Mind Reading

Jan 13: Friday of the First Week in Ordinary Time

Jan 13, 2023

Why were the Gospels written? Why didn’t the evangelists keep the good news to themselves? Why did the church bother to preserve and pass on all of these stories?

Reading I

Heb 4:1-5,11

Let us be on our guard while the promise of entering into his rest remains, that none of you seem to have failed. For in fact we have received the Good News just as our ancestors did. But the word that they heard did not profit them, for they were not united in faith with those who listened. For we who believed enter into that rest, just as he has said: As I swore in my wrath, “They shall not enter into my rest,” and yet his works were accomplished at the foundation of the world. For he has spoken somewhere about the seventh day in this manner, And God rested on the seventh day from all his works; and again, in the previously mentioned place, They shall not enter into my rest. Therefore, let us strive to enter into that rest, so that no one may fall after the same example of disobedience.

God rested when His work was finished. Ours isn’t.

We have to continue to have faith and do good works, not just for ourselves, but to be an example to others. The author wants “no one” to fail because of a bad example.

This is the difference between believing in universal salvation (a heresy) and hoping for universal salvation (a daily prayer for some people). All people can be saved, and enter into God’s rest, but it’s not going to happen on its own. It’s not time for us to rest, yet.

Responsorial Psalm

78:3 and 4bc, 6c-7, 8

R.   Do not forget the works of the Lord!
What we have heard and know,
and what our fathers have declared to us,
we will declare to the generation to come
The glorious deeds of the LORD and his strength.
R.   Do not forget the works of the Lord!
That they too may rise and declare to their sons
that they should put their hope in God,
And not forget the deeds of God
but keep his commands.
R.   Do not forget the works of the Lord!
And not be like their fathers,
a generation wayward and rebellious,
A generation that kept not its heart steadfast
nor its spirit faithful toward God.
R.   Do not forget the works of the Lord!

As Hebrews noted, previous generations did not keep their faith. They tested God in the desert, and weren’t allowed to rest for 40 years.

We have to remember what God has done, and pass that on to future generations, so they don’t make the same mistake.

Alleluia

Lk 7:16

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
A great prophet has arisen in our midst
and God has visited his people.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

This is how the widow’s son reacted when Jesus raised him. It’s how most of the crowd reacts in the next Gospel story. But not, as noted in Hebrews and the Psalm above, not everyone reacts that way…

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Gospel

Mk 2:1-12

When Jesus returned to Capernaum after some days, it became known that he was at home. Many gathered together so that there was no longer room for them, not even around the door,
and he preached the word to them. They came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men.

Unable to get near Jesus because of the crowd, they opened up the roof above him. After they had broken through, they let down the mat on which the paralytic was lying. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to him, “Child, your sins are forgiven.”

Now some of the scribes were sitting there asking themselves, “Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming. Who but God alone can forgive sins?”

Jesus immediately knew in his mind what they were thinking to themselves, so he said, “Why are you thinking such things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, pick up your mat and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth” –he said to the paralytic, “I say to you, rise, pick up your mat, and go home.”

He rose, picked up his mat at once, and went away in the sight of everyone. They were all astounded and glorified God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this.”

This story also occurs in Matthew and Luke,1 and so last month I wrote about how it’s unclear whether Jesus is “reading their minds” or simply reading the room. But pairing it with a different epistle today gives it a different context.

Note the paralytic’s friends helping him. As Letter to the Hebrews would later advise, they knew their work wasn’t done, because they had a loved one in need. It took a whole team to save this guy.

But another ambiguity I hadn’t noticed before was Jesus saying “But that you may know the Son of Man has authority…” Is he still talking to the scribes? Or his he speaking to the paralytic now?

This story occurs much earlier in Mark’s narrative than Luke’s or Matthew’s, so it would be strange for Jesus to publicly call himself the Son of Man just yet. So there’s a theory that this line was inserted not as a something said to those in the room, but as a comment addressed to us, the readers.2 "But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth,” you, specifically, the person reading this right now.

Stephen King says writing is an act of telepathy: “We're not even in the same year together, let alone the same room... except we are together. We are close. We're having a meeting of the minds. We've engaged in an act of telepathy.”3

Mark wants us to know why he chose this story to tell. He wants you to see the forgiveness of sins, he wants you to see those doubt of the scribes and the faith of the paralytic’s friends, he wants you to see the man walk. But mostly, Mark wants you to see Jesus, the Messiah, doing his work.

The crowd had never seen anything like this, and probably neither have you. But Mark wants you to see it, in your mind if nothing else, because that’s his work. He didn’t rest, assuming his faith alone would save him. He didn’t want anyone to fail to find rest in God because he didn’t write down what he knew.

Jesus performed miracles publicly, so the crowds could see and believe. He also knew that some of his followers would write these down, and their followers would preserve those writings, and on and on for thousands of years.

And here you are, next in line. But it’s not time for you to rest just yet.