And He Began to Teach Them Many Things
ONE
“. . . and He began to teach them many things.” Mark 6,34
I had to stop dead in my spiritual tracks when I read these words from today’s Gospel, from Mark 6, 34. Every once in awhile doesn’t that happen to all of us, that something just jumps out at you while praying and meditating on God’s words. Now I am not saying it happens often (at least in my case it doesn’t.) but when it does, it is striking. It makes you want to stay and just be with our Lord. Just be with Him, to “savor” Him, love Him, relish Him and drink from that infinite well of living water that is His sacred heart. I don’t want to go off on some lofty topic as I say these things to you, because that is not who I am, but I do want to invite all of us to go deeper, to delve deeper, to desire more. More what? More intimacy, deeper friendship with Jesus: a greater and more profound prayer life, to go to that “place” where He, Jesus will “teach us many things”.
Our Father who art in Heaven. . .
TWO
Do you have that desire to go deeper? To develop your prayer life, to deepen your desire for Him and your relationship with Him? If on an instinctive, spontaneous level you are thinking, “ I am not so sure I want to do that, because, who knows what that will entail: anyway, I don’t have the time nor the energy, nor even the will. . . & then, who knows what I would have to do: what sacrifices, renunciations, . . . Life is already full of that!!!” Well, You are not alone in thinking that. Many a saint had some of those same thoughts and yet, they became Saints. And their desire for Him became infinite! How did they do it? They simply asked Him, Jesus, for His help. “Jesus! Give me the desire to desire you, to want you, to go deeper in my friendship with You! Take away my fears, my concerns, my worries of what that might ‘cost’ me. Jesus give me that desire!” Our Father . . .
THREE
In my chapel I recently put a beautiful icon of the meeting of Jesus with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well. (A shout out for the series, the Chosen. Please watch the episode of this encounter. It is season 1, episode 8.). Well, underneath the icon I placed a beautiful off white drape with a golden embroidered design flowing down, like a stream of water. Without realizing it I put that design in a way that it appears as if the river is coming from the well in the icon. . . . . . Please try to envision all of this in your mind. Well, for me that is what prayer, conversation, friendship and intimacy with Jesus is. And from that flows our love for others and ourselves. It is such a peaceful, restful, renewing, rejuvenating scene. And we are afraid to ask for that, to desire that, to want that? “Jesus! Give me the desire to desire you?” Our Father who art in Heaven
four
“And He began to teach them many things. . .”
It is in that intimacy, in that daily meeting we have with Him through our meditative Rosary and through our visits to the Blessed Sacrament, through our works of Charity, through the Sacraments etc that He, Jesus, teaches us many things. He teaches us much about our Faith, the teachings of His Church, about His life, about our Blessed Mother’s life, the lives of the Saints, etc. But above all it is in those times set apart to be alone with Him, that He teaches us about His infinite love for us and about His own Interior life! That is, He teaches us about Heaven. What more important or greater teaching can there be? . . . Our Father . . .
FIVE
If you want another visual of “. . . He began teaching them many things, . . .” and what should be our attitude, think about Martha and Mary, dear friends of Jesus. In a particular way, focus on Mary in Luke 10, 38-42. We all remember the famous words of Jesus as he corrects Martha. “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.” Jesus’ teaching is so clear here. He is giving us His most important teaching, so much so that He says, “she, Mary, has chosen the better part.” Will we too choose the better part? The better part is to sit at His feet and to listen to Him. Everything else will follow in its right place and time. Isn’t that why Jesus tells us elsewhere, “ Search first for the Reign of Heaven, (that is Him) and everything else will be given to you in abundance.” Let me repeat that: “Search first for the Reign of Heaven and everything else will be given to you in abundance.” So what am I afraid of? What is holding me back from sitting at His feet? “And He began to teach them many things. . .” Our Father who art in Heaven