Lockdown and Gospel -- Day 18, January 27 (Wednesday of the third week of Ordinary time)

(How does today’s Gospel speak to me during this lockdown? Allow me to share a humble reflection.)

And Jesus said, “Let anyone with ears to hear listen!” (Mark 4:9)

In his fourth chapter, the evangelist Mark presents us with the first parables of Jesus. Through these stories, Jesus wants to initiate his disciples into the coming Kingdom and open them to the active presence of God in the world. However, they are not obvious: the disciples must invest themselves in these accounts and seek to understand them as from within. Otherwise, they’ll simply go in one ear and out the other.

Could it be that this lockdown is some kind of parable writ large? Not that God would impose it on us to teach us something; but perhaps there is a meaning to be found in this painful experience. I would have to open my ears, my eyes and my heart to understand this event in depth and to grasp what God is trying to tell us through it. If I don’t make this effort, the lockdown will go through my life without having taught me anything.

Abba, Father, I believe you speak to me in everyday events. How much more must you be trying to tell me something during this pandemic! Open my ears so I might hear. Open my eyes so I might see. Open my heart to welcome your Spirit, that I might have the wisdom to understand this living parable.

Amen.