Friday of the Fourth
Week in Ordinary Time
(Sirach 47:2-11; Mark 6:14-29)
The word enigma
comes from a Greek word meaning riddle. An enigma is more than what meets the
eye. Or, we might say, an enigma confounds
the eye. To some Senator Ted Kennedy was
an enigma. He seemed legitimately concerned
about the poor and defenseless – immigrants, the uninsured, and children in
substandard schools, for example. But he
refused to defend the unborn, certainly among the most vulnerable of all human
beings. In the first half of the narratives
of Mark’s gospel, Jesus also appears to observers as enigmatic.
In the first seven chapters of the gospel Jesus works
wonders and confronts hypocrites like the prophet Elijah. He announces the coming God’s kingdom like
John the Baptist. Demons know his true identity,
but it is elusive to other humans. Haunted
by guilt, Herod Antipas supposes that Jesus must be the reincarnation of the
Baptist whose head he had chopped off.
In the second half of the gospel Peter correctly names Jesus
as the Messiah, but no one understands what that term means until he dies on
the cross. Then the Roman centurion, observing
his innocence and faithfulness lived out to the last breath, proclaims Jesus
the “son of God”. On the third day Jesus
rises from the dead clearing away all doubts about his identity, at least among
his followers. Jesus is no longer an
enigma but, indeed, sterling truth whose hand leads us to both dignity and joy.
