Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, ‘Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.’ Mark 8:31-33

Peter was right! Jesus was saying something completely absurd. Of course, we are reading this story from a different perspective. We have the aid of our doutrines and dogmas to help us interpret the words of Jesus. We have some guidelines to help us reason the absurd death of our Lord. Peter was not so privileged. He was part of a community which had prepared itself for the coming of the Messiah for centuries. They had glorious expectations. When Peter confessed that Jesus was the Christ, he believed that all the injustice and oppression would vanish in the world. Peace was going to reign forever. You know, like in the carols we sang not too long ago.

Jesus predicted the opposite. He spoke about being subjected to rejection, torture, death and dismay. These are not the words of hope. Peter could not believe that the Son of Man was going to submit to these things. He was supposed to overcome them. He felt that it was his duty to set things right and orientate Jesus on what was expected of the Christ. Inadvertently, he ended up being the devil in the process. This is a tough lesson for us all if we understand its implications. There is a tendency in us to restrict how God should act in our midst, especially if it goes against what we believe to be a sound and logical way for Him to do so. Maybe we can use the Bible, our doctrinal convictions, and cultural mindset to justify our actions. We are in the season of Lent. Therefore, it is also good to remind ourselves that all the people who pleaded for the death of our Lord believed in their hearts that they were doing something good according to their system of logic.

Hannah Arendt, a German Jewish philosopher, attended the trials of Nuremberg, expecting to see monsters being judged for their heinous crimes against humanity. Instead, she saw ordinary men and women, in many ways just like her, who committed despicable acts. Most of them were convinced that their actions were necessary and right. It is a disturbing idea but one which reminds us that we are without exception descendants of Fallen Humanity. We are tainted with sin. Our reasoning and outlook are infected with sin. We might have doctrines and ideas which appear to be lofty and divine but they are still tainted with imperfection. Sin is a word which we do not often use. Perhaps part of the reason is because it has been spoken about in a mistaken manner. In our reality, everyday we walk past street preachers who take pleasure in preaching a limited view of sin. They speak about it without addressing its true nature. Sin, for them, is limited to certain actions. This is not the Christian concept but closer to the Pharisaical idea of sin and purity. Sin is not specific actions. These are mere symptoms. If we just treat the symptoms and neglect to address the major issue, then we are no better off than before. Maybe we are worse off as Jesus explained in the parable,

‘When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it wanders through waterless regions looking for a resting-place, but not finding any, it says, “I will return to my house from which I came.” When it comes, it finds it swept and put in order. Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and live there; and the last state of that person is worse than the first.’ Luke 11:24-26

It is good to remind ourselves that in the gospel episode with Peter, he had just confessed that Jesus is the Messiah. He was instrumental in articulating the true ministry of our Lord. Even then, he was not immune from being influenced by the devil whom Jesus also describes as a mindset based on human wisdom. In other words, we need to be transformed in our thinking.

Thankfully, our Lord gives us a hopeful answer to help us out of this way of being. He tells us that we need to take up our Cross. In Jesus’ time, this meant a certain death. It does not sound hopeful for obvious reasons. Most of the time, people just skim through these verses and think they are specifically for those who have a vocation to be martyrs. In most cases, many hope that it won’t come to this for their personal situation. Perhaps there was a time when these verses were taken literally. For most of reading these verses here, this is not the case. However, it does not mean that they are not relevant to us in our present situation. We just have to go a little deeper and discover the absurd logic behind them. It is absurd because most of us want to live our lives furthest away from certain death. We do everything possible to avoid it. This is where the challenge lies. We need to let go of the illusion that we can have power and control over the world. A person who took up the Cross in Jesus’ time knew that everything has come to an end and there was no chance of changing it. We can submit to the fact that we have no control over how things unfold in this world and no control on how things unfold in our personal lives. Many refuse to admit this. In today’s conversations, people like to show how they built themselves up from nothing. The reality is that this is the reasoning of the fallen humanity. We started this season of Lent with these words,

“Remember that you are dust and unto dust you shall return.”

