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Prophetic Faith in the Face of Fear

by J. Michael Parker

The Gospel of Mark provides interesting insights into fear as the enemy of discipleship, a Franciscan theology professor observed in the second of three lectures June 11 at Oblate School of Theology’s 2019 Summer Institute, “Fear and Faith.”

Fr. Daniel P. Horan, assistant professor of systematic theology and spirituality at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, told an audience of 180 at OST’s Whitley Theological Center that the first half of Mark’s Gospel has a satisfying ending after stories of Jesus’ preaching, healing, calling and preaching; but in the second half, “the story goes off the rails.”

Jesus asks the disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter rightly responds, “You are the Messiah,” and Jesus immediately affirms this but warns them not to tell anyone. “He explains what being the Messiah means: suffering, death and resurrection,” the priest reminded the audience, “but Peter immediately protests, and Jesus calls him Satan. The story continues as the narrative reveals their confusion, ignorance, doubt and uncertainty,” Fr. Horan said.

On Easter Sunday, the women approaching Jesus’ tomb are told, “He is not here; he has been raised; go and tell his disciples, and Peter, that he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him as he told you.”  But they were seized with trembling and bewilderment. They said nothing to anybody, for they were afraid, the priest recalled.

“This is where God’s messenger reveals the divine will to Christ’s followers; they fail, at least to this point, to put that message into action,”

He said the second half seems to suggest that “the story is not over; it continues until the Second Coming, but it’s not a straightforwardly happy ending. It’s what we might call a cliffhanger. What remains is an honest account of the everyday reality that we all face; like the women at the tomb, we stand before the face of uncertainty, mystery and fear,” the priest commented.

The key insight, he explained, is that if Christian discipleship is about embracing the call to proclaim the Good News and bearing witness, fear is the enemy of discipleship, because it stops us from living out that vocation; the priest noted that New Testament scholar Pheme Perkins believes that Mark likely intended this conclusion of his Gospel as an allegory on the danger of fear.

“if Christian discipleship is about embracing the call to proclaim the Good News and bearing witness, fear is the enemy of discipleship, because it stops us from living out that vocation”

“In the storm at sea,” he continued, “their fear indicates a hard-hearted misunderstanding. The disciples don’t realize that Jesus exercises God’s saving power over the waters of chaos.” He later called fear a symbol of isolation from Jesus and an obstacle to fulfilling our baptismal call.

Mark’s Gospel, the priest asserted, strikes at the heart of the challenge that comes with being a disciple of Christ. Because it’s the most honest of the canonical Gospels, he sees it as perhaps the most frightening.

The women’s failure to tell anyone was a failure of discipleship, but Fr. Horan noted that Jesus’ early followers clearly didn’t remain silent forever, adding, “While this not-so-happy ending is a about the cost of discipleship, it’s also an encouragement to persevere in the face of fear despite failure, our own disobedience and our sinfulness.” He said the challenge placed before us – Jesus’ modern disciples – is “a call to believe in the saving power of Jesus Christ, who transforms human limitations and delivers from persecution and death.”

Fr. Horan finished by citing three 20th-century examples of prophetic faith in the face of fear. “Thomas Merton reminds us that the root of all violence is fear. Etta Hillesum’s reflection on faith and fear in the face of the Holocaust offers a sobering account of faith worthy of emulation. Oscar Romero, as Archbishop of San Salvador, was murdered because of his conversion from fear to faith. They chart a course in the face of fear to bear witness to Mark’s claim that despite our inadequacies, doubts and failures, the power of God will nevertheless prevail,” he said.

Merton’s restlessness gave birth to a prolific succession of writings that invited millions of people of all traditions into his own spiritual journey with hope that such proximity to his journey might be worthwhile to others. He diagnosed the pervasiveness of fear as the root of all war and violence, and noted the fear is often tied with the hatred we harbor, not only for others but above all ourselves, that is too deep and powerful to be consciously faced, the priest explained. “We tend unconsciously to ease ourselves still more of the burden of guilt that’s in us by passing it on to somebody else.”

Hillesum, who was murdered at Auschwitz on Nov. 30, 1943, was not a devout Jew growing up in Amsterdam, Holland; however, but she underwent spiritual development from the time of her university studies until her imprisonment during the Nazi occupation of Holland. She kept diaries and letters detailing her thoughts and insights from 1941-43. The diaries were published in 1979 and translated into 67 languages.

Fr. Horan said the terror in the streets and rumors among Jews in Amsterdam that Jews across Europe were being shipped to concentration camps and exterminated were the driving force that drove her spirituality deeper. She recognized “that little piece of God in ourselves…that little spark of divinity that we Christians call the Holy Spirit, which aids us in responding to the fear and terror we encounter,” the priest said.

Archbishop Romero’s conversion occurred over an extended arc of time, he continued, noting

Romero had been isolated from the daily reality faced by the poor for most of his ministerial and episcopal career, but becoming Archbishop of San Salvador exposed him to their plight. Then he faced a choice between living and proclaiming the Gospel or ignoring the brazen abuse of power against the poor he served. “He risked his life to speak out publicly against injustices committed against the poor,” Fr. Horan said.

“That’s what the Bible – especially the Old Testament—shows that prophets are all about…They call out the difference between the world as it is and the world as God intended it.”  His life and ministry were transformed when he placed the suffering of El Salvador’s poor at the center of his focus.


 

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