Amaze Jesus.

One of the things that the pastor of my summer parish has asked me to do is attend each of the three Sunday Masses every week, which I do. Besides becoming a pro at both the Responsorial Psalm and the homily by the end of Mass number three, I also get the opportunity to listen to the readings three different times.

I’ll be honest—sometimes hearing the readings over and over again makes it quite easy to zone out and not really be in the moment. Other times, the readings, or even a particular line, will jump out at you—over and over again. For me, after hearing the Gospel several times this weekend, something jumped out at me.

This weekend, we hear the first six verses of the sixth chapter of the Gospel according to Saint Mark. In this passage, we hear of Jesus coming back to His hometown, and bringing His disciples along with Him. When He taught in the synagogue, the people didn’t seem to be too impressed. They even “took offense at Him”. The people seemed to get caught up in what they knew about Jesus as their neighbor, “…is He not the carpenter, the Son of Mary?” We also hear that because of this, He wasn’t able to do any “mighty deeds”, other than laying hands on sick people and curing them (which seems pretty mighty, if you ask me…)

What really struck me and got me thinking about a few things in this weekend’s Gospel was the very last line:

He was amazed at their lack of faith.

Can God be Amazed?

Okay, this question may sound stupid, but to be honest, it’s probably a result of my philosophy degree and me overthinking things. But, seriously think about it—to be amazed, by definition, is to be surprised, or to be filled with astonishment. God is the source of all things—including amazement and astonishment—is it therefore possible for Him to experience these things? Can the One who knows all be surprised?

Now, when speaking of “God” here, I’m referring to the Second person of the Trinity, the Son, Jesus (because you know, He is God too…it really bugs me when people will say “God and Jesus”…that literally doesn’t make sense…Jesus IS God! I’m ranting aren’t I? Okay, back on topic…) In the person of Jesus, I think it is possible for God Himself to be amazed—after all, Jesus was indeed fully God, but He was also fully human—like us in all things but sin—and to be amazed is a truly human event.

What Amazes the One who Amazes?

To be honest, I thought of saying “amazer” instead of “the One who amazes”, but unfortunately it isn’t an actual word.

I decided to do a little investigating, with the help of the internet. (I seriously don’t know how humans functioned until the internet came about.) In the Bible, (I’m using here the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition…wow, what a name), the word “amazed” appears a total of fifty times—eight times in the Old Testament, and forty-two times in the New Testament. For the purposes of this, we’ll be focused on the appearances in the New Testament.

If you’re like me, when we think of instances of people being “amazed” in scripture, it is as a result of something Jesus did. He performed a miracle, or He said something, and the people were amazed. Yet, it is harder for us to think of instances where Jesus Himself was amazed. Maybe that’s because it only happens three times.

In the eighth chapter of the Gospel according to Saint Matthew, Jesus encounters a centurion who came to Him and asked Him to heal his servant. Jesus offered to go to the centurion’s house and heal the servant, but the centurion pleaded, saying that he was not worthy to have Jesus enter under His roof, yet if Jesus only says the word, the servant would be healed (hey, that sounds familiar…). Following this, the Gospel states that Jesus was amazed and said to the crowd, “Truly I tell you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith…”

The same episode takes place in the seventh chapter of the Gospel according to Saint Luke, also ending with Jesus being amazed at the faith of the centurion.

What’s so Amazing about the Centurion?

What probably amazed Jesus about the Centurion was that his faith did not require Jesus to be seen acting. Word of Jesus spread rapidly through the land, and for many, their faithfulness to Jesus is traced to an event where they saw Jesus act. Yet, for this centurion, his faith in Jesus is so strong that he believes Jesus saying the word will heal the servant. For him, his faith is not dependent on Jesus coming to his house and laying hands on the servant.

To me, it is not unlike the woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years (see Matthew 9). Her faith did not require Jesus to act, yet she knew that “if only I touch His cloak, I will be made well”. Jesus said it Himself—her faith made her well. Now that’s amazing.

