Mark’s account of the baptism and temptation of Jesus in the wilderness is the most succinct of the four gospels.  Only five sentences.  The heavens open at the Jordan, the Spirit, like a dove, descends on Jesus, the voice from heaven declares him “my beloved Son.” It’s  quickly over. “At once” the Spirit drives him out into the desert.  Jesus is tempted by Satan for forty days. 

Is that literally forty days, or more likely does it indicate a lifelong experience Jesus has, as some commentators say?

The heavens open at the baptism of Jesus, all the gospels say, but more than other gospels Mark indicates that baptism calls us to participate in the Passion of Christ. In baptism we enter the body of Christ and become children of God and heirs to God’s kingdom, but we are called also to suffer with him.

We should remember this as we begin reading Mark’s account of the triumphant victory of Jesus over Satan as he starts his ministry in the synagogue at Capernaum. It continues  that first day  with his cure of Peter’s mother-in-law and the crowds that come to his door with their sick till the end of the day. 

He wins the crowds over with his teaching and miracles, but it does not last. 

As chapter 8 of Mark ends, Jesus asks his disciples who do people says he is. “You are the Messiah” Peter answers, but when Jesus announces he is going to Jerusalem where he will be rejected and killed and raised up, Peter does not understand.

We face God’s thinking in Mark’s gospel,  which we often do not understand.  Mark’s gospel has been called “ A passion narrative with an extended introduction.” It is written for disciples who are slow to understand the mystery of the Cross.

Most commentators say that Mark’s gospel was written in Rome and meant for the Christians of that city who suffered in the first great persecution of the church by Nero after the fire that consumed the city in 64. Keep them in mind as we hear Mark’s gospel.

Our experience may often be somewhat like theirs.

Hear I am, Lord, I come to do your Will

When I was a little boy, my mother would get letters from her cousin Rosanne,  in Ireland, and she would show the letters to me. I noticed sprinkled through the letters were the letters, “DV”.  What’s “DV”mean, I asked my mother?

That means “God willing”,  my mother said. “Deo volente” I learned later in Latin. 

And so when Rosanne wrote “Mary is looking for a job in Glasgow, DV “ she meant “Mary is looking for a job in Glasgow. God willing may she get it.” “ We hope the weather get’s warmer for Danny’s graduation, DV”  meant “We hope we have good day for Danny’s graduation, if it’s God’s will. The letters “DV” were a filter putting her life into another perspective, the filter of God’s will.

You don’t see much of that perspective today. We tend to see life through the filter of politics, or economics, or psychology  or just plain chance. We need to see God’s will at work in our lives and in the world today.

What’s God’s will?  We pray in the Our Father, “Your will be done.” We believe God wills our good. God wants the best us. God calls us his friends, his children. We are children of God. That’s what we are. We haven’t seen it yet, but that’s what we are.

Pope Leo is reflecting on the Second Vatican Council in his Wednesday audiences this year, and last Wednesday he began reflecting on divine revelation. God revealing himself. God calls us friends, the pope says, quoting the words of Jesus to his disciples. 

 “No longer do I call you servants…but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you” (Jn 15:15).

But we are so unequal, how can we be friends of God. Our knowledge is so limited, how can we be friends with Someone whose wisdom is unlimited.  “We are not equal to God, but God himself makes us similar to Him” be sending his Son to us. “Friendship is born between equals, or makes them so”. (Pope Leo )

We can hear God speaking to us as friends, as children of God, in the scriptures we hear in our liturgy today. God speaks to us as Father. Our prayers remind us who we are. 

We were servants called by God to be something more, our first reading from Isaiah tells us. God calls us to a destiny far beyond our imagination and a mission higher than we  can ever see ourselves. We’re formed as servants in the womb,  but “It is too little, the LORD says, for you to be my servant…I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”

In our gospel reading today, John the Baptist speaks of how he came to know Jesus in the baptism at the Jordan where the Holy Spirit made him known. And John was filled with joy.  (Jn 3:29).

Like John the Baptist, we are called to know Jesus as God’s Son through the waters and graces of baptism and the Holy Spirit given to us. We called to know him now in word and sacrament, and as we know him we rejoice. 

“Here am I, Lord, I come to do your will”  That prayer from the psalm in today’s liturgy, could we take it with us and say it this week? 

We need to pray to deepen our friendship with God. “Only when we speak with God can we speak about him”, Pope Leo said in Wednesday reflection. Only when we speak with God can we know ourselves and our dignity as God’s children..    

January 17th is the memorial of Anthony of Egypt, one of the early saints of Egypt who is recognized as the father of monasticism. He influenced St. Athanasius and St. Augustine, as well as modern spiritual authors like Thomas Merton.

