I Set My Bow in the Clouds

February 19, 2009

Thursday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

For your own lifeblood, too, I will demand an accounting: from every animal I will demand it, and from 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. Genesis 9:5-6

“But who do you say that I am?”…“You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.” Mark 8:29, 33

Piety

“Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?”
Robert Browning (1812-1889)

Study

On the one hand, today Jesus wants to know what people think. Then, right away, he turns the tables and wants to rise above human opinion.

Maybe what we are witnessing in today’s Gospel reading is the first public opinion poll. “Who do you say that I am?”

The pollsters would tell us that this is a hard question to tabulate. It is open-ended. There are not three or four clean choices. How can we cross tabulate the answers by gender, race, economic status or age? If we allow the Gallup Organization, Harris Poll or University of Michigan to rewrite Mark 8:29, then we might find the following:

Q1: Who do you say that I am?
1. Moses
2. Elijah
3. John the Baptist
4. Jesus Christ Superstar
5. The Messiah/Chosen One/Son of God

However, Jesus does not seek to have a closed-end relationship with us. He is open to us whenever and wherever we realize his true nature. If we are not ready for him just yet, that’s O.K. Jesus will wait twenty minutes or twenty years.

As we develop that open, honest and caring personal relationship, Jesus wants to take it to a new level above and beyond the human condition or public opinion. He does not want us to follow the crowd and the culture. Sometimes, he wants and demands that we march to a “different drummer.” Jesus expects us to be like He was – counter to the prevailing culture and attitudes. He does not want us to think like we thought as a child. He wants us to rise above that and to start thinking like God who demands an accounting for human life – all human life.

Action

Set your sights on the clouds. That is where the Lord has set his bow.