What Else Amazed Jesus

Yet, we can’t let ourselves forget the line that struck me from this weekend’s Gospel. Jesus was indeed amazed by the faith of some people, but He was also amazed by the lack of faith in others.

When He was in His hometown of Nazareth, the people knew who He was. He was a carpenter, the son of Mary and Joseph. Instead of taking to heart the words He was speaking in the synagogue, they questioned how a man from Nazareth could attain such wisdom. Instead of being amazed by the acts He performed, they took offense to them.

The people of Nazareth didn’t have open hearts. They couldn’t get past their pre-conceived notions of who Jesus was—who they thought Jesus was—to see who He really was. Their faith was not like that of the centurion or the woman who suffered from hemorrhages. Instead, they needed proof—they needed to know where Jesus was getting all this stuff He was saying. They needed to know how He was doing what He was doing—they wanted to understand how all of this could come of a carpenter from their little town. (After all, as Nathaniel says in John 1:46, "Can anything good come from Nazareth?")

Yet, in their search for knowledge and understanding—they lacked the most important thing—faith. So much so, that their lack of faith astonished, surprised—amazed—Jesus.

Don’t Just Live for the Eulogy.

Recently, I’ve heard a phrase—“live for the eulogy”. In other words, live a life of such nobility that at your funeral, people will remember the wonderful impact that you have had on their lives. Live in such a way as to contribute to the wonderful things that will be said about you as your loved ones say their final goodbyes.

I have to admit, it’s not that bad of an idea—I mean if it gets people to live good lives, then it’s worth a shot, right?

Yet, we can’t stop there, we can’t just live for the eulogy, because the eulogy isn’t the end of the story. As Saint John Paul the Great said, we are an Easter people! We believe in the resurrection, we believe in a life after death! We believe that the eulogy isn’t the end of our story, but rather the beginning of a wonderful, new, and everlasting chapter of eternal life, hopefully, eternal life in heaven with God.

So, yes, live your life in such a way that people will realize what a benefit you were to theirs. However, remember that your funeral isn’t the end of your story. So, instead of living for the eulogy, live for the gates. (I’ll explain that more in a minute…essentially, I’m forcing you to keep reading)

How to Amaze Jesus

So, how do we amaze Jesus? Well, to be honest, that’s a hard question to answer. But, I don’t think it would hurt for us to be a little more like the centurion, or the woman who suffered from hemorrhages, or any of the others that Jesus healed. It wouldn’t hurt for us to put everything into the hands of God. It wouldn't hurt for us to take a chance on trusting Him, and seeing what will happen. It wouldn’t hurt for us to praise God with the first and last breath of our day.

It also wouldn’t hurt to heed the advice of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta and “Let God use you without consulting you”. In other words, as I read it, to put that faith into action. For, as Catholics, we believe that we not only need faith, but good works as well, for as the letter of James tells us, faith without works is dead. (see James 2)

It wouldn’t hurt for us to change the way we hear what happens at the end of Mass. When the priest or deacon says “Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life” (or one of the other options), he isn’t saying “See you next week, folks”—he’s saying “take what you’ve learned here and the graces you’ve received, go out, and change the world!”

If our faith is no more than the hour we spend in Church on Sundays (if we even do that), then what is the point of it? What was the point of Jesus giving Saint Peter the keys? What was the point of Him being nailed to that tree two-thousand years ago?

Forget Moderation

Calm down. I’m not telling you to hit up the local Mickey D’s and gain a crapload of weight. Put the Fitbit back on and the Lean Cuisine back in the Microwave.

However, in terms of our faith, we do need to throw moderation out the door. We (and when I say ‘we’, I include myself) desperately need to make our faith more than that hour on Sunday. The resurrection of Jesus changed everything, so our faith should affect how we think, act, and behave. I’m not saying that we should be brainwashed by the Church, but rather that our faith should remind us day by day that we are called to become someone greater than who we are at the moment.

It’s no easy task, but no one ever said Christianity would be.

