When to Talk And When to Listen
Feb 16: Thursday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time
We may think God (either the Heavenly Father or Jesus) is inconsistent, but that’s because we can’t see the whole picture. Just like it’s hard to know where you are in the boom/bust cycle of the financial market, it’s difficult to see exactly where we are in God’s plan. Are the waters receding? Has Zion been destroyed?
We’ll probably never know, in this life. But studying history gives us at least a glimpse into how God works on his infinite time scale.
Reading 1
Gn 9:1-13
God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them: “Be fertile and multiply and fill the earth. Dread fear of you shall come upon all the animals of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon all the creatures that move about on the ground and all the fishes of the sea; into your power they are delivered. Every creature that is alive shall be yours to eat; I give them all to you as I did the green plants. Only flesh with its lifeblood still in it you shall not eat. For your own lifeblood, too, I will demand an accounting: from every animal I will demand it, and from one man in regard to his fellow man I will demand an accounting for human life.
If anyone sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; For in the image of God has man been made.
Be fertile, then, and multiply; abound on earth and subdue it.”
God said to Noah and to his sons with him: “See, I am now establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you: all the birds, and the various tame and wild animals that were with you and came out of the ark. I will establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all bodily creatures be destroyed by the waters of a flood; there shall not be another flood to devastate the earth.” God added: “This is the sign that I am giving for all ages to come, of the covenant between me and you and every living creature with you: I set my bow in the clouds to serve as a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.”
It’s been said that you need to read scripture in the context of the whole of scripture. You can’t just pull a passage out of context and say, “See? God’s a jerk!”
Yes, God (in this story) flooded the Earth, but it was so He could start over. So humanity could start over. He tells Noah and his family to “be fertile and multiply,” just as He told Adam and Eve.1
God is the one being consistent here, not humanity. God wants us to have a good life, and He gives us commands that help us achieve it, whether it’s avoiding bad things (murder) or creating good things (kids).
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 102:16-18, 19-21, 29 and 22-23
R. From heaven the Lord looks down on the earth.
The nations shall revere your name, O LORD,
and all the kings of the earth your glory,
When the LORD has rebuilt Zion
and appeared in his glory;
When he has regarded the prayer of the destitute,
and not despised their prayer.
R. From heaven the Lord looks down on the earth.
Let this be written for the generation to come,
and let his future creatures praise the LORD:
“The LORD looked down from his holy height,
from heaven he beheld the earth,
To hear the groaning of the prisoners,
to release those doomed to die.”
R. From heaven the Lord looks down on the earth.
The children of your servants shall abide,
and their posterity shall continue in your presence,
That the name of the LORD may be declared in Zion,
and his praise, in Jerusalem,
When the peoples gather together,
and the kingdoms, to serve the LORD.
R. From heaven the Lord looks down on the earth.
The psalmist is in a bad place, Zion having been destroyed. But he has faith that God hasn’t completely abandoned Israel. He’s sure God will rebuild.
The writer also knows God works in his own time, and he may not live to see God rebuild. So he’ll raise his children right, so their posterity will continue. He’s taking the long view with God, just as God does.
Alleluia See Jn 6:63c, 68c
See Jn 6:63c, 68c
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life;
you have the words of everlasting life.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
These lines come right after Jesus declares the Real Presence in the Eucharist. His words are shocking, yet they have everlasting life.
Gospel
Mk 8:27-33
Jesus and his disciples set out for the villages of Caesarea Philippi. Along the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” They said in reply, “John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others one of the prophets.” And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter said to him in reply, “You are the Christ.”
Then he warned them not to tell anyone about him.
He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and rise after three days. He spoke this openly. Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. At this he turned around and, looking at his disciples, rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”
It’s funny how the bible has these little, unofficial demarcations between passages, like sub-chapter headings. Usually, you only get one of these a day. Weirdly, today we get today we get two:
Peter’s Confession About Jesus
The First Prediction of the Passion
Even without the notation, you can probably guess where the dividing line is. The first section ends with Jesus warning the apostles, especially Peter, not to tell anyone he’s Christ.
The next section starts with Jesus openly telling everyone that the Son of Man will suffer greatly, die, and rise again.
What’s going on here? Are we supposed to talk about it or not? Is Jesus the only one who gets to talk about it?
No, Jesus is trying to control the messaging. People were expecting a political king, a military leader who would overthrow the ruling government and install a new dynasty.
If Jesus let Peter run around telling everyone he’s the Christ, people would be trying to help him raise an army. And that army would be slaughtered by the Romans, because that’s what the Romans did back then.
Before we can get to “Jesus is Christ,” Jesus wants the public to know what to expect from the Christ, i.e. rejection, humiliation, and execution. But there’s hope! The resurrection of the dead! Defeating Death is so much better than just defeating the Romans.
Jesus had a message, but he also knew it had to be explained in just the right way.