Bread and Circus Games

Seeking the eternal more than the earthly

02/18/2020

Mark 8:14-21 The disciples had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. Jesus enjoined them, “Watch out, guard against the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” They concluded among themselves that it was because they had no bread. When he became aware of this he said to them, “Why do you conclude that it is because you have no bread? Do you not yet understand or comprehend? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes and not see, ears and not hear? And do you not remember, when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many wicker baskets full of fragments you picked up?” They answered him, “Twelve.” “When I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many full baskets of fragments did you pick up?” They answered him, “Seven.” He said to them, “Do you still not understand?”

                Yesterday, during our bible study on the gospel of Luke, I contrasted the Jewish leadership of the Old Testament with Jesus’ new leadership in the New Testament. Basically, our Lord wanted to replace the Levites, the Pharisees and Sadducees, the Sanhedrin and the scribes with the three-fold structure of bishop, priest and deacon. I provided three scripture passaged to support that hierarchical structure from Acts 6, 1 Peter 5, and 1 Timothy 3, so they wouldn’t think I just made that up.

That also reminded me of how our seminary professor explained the difference between a priest and a deacon. Our last year of seminary we were ordained as transitional deacons, and we were feeling pretty proud or ourselves. After all, we were about to receive the sacrament of Holy Orders. So, our professor answered our question saying: “Well, if the priest is like Jesus the Shepherd, and the people are like the sheep of his flock, then I guess that makes the deacons like the sheepdogs.” He knew exactly how to humble us proud seminarians.

In the gospel today, Jesus is preparing his apostles to be the future leaders of his Church. In a sense, their three years of living and learning from our Lord during his public ministry was their seminary training. Like me in the final year before ordination, the apostles, too, may have felt a little pride and ambition. So, Jesus teaches them a lesson in humility like our professor taught us. Jesus admonishes them: “Watch out, guard against the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” That is, the future leadership of my Church, Jesus was insisting, must be humble and holy, not like the Pharisees and the Herodians who feign holiness but are full of the leaven of sin and selfishness. The apostles sadly missed our Savior’s point. They thought he meant literal bread they could eat, not the spiritual leaven of evil.

My friends, we too can easily miss the point of our Lord’s lessons by seeking the literal level of his words over the spiritual meaning, by preferring the natural goods over the supernatural goods of grace, by longing for earthly fulfillment rather than eternal bliss. Think for a moment about the things we typically pray for. We pray to be healed from a physical illness. We pray when we have marriage problems. We pray to win the lottery and have a lot of money. We pray for our children to get into a prestigious college (and also a scholarship to pay for it!). We pray when we have a big test and we did not study for it. Now, these are all good things to pray for, and we should ask God’s grace that all goes well and according to his will.

How often, though, do we pray for God to teach us humility? When did we last pray for God to increase our feeble faith? Can you recall the last time you prayed to be healed of lust and vanity and laziness and pride? Have you asked the Lord lately for a deeper love for his Word in the scriptures and in the sacraments? When did you pray to God to help you pray to God better – that is, in a way that pleases him more than it pleases you? Do you ask for the grace to carry you crosses, or only that god remove your crosses? When we pray in this way – a more spiritual and supernatural way – we do what Jesus commanded: “Watch out, guard against the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod,” and eradicate evil from your life.

Let me leave you with this quotation from the great Jewish Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel from his masterful book simple called The Sabbath. He wrote: “Two things the people of Rome anxiously desired – bread and circus games. But man does not live by bread and circus games alone. Who will teach him to desire anxiously the spirit of a sacred day?” The sacred day for Jews, of course, is the Sabbath, Saturday. For Christians the sacred day is Sunday. What do we do on Sunday? We come to receive the unleavened Bread of the Eucharist. We leave the leaven of this world outside, and say to Jesus: “You are the only Bread that I really need.”

Praised be Jesus Christ!