DEAD OR ALIVE? -- LOOK AT THE HEART, NOT THE HANDS

Wednesday in the 2nd Week of the Ordinary Time
Mk 3:1-6

The human hands easily betray the age of their owner. Look at your hands. Do they say something about your age? Normally, they do.

The hands of the man in the synagogue today do not reveal the age of their owner. The man may be as young as a nineteen year old or as old as an eighty. His hands are not normal; they are withered hands.

But the hearts of the Pharisees who criticize Jesus for curing the man with the withered hands reveal the truth about their owner. Their hands look normal but their hearts are sick. They do not have withered hands, but their hearts are all dried up. They are good as dead.

The Gospel today appears to be the climax of five direct conflicts between Jesus and the Pharisees. In Mk 2:7, the Pharisees accuse Jesus of blasphemy for forgiving the sins of the paralytic. In Mk 2:16, the Pharisees criticize Jesus for mingling with tax collectors and public sinners. In Mk 2:18, they confront Jesus for not making His disciples fast. In Mk 2:24, they carp about Jesus allowing His disciples to pick grain on the Sabbath. Today, they disdain Jesus for healing a man on the Sabbath. It is their seeming obedience to the Law but apparent lack of compassion for their fellow human being and Jesus’ apparent compassion for people but seeming disregard of the Law that give the Pharisees high blood pressure. But instead of causing them a stroke, the high blood pressure of the Pharisees strikes Jesus and puts Him to death on the cross. By His death, however, He heals every heart, not only hand. And by rising from the dead, Jesus gives life to every dying heart.

Our hands may reveal or not reveal our age, but our hearts clearly say if we are dead or alive.