Friday, VIII Ordinary (St. Justin Martyr)
(Mark 11)
An “objective correlative” is a literary device to describe the workings of the mind. An example of an objective correlative is the woods on a snowy evening in Robert Frost’s famous poem. The woods filling up with snow are the cold and bleek events of life which the sleigh rider means to contemplate.
In the gospel Mark presents us an objective correlative in the fig tree that does not bear fruit. Jesus curses its sterility as a sign of his disgust with the Temple which he enters next. It is not only the money changers who bother Jesus. It is also that the Temple is not allowing adequate worship of God. As he curses the fig tree, he throws out the money changers. As he throws out the money changers, the Temple will be symbolically destroyed with his death on the cross.
We should see Jesus’ action as a sign of what will happen to us if we do not produce good fruit. God has been most generous to us with his endowment of the Holy Spirit. It cannot be for nothing. Rather, we must serve Him by caring for the weak and encouraging the righteous.
No comments:
Post a Comment