Monday - 6th Week in Ordinary Time   

Gospel – Mark 8:11-13

Just Walk Away!

Walking the Palm Sunday Road

A while ago I got into a ‘discussion’ with a good friend, and it got heated!  And yes, it was about politics!  Tempers and temperature quickly rose to a boiling point. Despite all my efforts to calm things down, I did the only thing that made sense.  I gave up; I threw up my hands and walked away!

Face it! We live in a world of short tempers and long memories, of vicious words and violent actions.  A world of uncivil words and selfish actions!  A world where common decency and respect are signs of weakness and violent actions are signs of strength and justice.  What to do!

There are a number of times in the Gospels where Jesus is at His most human: crying over the city of Jerusalem and His agony in the Garden.  But today’s Gospel contains a story I do not recall ever reading.  Jesus is growing increasingly concerned and upset with the Pharisees who keep insisting on a sign from heaven.  After all His preaching and all His healing miracles, they still insist on something else, something on their terms. 

And His response is perhaps a perfect definition of frustration – “He sighed from the depth of His spirit. He left and went off to the other shore.”  Is that not a spot-on description?  Haven’t we all experienced that same ‘sigh’?  Can’t we all identify with Jesus at this moment?  Been there!  Done that!  And haven’t we, in our frustration and desperation, responded by lashing out and piling on the uncharitable words and anger?

But Jesus does the exact opposite; He simply walks away.  He sees the circumstances as they are: an impossible situation trying to deal with people who refuse to be reasonable.  And so, for the moment at least, He walks away from their hard-headedness and returns to His mission – to preach, to teach and to heal!

Let’s be honest.  Sometimes we are those stubborn Pharisees, refusing to change or accept that we are only human.  Sometimes we are the ones insisting on a sign from God and yet blind to all that He has gifted us with.  And sometimes we are the ones confronted with disrespect and rigid views!  And sometimes the best we can do is to realize that today I just need to walk away from the negativity and continue on the path of a truly Christian life.

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