Everything which comes in between these two periods of our life, we have to consider carefully. Jesus tells us to pick up our Cross so that we will not waste our time dwelling on foolish and irrelevant things which our human wisdom claims to be important.

Recently, I have been reading a book reflecting on the Greek Myth of Sisyphus. The story is about a mortal who thought he could fool the gods and ended being punished for eternity by pushing a rock up the hill only for it to roll back down to where he began. His punishment was to engage in this meaningless task for eternity. It reminded me of the story of the Fall. It reminded me of our ministry in the streets. We have done this ministry on and off since the mid 1990s. The situation has yet to change. In all probability, it will never change. There will always be new homeless children. They will grow up and become adults living in the streets. Perhaps a few will find a better life but it may not be great and a vast majority will live and die homeless or very close to homelessness. If I was a logical person, I would say that Jesus should change this situation. He did say that anything we ask in His Name, He will do. We pray for permanent change. There was one. There was an increase in violence and hatred towards the homeless children and youth. It wasn’t quite what we expected and it went against what we believed was the reasonable way God should act. There was a choice for us. We could abandon everything or attempt to understand God’s logic in this situation. The latter requires that we allow the former to die. Only then we can discover the Hope present in this hopeless situation. Thankfully, we see the absurd wisdom of God in our circumstances and they are indeed full of hope.

Peter had to let his idea of the Messiah die. Jesus’ harsh words were justified because Peter would have easily fallen in with the crowd if he had held on to his idea of the Christ. He had to die to his own ideas in order to discover the Hope manifested on the Cross.

The call to take our Cross is not about embracing martyrdom. It is about dying to our own so-called logical wisdom and embracing the absurdness of the Kingdom of God.

As soon as they left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them. Mark 1:29-31

Sometimes it is the simple and short accounts in the gospels that are the hardest to interpret. Sometimes these stories are so familiar that we convince ourselves that we know everything there is to know about them. The fact that all first three gospels recount this episode tells us that something profound has occurred which has impacted the hearts and minds of the gospel writers.

As in most of the healing accounts in the gospels, we know very little about the person being healed. Nevertheless, we have details on how Jesus went about healing her. He treated her with great tenderness and affection. He took her by her hand and lifted her up. I will just focus on this for our reflection.

This is not the first time that the gospels described the tenderness of Jesus in the healing process. The same gospel relates another account immediately after this where Jesus touched a leper before healing him. It seems like a simple gesture and can be easily overlooked. Our minds tend to focus on the big things because we have been programmed to think that great things come in a grandiose manner. The Kingdom of God is different. It expresses itself in small and unassuming actions.

I just finished reading a memorial of a well-known Brazilian oncologist. He was one of the principal actors in helping Brazil deal with the Aids epidemic in the nineties. Besides this, he also dedicated almost forty years serving as a volunteer in the penitentiary system of São Paulo. It happened by chance. He was asked to give an educational talk on the HIV virus and how to prevent its dissemination. After the lecture, the warden asked him if he could examine some sick prisoners who had been waiting for medical attention for months. Very few doctors were willing to serve these prisoners. He examined his first patient. He placed his stethoscope on his chest and gently placed his hand on the prisoner’s shoulder. Then the prisoner turned around and told him, “You have conquered a hardened criminal with your gentle touch.” The doctor later discovered that all the doctors who had previously examined the prisoners refused to have any physical contact with the prisoners. This doctor commented that he did not understand how these doctors could examine someone without touching them. It is easy. They disliked the people they served. Soon this doctor conquered the hearts of the incarcerated. Someone we know told us that when she was imprisoned, all the prisoners wanted to be attended by this doctor. There was a four months wait and all of them thought it was worth it. He was a Light of healing in their dark world.

“Don’t touch! Is dirty!”

In almost every context, this would be considered a cruel and insulting phrase. However, it is one of the funniest things we heard in the streets. One of the older youth, who has a dry sense of humor, was secretly learning English phrases to impress us. Bruno always give us a hug whenever he sees us and at the opportune moment, Rone blurted out this phrase. The timing was perfect. Everyone laughed including Bruno after we explained its meaning. Both Bruno and Rone are opposites. Bruno is always dressed in soiled and tattered clothes. Anyone looking at him would say that he is the stereotypical homeless youth. Rone, on the other hand, is always well dressed. Very few people realize that he is actually homeless.

