Fearlessness

2nd Week in Ordinary Time - Wednesday (23 January 2019)

Hebrews 7:1-3, 15-17. Psalm 110:1-4. Mark 3:1-6.

Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill?

In Jesus Before Christianity, Fr Albert Nolan makes another remark. He notes that there are “no traces of fear in Jesus.” The gospel story of today makes that point. Jesus wasn’t afraid of authority, he wasn’t afraid of scandal. He challenged the authorities of his time. He wasn’t afraid to consort with prostitutes and the unclean. John the Baptizer fasted, living on insects and walking around in a camel skin. Jesus feasted and complained that the leaders didn’t dance while he was playing the flute for them (Matthew 11:17). The character Nolan portrays derives his knowledge of the world and people not from set dogmas and laws, but from an intuitive feeling for others, from compassion, from “feeling with” and “being with.”

It was Jesus' fearlessness that made him so dangerous to the authorities around him. If they allowed him to be like that, others might begin to act in the same way. Their power and control would be lost. They couldn’t allow him to let his light shine. That possibility might become contagious. Jesus asks the authorities and us, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill?”

As a continuation from yesterday's gospel, Jesus proves that he is the master of the sabbath. Rules are for the sake of doing good, and we may have to break rules at times in order to do good as today's gospel witnesses. Jesus reminds us that we have a new responsibility. For it is not so much what we do or don't do on the sabbath that matters. What matters is our response to the call to see holiness each and every day, be ready to do good any or every day. There can be no rest from doing good, and being good each day. Every day is an opportunity to be good, and do good. Whether the rules allow it or not!

Nelson Mandela once said, “As we let our light shine we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”