Anthony offered himself as a martyr during a 3rd century Roman persecution of Christians in Alexandria, his biographer St. Athanasius says, but they ignored him, and so he embraced the martyrdom of every day.

There’s a martyrdom every day, and temptations that have to be faced daily, Anthony realized. But don’t fear the trials that come. That was Anthony’s advice to those seeking his counsel. Artists like Martin Schongauer (above) portrayed Anthony surrounded by his temptations, but the saint is not afraid. Know your temptations, he said, and God will lead you from them.

Anthony’s life helped many, among them St. Augustine, to steer through the challenges they faced. Here’s a simple version of Anthony’s battle with temptation as Athanasius described them:

“Those who follow Jesus should expect temptation and Anthony experienced a range of them over the hundred years of his life. The devil knocked regularly on the door of his heart, assuming different faces and making different suggestions, but this shy, gentle man was not conquered.

“In the early years Christ called him, he often thought: ‘Have I made a mistake?’ The days were so slow and monotonous, nothing important going on. ‘Am I doing anything with my life?’ he wondered.

“One day, weary of it all, he left his house and opening his arms wide he cried to heaven: “Lord, what should I do?” For awhile, nothing but silence. Then, Anthony heard someone moving behind him. Turning, he saw someone like himself, getting up from his bed, saying his prayers, eating his meals, doing his work, welcoming some visitors, and finally saying his prayers and going to sleep. Just as he did everyday.

“God’s angel was answering his prayer, Anthony realized. He was beginning to think ordinary life held no meaning. But that’s where treasure is; life is holy ground. Ask God to see it, and don’t give up. Anthony went back to his ordinary life again.

“Other temptations beset Anthony. Sometimes he worried about his health. If he got sick, who would care for him? He had chosen to live for God alone. Wouldn’t it be better to have a family to support you? He gave so much to others and kept so little for himself. Wouldn’t it be better to be a rich man? Lustful thoughts sometimes filled his mind.

“Temptations swept over his soul like dust storms, causing confusion and uncertainty. But in the storms, Anthony learned another lesson: Christ is always with you.

“One restless night, Anthony was almost pulled to pieces by violent temptations. Monsters and demons were everywhere, flying through his room shouting and screaming, ready to kill him. He was about to give up hope when a beautiful light shone through the roof of his house and the demons disappeared. In the peaceful light, he saw Christ.

“Lord, where were you when I was being tried?” Anthony said.
“I was right here all the time you struggled,” Jesus replied. “My hand was on you as your helper.”

“After that ordeal, Anthony experienced peace for a while. Then, one day he heard a knock at his door and, opening it, saw a little man grinning from ear to ear, bowing to the ground before him as if he were king.

“You are a saint, Anthony,” he said ingratiatingly. “Everyone says so. People say you’re wiser and better than anyone on earth. So, tell me everything you can and everything you know; you’re just perfect.”

“Anthony slammed the door in the little man’s face. “You’re more dangerous than any temptation I’ve had, because you want me to believe I’m God, and I’m not. You are the temptation of pride.”

“Gradually over the years, people discovered this man with so much hard earned wisdom. Soon , from everywhere people were seeking his advice and his prayers and his healing for themselves or someone they loved. Because he knew himself so well, Anthony knew their hearts too.

“One constant message he repeated again and again to those who came to him, ‘Don’t be afraid, live joyfully in God’s grace. Never give up. God delivers us from temptation.’”

Many came from the great Egyptian cities to live like Anthony. Communities of dedicated Christians sprang up in the Egyptian desert, and they inspired a similar movement over the Christian world. Benedict of Nursia and others like him would lead the monastic movement into Italy and Europe.

For Anthony’s influence on Monasticism, see Martin of Tours, Benedict of Nursia,

Pope Leo is dedicating his Wednesday audiences to the Second Vatican Council and its meaning today. An important source for how he sees our church today. Here’s yesterday’s catechesis. I’ll try to follow him every Wednesday: 

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning and welcome!

We have started the cycle of catechesis on Vatican Council II. Today we will begin to look more closely at the Dogmatic Constitution Dei Verbum, on the divine Revelation. It is one of the most beautiful and important of the Council and, to introduce it, it may be helpful to recall the words of Jesus: “No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you” (Jn 15:15). This is a fundamental point of Christian faith, which Dei Verbum reminds us of: Jesus Christ radically transforms man’s relationship with God, which is henceforth a relationship of friendship. Therefore, the only condition of the new covenant is love.

