Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

My mother and father fell in love with each other rather quickly. It was only a span of two months between their first meeting and quiet betrothal. They waited for a significant period of time before going public with the happy news. It simply wasn’t time. Love’s strength and speed can sprout scandal in public. Until the big reveal, they gave the outside world only little hints, gestures, and riddles.

Something like this — but even more wonderful — is at play when Mark says of Jesus, “he did not speak to them without a parable, but to his disciples in private he explained everything.” Jesus is the long-awaited messiah-king, but his identity as the Lord and Son of God is so new, surprising, and scandalous to human ears that the big reveal would have to wait. Thus, his parables are riddles, meant to conceal more than reveal. Even the disciples — who hear things explained directly — barely grasp what he is up to. It’s only at the cross that Jesus’ love for Israel and the world is explicitly revealed. Until then, much stays hidden and comes in riddles.

So it goes with us, too. I wonder at times why doesn’t the Lord just speak to us directly in prayer about what we should do, or how to fix our problems. Or why doesn’t he reveal himself directly to powerful leaders who are slow to act? Why does he allow life so often to be confounding, contradictory, and crazy? Because it simply isn’t time yet. One glorious day, it will be. Until then, he teaches us in riddles, and only sometimes explains them.

— Father John Muir