Reflecting on the Gospel last weekend we can often feel that we have to justify what we do according to other people's perceptions. The passage from last Sunday brings this into sharp relief. Some believe that Jesus performs his miracles because he is in league with the devil and his own family who believe he is out of his mind! Mark does not hold back this sharp relief as they seek to portray who Jesus is based on their own perceptions rather than a personal encounter. This is often contained in the metaphor that you can tell a book by its cover but in an age of marketing, we know this is not true. Often people seek to draw on our vulnerabilities by selling us on how our own inner struggles can be fixed by adopting a particular stance on life.
Yet Jesus challenges us to some deep inner work that seeks out what brings life and what holds our attention. This means that we need to avoid hiding our inner life away from God. We need to become accustomed to hearing God's voice when he walks through our garden. God seeks us out but we often fear our own nakedness and what to put on our best clothes that hide who we really are. We seek as Paul says to the Corinthians for those things that appear invisible. This internal search is not just to remove ourselves from the world but to seek how even when we are troubled, afraid or ashamed a person regards us as brother, sister and mother.
This is at the heart of the incarnational love of Jesus we do not need to wait to have our life in perfect order. In fact, Jesus meets us even when can be perceived as too busy to eat or care for ourselves because we seek to bring healing and relief to others. This is where we need to be transparent with God and ourselves about who we are and whose we are. This allows us time to focus on what is important so that we discover the will of God that wells up inside us. The sacred space where God is at the heart of all things.
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