Saint Augustine, commenting on this passage of the Fourth Gospel, insists on the perspective of grace, which alone can make us friends of God in his Son (Commentary on the Gospel of John, Homily 86). Indeed, an ancient motto stated: “Amicitia aut pares invenit, aut facit”, “friendship is born between equals, or makes them so”. We are not equal to God, but God himself makes us similar to Him in his Son.

For this reason, as we can see in all the Scripture, in the Covenant there is a first moment of distance, in which the pact between God and mankind always remains asymmetrical: God is God and we are creatures. However, with the coming of the Son in human flesh, the Covenant opens up to its final purpose: in Jesus, God makes us sons and daughters, and calls us to become like Him, albeit in our fragile humanity. Our resemblance to God, then, is not reached through transgression and sin, as the serpent suggests to Eve (cf. Gen 3:5), but in our relationship with the Son made man.

The words of the Lord Jesus that we have recalled – “I have called you friends” – are reprised in the Constitution Dei Verbum, which affirms: “Through this revelation, therefore, the invisible God (see Col 1:15; 1 Tim 1:17) out of the abundance of His love speaks to men as friends (see Ex 33:11; Jn 15:14-15) and lives among them (see Bar 3:38), so that He may invite and take them into fellowship with Himself” (no. 2). The God of Genesis already conversed with our first parents, engaging in dialogue with them (cf. Dei Verbum, 3); and when this dialogue was interrupted by sin, the Creator did not cease to seek an encounter with his creatures and to establish a covenant with them. In the Christian Revelation, that is, when God became man in his Son in order to seek us out, the dialogue that had been interrupted is restored in a definitive manner: the Covenant is new and eternal, nothing can separate us from his love. The Revelation of God, then, has the dialogical nature of friendship and, as in the experience of human friendship, it does not tolerate silence, but is nurtured by the exchange of true words.

The Constitution Dei Verbum also reminds us of this: God speaks to us. It is important to recognize the difference between words and chatter: this latter stops at the surface and does not achieve communion between people, whereas in authentic relationships, the word serves not only to exchange information and news, but to reveal who we are. The word possesses a revelatory dimension that creates a relationship with the other. In this way, by speaking to us, God reveals himself to us as an Ally who invites us into friendship with Him.

From this perspective, the first attitude to cultivate is listening, so that the divine Word may penetrate our minds and our hearts; at the same time, we are required to speak with God, not to communicate to him what He already knows, but to reveal ourselves to ourselves.

Hence the need for prayer, in which we are called to live and to cultivate friendship with the Lord. This is achieved first of all in liturgical and community prayer, in which we do not decide what to hear from the Word of God, but it is He Himself who speaks to us through the Church; it is then achieved in personal prayer, which takes place in the interiority of the heart and mind. Time dedicated to prayer, meditation and reflection cannot be lacking in the Christian’s day and week. Only when we speak with God can we also speak about Him.

Our experience tells us that friendships can come to an end through a dramatic gesture of rupture, or because of a series of daily acts of neglect that erode the relationship until it is lost. If Jesus calls us to be friends, let us not leave this call unheeded. Let us welcome it, let us take care of this relationship, and we will discover that friendship with God is our salvation.

The Leper

As Jesus’ exciting first day of ministry in Capernaum ends,  “the whole town was gathered at the door”. The next morning “ very early before dawn, he left and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed,” Mark’s Gospel notes. (Mark 1: 29-39)

Jesus often went by himself to deserted places to pray, but in today’s gospel (Mark 1:40-45) a “deserted place” is where he meets a leper.  Lepers were banished to deserted places then, outside the towns, for fear their disease, their “uncleanness”, might infect others.  “Social distancing” at its extreme. 

Rembrandt (above) has a wonderful sketch of Jesus and the leper. Peter and another follower seem to be hiding behind him, keeping their distance from it all, but Jesus reaches out and touches the leper kneeling before him.

Jesus is keenly aware of human suffering wherever he finds it, in the towns and villages he visits or in deserted places where people hide from it. Like Peter and the others we’re often afraid of people like lepers, people suffering so much we think we’re going to be overwhelmed by their suffering. 

And so we avoid the deserted places where the lepers are. (Maybe too the desert place of prayer where we met God) We hide from the sufferings of the world. “Keep it away,” we say.

But Jesus leads us to the leper. He helps us see suffering and then reach our hands out to it. 

Notice the last line of today’s gospel reading: “He remained outside in deserted places, and people kept coming to him from everywhere. “(Mark 1: 45) Mark says a lot in a few words. Is Mark saying Jesus is always in deserted places; they’re privileged places where we can find him?