mask and now another, and never, if we so desire, appear with our own true face. But we cannot make these choices with impunity. Causes have effects, and if we lie to ourselves and to others, then we cannot expect to find truth and reality whenever we happen to want them. If we have chosen the way of falsity we must not be surprised that truth eludes us when we finally come to need it!
Our vocation is not simply to be, but to work together with God in the creation of our own life, our own identity, our own destiny. We are free beings and sons of God. This means to say that we should not passively exist, but actively participate in His creative freedom, in our own lives, and in the lives of others, by choosing the truth. To put it better, we are even called to share with God the work of creating the truth of our identity. We can evade this responsibility by playing with masks, and this pleases us because it can appear at times to be a free and creative way of living. It is quite easy, it seems to please everyone. But in the long run the cost and the sorrow come very high. To work out our own identity in God, which the Bible calls “working out our salvation,” is a labor that requires sacrifice and anguish, risk and many tears. It demands close attention to reality at every moment, and great fidelity to God as He reveals Himself, obscurely, in the mystery of each new situation. We do not know clearly beforehand what the result of this work will be. The secret of my full identity is hidden in Him. He alone can make me who I am, or rather who I will be when at last I fully begin to be. But unless I desire this identity and work to find it with Him and in Him, the work will never be done. The way of doing it is a secret I can learn from no one else but Him. There is no way of attaining to the secret without faith. But contemplation is the greater and more precious gift, for it enables me to see and understand the work that He wants done.
Concerning love for God: I had the privilege last semester to interview a Holocaust survivor. He was in his late teens/early twenties when his family was forced into a ghetto, and he was sent away to build a highway through the Ukraine for the glorious Reich. The reason he has spent his entire life telling anyone who will listen about his experiences was because his mother told him to do so as she was being led to a cattle car after being selected to die. This man, Joseph, had horrendous stories to tell. He lost his entire family. However, both he and his wife managed to survive and eventually made their way to New Orleans. He now spends his days at home alone, talking about his experiences, or, most importantly, in the synagogue. He goes every single day to pray to God. I find this absolutely remarkable. He has seen the worst this world has ever had to offer, the systematic murder and destruction of everyone and everything he knew, he knew the ultimate evil that man can inflict on fellow man, and yet he still managed to keep his faith in and love for God. I can't say that I have ever seen a man who set a better example for loving God. I think that the passage on suffering that d.eduardo put up says it all.
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