Seven Pages a Day: Come Back to Your Senses!

This is my second reflection on the Gospel of Mark.  A few days ago, I talked about how Mark wrote in such a way as to emphasize the need to pay attention to the revelation of God in Jesus Christ.  In part two, I want to point out when and how Jesus healed the six senses.  Yes, six:  hearing, seeing, touching, tasting, smelling, and the ability to know ourselves, our own mind—what Buddhism would call “brilliant sanity.”  I don't know that I have any brilliant insights to add to these stories, but I want you to read them.  Let them bring you a greater appreciation for the gift of your senses to the spiritual life.

Jesus Heals a Deaf-Mute

Jesus then left the neighborhood of Tyre and went on through Sidon to Lake Galilee, going by way of the territory of the Ten Towns. Some people brought him a man who was deaf and could hardly speak, and they begged Jesus to place his hands on him. So Jesus took him off alone, away from the crowd, put his fingers in the man's ears, spat, and touched the man's tongue. Then Jesus looked up to heaven, gave a deep groan, and said to the man, “Ephphatha,”
which means, “Open up!” At once the man was able to hear, his speech impediment was removed, and he began to talk without any trouble.  Mark 7: 31-35

Notice Jesus took him off by himself.  Why do you suppose that was?  I like to think it was because the first thing Jesus wanted him to hear were birds singing and the wind rushing in the trees.  But probably the first thing he heard was Jesus’ own voice. 

Jesus Heals a Blind Man at Bethsaida

They came to Bethsaida, where some people brought a blind man to Jesus and begged him to touch him.  Jesus took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village. After spitting on the man's eyes, Jesus placed his hands on him and asked him, “Can you see anything?”  The man looked up and said, “Yes, I can see people, but they look like trees walking around.” Jesus again placed his hands on the man's eyes. This time the man looked intently, his eyesight returned, and he saw everything clearly.  Jesus then sent him home with the order, “Don't go back into the village.”  Mark 8: 22-25

Here Jesus led him clear out of the village before he restored the man’s sight.  Then, when his sight was restored, Jesus gave him a gentle nudge out of town.  What are your thoughts on that?  I think it was because Jesus wanted him to see first thing was real trees, like the olive and fig, as well as shrubs and flowers.  But probably the first thing he saw was Jesus’ face.

Jesus Heals a Man with a Dreaded Skin Disease

A man suffering from a dreaded skin disease came to Jesus, knelt down, and begged him for help. "If you want to," he said, "you can make me clean." Jesus was filled with pity, and reached out and touched him. "I do want to," he answered. "Be clean!^"At once the disease left the man, and he was clean. Mark 1: 40-43

Research has shown touch reduces anxiety, pain sensitivity and insomnia.  It also increases the possibility of developing a gentle, nonviolent nature and strengthening the immune system.  Why did Jesus touch this man?  I think it was because he wanted him to feel the touch of his family in friends again.  He knew this would heal the feelings of shame and isolation.  But the first person to touch him was Jesus.

The Things That Make a Person Unclean

Then Jesus called the crowd to him once more and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand. There is nothing that goes into you from the outside which can make you ritually unclean. Rather, it is what comes out of you that makes you unclean.”

When he left the crowd and went into the house, his disciples asked him to explain this saying. “You are no more intelligent than the others,” Jesus said to them. Don't you understand? Nothing that goes into you from the outside can really make you unclean, because it does not go into your heart but into your stomach and then goes on out of the body.  (In saying this, Jesus declared that all foods are fit to be eaten.)

And he went on to say, “It is what comes out of you that makes you unclean. For from the inside, from your heart, come the evil ideas which lead you to do immoral things, to rob, kill, commit adultery, be greedy, and do all sorts of evil things; deceit, indecency, jealousy, slander, pride, and folly—all these evil things come from inside you and make you unclean.”  Mark 7:14-20

Jesus doesn’t come out and heal anyone’s ability to taste or smell food.  But in this passage he lets you know it’s not your stomach you should worry about—it’s your heart.  Not that paying attention to what you eat isn't important.  Foods have been shown to heal as well as harm. 

Jesus Heals a Man with Demons

Jesus and his disciples sailed on over to the territory of Gerasa, which is across the lake from Galilee. As Jesus stepped ashore, he was met by a man from the town who had demons in him. For a long time this man had gone without clothes and would not stay at home, but spent his time in the burial caves. When he saw Jesus, he gave a loud cry, threw himself down at his feet, and shouted, “Jesus, Son of the Most High God! What do you want with me? I beg you, don't punish me!^” He said this because Jesus had ordered the evil spirit to go out of him. Many times it had seized him, and even though he was kept a prisoner, his hands and feet tied with chains, he would break the chains and be driven by the demon out into the desert.

Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”

“My name is Mob,” he answered—because many demons had gone into him. The demons begged Jesus not to send them into the abyss.^[b]

There was a large herd of pigs near by, feeding on a hillside. So the demons begged Jesus to let them go into the pigs, and he let them. They went out of the man and into the pigs. The whole herd rushed down the side of the cliff into the lake and was drowned.

The men who had been taking care of the pigs saw what happened, so they ran off and spread the news in the town and among the farms. People went out to see what had happened, and when they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone out sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. Mark 8:26-35

I like to think of this passage as the birth of psychotherapy.  Maybe Christian meditation, too.  Well, and spiritual direction, now that I think of it.  Jesus knew brute force would never subdue what was torturing this man.  Only when the man was able to name the demons inside him was he set free.  This is an example of the mind paying attention to itself.  Sometimes we do this in reflection with a psychotherapist or a spiritual director.  Sometimes we do this in meditation or in the confessional.  However we do it, it frees us from our obsessions and allows us to pay attention to what really matters.

And I think Mark would be very happy if we would all just pay attention.

Seven Pages a Day: Was the Gospel of Mark Written by a Buhddhist?

“When you can assume that your audience holds the same beliefs as you do, you can relax a little and use more normal means of talking to it; when you have to assume that it does not, then you have to make your vision apparent by shock, to the hard of hearing you shout, and for the almost-blind, you draw large and startling figures.”  Flannery O’Conner, Roman Catholic novelist

When it comes to understanding who wrote the gospel of Mark, I am a Bear of Little Brain.  I tried to figure it out on the internet from—guess what—Wikipedia, and a few other respectable looking sites.  The best I could deduce is that most modern scholars don’t believe Mark, the companion of Peter, wrote it.  But it’s possible he may have written parts of it—at least the oldest parts.  On the other hand, it was probably written around the fall of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70AD. It’s also legitimate to say Mark may have told others the stories which were written down by someone else.  Or maybe several someone elses. 

So let’s just say the Gospel of Mark was written by one or more ghost writers.  It’s Mark’s story, as told by…

I really like the Gospel of Mark.  I always have.  He, whoever he may be, had a way of putting you right at the scene by telling stories of past events using the present tense.  Everything was written with a sense of urgency.  For instance, the phrase “and immediately” occurs forty-two times in Mark, which intensifies the feeling of everything happening right here, right now.  The clean, spare narrative adds to the effect.  It’s as if things were happening so fast, Mark didn’t have time for details.   He was the journalist on the scene, giving a blow-by-blow description of events as they happened.     

But clearly the gospel was written by more than a journalist.  He was also a believer in Jesus.  How else could he have told such outlandish stories—Jesus calming the seas with a word, feeding thousands on a few loaves and fishes, rising from the dead—without batting a lash?

No, I really don’t think Mark was a Buddhist.  That was just to get you to click on the link.  But as I read this Gospel, I started to notice something unique about Mark’s point of view.  Each of the authors of the Gospels has a particular focus.  Matthew wanted to convince his fellow Israelites that Jesus is the promised Messiah.  Luke, who traveled extensively with Paul, wanted the world to know Jesus came for the Gentiles as well. 

Mark, on the other hand, seemed to be writing for everyone and anyone.  He wasn’t writing to impress or persuade a particular group.  However, he was writing to get the reader’s attention, just as Jesus had apparently gotten his attention.   That’s what got me thinking of Buddhism.  According to Buddhism, there are six—not five—senses.  The first five are what we usually think of: hearing, seeing, touching, smelling and tasting.  The sixth sense is the ability to recognize what is going on in that crazy “monkey mind” of yours.  It’s the sense that says, “Pay attention.”  Don’t let your dull, repetitive, boxy, trashy thoughts distract you from what your other five senses are telling you.

When you do that, when you really pay attention, then your other five senses come brilliantly alive, and you are vividly present to your life, to the world, and to what the world is showing you.  This kind of attention makes every moment of life a sacred opportunity for awareness of what is beyond the five senses.  This kind of attention leads you to pray, to meditate, to become aware of the presence of God.  Maybe, I thought as I read, Mark is trying to wake up our sixth sense.  Maybe he is saying, “Pay attention.” 

Having the good sense to pay attention is a gift.  Most of us don’t have it.  It’s been blunted by the “rude noise of the world,” as a priest I once knew put it.  In part two of this reflection on the Gospel of Mark, I want to write about the ways Jesus calls us to prayerful attention through the healing of our senses.  

But you don’t have to wait till then to begin the spiritual work of coming to your senses.  There are several forms of Christian meditation that can help to cultivate a spirit of prayerful attention.  One is called Centering Prayer.  It is briefly described here.  Practice it and see what you think.