Tuesday after Epiphany
The late Jesuit priest James V. Schall, SJ, wrote in his book The Order of Things about how, while in a hospital waiting room for an examination, he was asked to sign a waiver. Father Schall said that the waiver form indicated that the hospital and doctors knew that medicine was not an exact science and that things might go wrong. Father Schall argued that the waiver also showed that a doctor cares only about bodily health and is unconcerned with his patient’s soul or the ultimate purpose of his patient’s life. To discover the ultimate purpose and the state of his soul, Father Schall argued that he would have to go somewhere else instead of to a doctor. But while Father Schall corrects his assessment, we also often forget to have a spiritual checkup; we regularly see a doctor for a medical checkup, but we often forget to have an annual spiritual checkup.
In the story of feeding the 5000 by the Sea of Galilee, Mark wrote that Jesus looked up to heaven and said a blessing. Looking to heaven is the gesture of prayer and the blessing. In biblical thought, blessing is a form of God's praise, acknowledging the object as already created holy by God and praising God for setting it aside for human use. But Jesus also reminds us that we need to rely on God in every action that we take in this life. Therefore, Jesus prayed to the Father before He broke the breads and gave them to the disciples. The simple gesture from Jesus is a reminder for us of how often we rely on God in every action we take. Thus, one way for us to do a spiritual check-up is to reflect on how much we rely on and trust God in our daily lives. If we have a healthy spiritual life, we will most likely rely on and trust God more in our lives and become less anxious about what’s waiting for us. Unlike Jesus’s disciples, who have no clue that Jesus will perform a mighty work even after their participation in the feeding, we should have trust that God will take everything.