Wednesday in the 9th Week of Ordinary Time (II)
Through the Door of Erroneous Assumptions

Readings: 2 Timothy 1:1-3, 6-12; Psalms 123:1b-2ab, 2def; Mark 12:18-27
Picture: CC mkebbe

When I was in school there was a professor who used to dress rather shabbily, and students liked to poke fun at him because of this. A story was even told of how he had once showed up at a conference and was turned away at the door because of the way he looked. Thankfully someone eventually recognized him and let me in. He was, after all, listed as one of the main speakers at the conference. I’m not sure if this is a true story, but it illustrates well a grace that our Mass readings are offering us today, the same grace that is summarized in the last line of the gospel: You are very much mistaken.

For, in the story of the shabby professor, the problematic behavior encountered by him at the conference – the refusal to admit him – was rooted first in a certain attitude of suspicion, which was, in turn, born of a mistaken notion, the assumption that shabbily dressed people couldn’t possibly have any legitimate connection with the conference. To effectively address the problematic behavior, it was necessary to correct the erroneous assumption on which it was based.

This is also the process that our readings illustrate for us today. In the first reading, Paul exhorts Timothy to avoid a certain form of behavior that’s especially problematic for apostles. God’s gift was not a spirit of timidity, but the Spirit of power, and love, and self-control… And to help Timothy to avoid timidity, Paul addresses the attitude and the assumption that might be the basis for such behavior. He speaks respectively of shame and suffering. He urges Timothy to be ashamed neither of witnessing to the Lord or of Paul for being his prisoner. Implied in Paul’s exhortation is the insight that timidity can be born of shame, which can, in its turn, be rooted in the mistaken notion that someone undergoing suffering cannot possibly be sent by God, cannot possibly have anything good to offer others. Paul corrects this erroneous assumption by reminding Timothy that it is only on account of the grace already granted to us in Christ Jesus that Paul is experiencing fresh hardships. The fact that a messenger is experiencing suffering doesn’t necessarily mean that there is something wrong with him/ her, much less with the message he/ she is sent to proclaim.

We see the same thing in the gospel. The Sadducees exhibit problematic behavior in resisting Jesus’ message and in seeking to trap him with a difficult question. This behavior is born of a certain attitude of contempt for Jesus and his belief in the resurrection. And underlying this attitude is the mistaken assumption that the resurrected life – if there is such a thing – must be exactly the same as earthly existence. In response, Jesus seeks to do for the Sadducees what Paul does for Timothy. He challenges the erroneous notion on which their behavior is based. When they rise from the dead, men and women do not marry; no, they are like the angels in heaven…

Whether it is the notion that only well-dressed people can participate in a conference, or that suffering necessarily tarnishes the quality of a preacher and the authenticity of his message, or that the resurrected life is exactly like earthly existence, these mistaken assumptions serve to shut the door in the face of the Lord who desires to work powerfully in and through us. We can probably think of other examples, such as the notion that we have to be holy and pure and peaceful before we can address God in prayer, or that we must first be rich or skillful in some extraordinary way in order to help others.

How does the Lord wish to make a way through our erroneous assumptions today?