Krysallis

Jesus, in the Gospel of Mark, tries to keep his identity a secret. Some of the fun of reading the Gospel is to see how this so-called “Messianic secret” keeps slipping out. It seems that the people whom he asked to help him keep this secret were no better at it then than people are now. Just say that’s something’s a secret, and it’s sure to get around.

The Liberation that accompanies the Lord’s presence breaks out in humans and in nature. As the first reading tells us,

Then will the eyes of the blind be opened; the ears of the deaf be cleared; then will the lame leap like a stag, then the tongue of the mute will sing. Streams will burst forth in the desert, and rivers in the steppe. The burning sands will become pools, and the thirsty ground, springs of water.

Our mission invites us to become friends with nature and our ministry involves environmental advocacy. Where farmlands are plowed under for development; where air and water are fouled by industry; where rain forests are clear cut: we tell the secret of the Messiah and trust one day the “very rocks will cry out” with the news. I saw a bumper sticker the other day with the grim reminder: “Nature bats last”!

The secret extends to our brothers and sisters through unqualified acceptance of others. We whisper the secret by how we treat others. The second reading invites us to liberate the poor by not distinguishing between the rich and the poor.

The Messianic secret was a secret that defied containment. In today’s Gospel, after Jesus heals the deaf man with a speech impediment, he “ordered them not to tell anyone. But the more he ordered them not to, the more they proclaimed it.”