Bruno survives by begging but he never asks for money. Instead he wears old and torn clothes and sits quietly in the corner. People give him money all the the time and buy him food. In fact, the rest of the teens sometimes wait around for him to bring over donated food to them. We have tried giving Bruno clean clothes. Actually sometimes Rone finds nice clean clothes for him. He is good at scavenging through donations to find something good. Bruno takes these cleans clothes and rips them at certain spots. Then he does something to do them to make them look dirty. He is convinced that in order to get any attention from the general public, he has to play the part of a stereotypical homeless person.

Bruno is actually a very tactile person. He likes to hug and show affection. I think it is important for him to know that we will reciprocate, despite his appearance. There is something going on here. Perhaps it is sad resignation on his part that no matter what he does in life, people will always see him as a dirty homeless person.

Rone is very different. He refuses to have any physical contact. He has accepted the fact that he is an untouchable. Most of the time, he pretends that he does not want any contact with people. He greets everyone with a fist bump. He claims that it is his fear of Covid but in reality, it is a lie. He admitted this to us. His life is a tragic tale. Recently, he told us that he is going to commemorate 17 years of being homeless. His used his sense of humor again to deal with this dire situation. He told us that on several occasions he saw his relatives in the streets and ran away and hid from them. He did not want them to see him and refused to talk to them. He never told us why he was homeless. There is some trauma involved which connects him with the other children and teens even though he is much older than them. This is the link binding all our children and youth together.

Not too long ago, it was Rone’s birthday. We decided to buy a simple gift for him and a liter of Grape Fanta. This is his favorite soft drink but it is quite expensive here in Brazil; well, expensive for someone living in the streets. We arranged to meet somewhere else because our teens have a little bit of the jealous nature. They don’t tend to like it when someone else gets more attention than usual. It is quite natural, I suppose. We actually ended up spending the whole day with him. At the end of our time, he said goodbye and I held out my fist but he opened his arms and hugged us. I was a little taken aback. It was a simple gesture. Perhaps one which is often taken for granted but for Rone, it was something special. There was a barrier which was overcome. Nowadays, he walks with us whenever we head for home. He walks part of the way and told us that one day he wants to have tea in our home. He even gave us a beautiful tea pot for the occasion. He saw someone trying to get rid of it and he kept it for us. We invited him to our place months ago but he refused then because he wasn’t sure if he was truly welcomed. Now, he knows that he has a place in our home.

Healing comes in a simple gestures. Sometimes these simple acts speak volumes. We should not attempt to reduce healing to one or two actions. We should never glamorize healings as they do in some places. The foundation of an act of healing is not the physical contact but Love. When a simple gesture is performed on the basis of Love, its significance can be sensed in the soul of the person receiving it. It opens up hearts. It overcomes barriers and eradicates lies. Sometimes people feel like they are incapable of doing great and marvelous things for the Kingdom of God. They confuse God’s standards with those of the world. Jesus said the greatest in the Kingdom is the servant of all. A servant does simple things which no one wants to do. In the streets, we see people who spend great sums of money on the homeless. Sometimes we see people come in busloads and do all kinds of spectacular things for the poorest of the poor. All these are good but most of our children and youth hardly remember any of these folks after they are gone. Sometimes they introduce us to people who hardly have done anything spectacular or complex. Most of the time, they are people who just smile at them and spend a few minutes talking to them. Sometimes they are just people who shake their hands. Simple gestures but they are done with great love.

Going back to the oncologist, he wrote that in the prisons where he served, there is hardly anything in the clinic. Many times he would only have a white sterile desk and a completely impersonal room. Many times he has only a stethoscope to attend to the prisoners but he was amazed how much healing occurred in the room just by listening and talking to the patients. It is not the listening and talking which helps people but the Love which is the foundation of these actions.

The apostles saw great Love expressed in the simple gestures of our Lord Jesus.