Can you keep a secret? I used to have a hard time keeping secrets. I never understood why the Army gave me a top-secret clearance when they knew that I was a long-winded storyteller.
Telling a secret to someone other than the person who you promised secrecy can be a sin. Especially if someone is hurt because you leaked the secret. The seriousness of the sin is determined by whether or not the sin kills the grace of God in our soul and severs our relationship with God. In today’s gospel from
Mark 7 Jesus ordered the apostles not to tell anyone. Were they obliged to keep the story of his healing of the deaf man a secret?
The Gospels do not tell us whether Jesus made the apostles promise secrecy. Jesus knew that the apostles couldn’t keep a secret, especially the great miracles he performed. I think it was all a part of a Godly plan. God uses our human nature to spread His Word. Jesus uses one of the weaknesses of our
human nature, the inability to keep secrets, as a tool to spread the Good News. When the apostles told others of the miracle, I imagine that they opined with a post-script to whoever they told “do not tell others, because the master ordered me not to tell you.” And so, the secret keeps spreading. With their spreading this miracle story in this way, Jesus appeared humble.
He wanted to appear humble and do everything with kindness, love, and humility to everyone. The 1st reading from Isaiah states that “the eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the deaf be cleared” (IS 35:7). Jesus knew that he was fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy. The first reading today has two words that really stick out to me and make sense for our times. First is the word strong. In our human world, we
always want to be vindicated. But human vindication never seems to be measured out fairly. But Isaiah says that God comes to us with his divine vindication and recompense, which is strong, even, and fair-measured. The second word is save. God comes to save us. We cannot save ourselves. We need God to do that.
In the second reading from the Letter of St. James, chapter 2, James notes that a rich man and a poor man both entering a congregation are seated and treated differently. The rich man is given a good seat and the poor man is given a worse seat or asked to stand. We might think that that wouldn’t happen in our church today, but it does.
It was, in fact, a common practice in many churches leading into the 19th Century. Pews were rented to families, and locations were set according to social standing. Those who did not rent pews were left to sit in open galleries, where it was either very hot or very cold. This practice was one of the ways churches raised funds to continue their ministry. Even Catholic churches that are renovated engrave the names
of individuals or families on the end of the pews. The pew with a family name on it then becomes that family’s pew. James warned us of this behavior. Everyone equally deserves God’s saving grace.