One of the more well-known works of CS Lewis is The Screwtape Letters. This book is a compilation of letters from a demon named Screwtape, addressed to his nephew, a younger demon named Wormwood. The letters are intended to teach the younger demon the best methods to bring a soul to hell. However, on our end, Screwtape allows us to see how evil can be at work in our own lives, even when we don’t know it. When I read this book myself, a line that jumped out at me was “a moderated religion is as good for us as no religion at all”.

As something I recently saw on Facebook put it, “The devil doesn’t care if you go to Church and read your Bible, as long as you don’t apply it to your life”.

For the devil (and yes, I believe that he exists), what he loves the most is when we don’t let our faith affect how we live, because his work becomes easier. He takes great delight when we believe that religion is something that takes place between the morning and afternoon of a particular Sunday, with an impact that does not go beyond the doors of the church. He laughs when we are such good people inside, but destroy and tear down one another as soon as we pass through the church doors.

So, do you want to amaze Jesus? Make the devil’s job as hard as you can. Let your faith affect who you are as a person. Make it more than the hour on Sunday. Take the dismissal at Mass as an invitation to evangelization. Take the challenge that is the Christian life. For physical health, moderation is great—so put that candy bar down. Yet, for the spiritual side of life, remember: for the devil, a faith practiced in moderation is just as easy to work with as a faith not practiced at all.

Live for the Gates

Remember when I said I’d talk about this “later”? It’s later.

Like I said, living for the eulogy is a great thing. But don’t stop there, because that’s not the end of the story. Live for the gates.

Live for the gates of heaven.

Live for the encounter you will have with God.

Live for the moment when you will come face to face with Jesus and He will tell you that He was amazed.

Live for the chance to hear Him say that your faith amazed Him.

Don’t live for the chance to hear Him say your lack of faith amazed Him.

Another Attempt At Poetry

So, like I’ve said in previous posts, I’m not sure how good my poems are, but I really don’t care if you don’t like them.

This one is a personal one about me wanting to do more with and get more out of my faith, so I thought it would relate here.

Eruption

My self-absorbed corruption needs an eruption of the Spirit to overtake me and make me who I really am, to help me quit buying into the scam that following my will and not God’s can actually be a plan.

My life isn’t mine—it’s His— no matter what society says. My life is a gift given from above, and must be given by me out of love. It’s so easy to be selfish It’s so easy to forget being selfless Selfless—as He for me was despite my denial and my flaws. I deny Him over and over again, every time that I choose to sin, and yet He loves me, and still wants to be a friend.

And it’s because of that love that I see my life as a gift from above A love that because of its recognition changes my disposition, helps me see my mission, and gives me ambition. Ambition to carry His message far and wide, to rid myself of pride, and tell others of the mercy that flowed from His side.

Mercy in the form of blood and water, and the indescribable love of the Father.

And now I pray to break my corruption, to bring about that eruption: Holy Spirit, consume me, My Lord, I beg You to use me! Use me as Your instrument in every possible instance. An instrument to tell your story and to bring you the greatest glory.

And let me never finish telling, let my heart never stop swelling make my heart your dwelling! Let others see You through me, use me as Your instrument to set them free!

Help me to fall in line, and follow Your design, a will much grander than mine. A will that brings true freedom coming from Your Kingdom.

Let me die praising You with all my being, through and through Help me to spread You from east to west, to endure every test, and help others feel nothing but blessed.

Let me die singing your praises as the Holy Spirit blazes, casting out darkness, doing away with starkness, raining down on the world what is true, like the grass’s morning dew.

But in all things, keep me humble, for if I’m not humble, I’ll begin to crumble If I don’t have humility, I won’t even grasp reality. I’ll give into the pressure and forget to treasure the gift You’ve given me, the gift given when you were nailed to the tree. When the old was cast out, when Your Blood ended the drought, when You made all things new and Your Spirit within us grew

May that Spirit set me on fire and give me the desire to glorify you in all things to join the angels and sing— sing your praises and to never settle for a simple try but to always sing, and praise, and glorify to give You and others all that I have and all that I am until the day that I die.

In all things, may God be glorified.

Amen.