Overcoming the Closure of Heart
- davidwperk
- Mar 7, 2024
- 7 min read
Daily Office Devotional, Thursday, March 7, 2024
The week of the third Sunday after Lent
The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.
Key phrases for reflection from today’s reading:
34As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things. 35When it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, ‘This is a deserted place, and the hour is now very late; 36send them away so that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy something for themselves to eat.’ 37But he answered them, ‘You give them something to eat.’
You will find the full text of today’s Gospel at the end of this reflection.
Daily Office Lectionary Readings (BCP, 955)
AM Psalm [83] or 42, 43; PM Psalm 85, 86
Gen. 46:1-7,28-34; 1 Cor. 9:1-15; Mark 6:30-46
Today we celebrate the Feast of Perpetua and Felicity. (See below.)
David’s Reflections
John Dunne wrote about compassion:
In all the great religions the healing power of compassion is recognized. For compassion overcomes the closure of heart that is requisite for taking pleasure in one's own suffering or in the suffering of another, for desiring one's own death or the death of another. Compassion is a transformation of the dark pleasure taken in suffering, a transfiguration of the dark desire for death. * (Italics mine)
In today’s Gospel, the feeding of the 5,000 happens because Jesus feels moved with compassion for this mass of people milling around in a desert place like sheep with no shepherd. Mark links two verbs, “He saw” and “he had compassion.” As Dunne puts it, “compassion overcomes the closure of the heart.” Jesus’ heart was opened to this crowd because he saw them. Not that his disciples did not see them; rather, Jesus saw them in their need (a vision his disciples lacked) and that seeing awakened his compassion.
Jesus’ followers seemed afflicted with “closure of the heart.” They wanted Jesus to dismiss the crowd so they could continue their intended purpose which was to retreat from crowds and rest. How striking that twelve people saw one reality and one saw another. Their visions of reality determined their response to the crowd. Seeing overcomes the closure of the heart.
What do you and I see in our encounters with people? We may see their woundedness, their loneliness, their isolation, their caughtness in addiction or evil. The disciples saw that this crowd was hungry. But, if our heart is closed by our biases or because we are preoccupied with our own suffering or our own personal priorities, we may not see in a way that will evoke a caring response.
Our hope is to keep company with Jesus and with those who are doing so. The disciples were drawn into Jesus’ vision of the crowd and into his openness of heart. They became part of the compassionate response of feeding. If I am seeing peoples’ needs but am not sensing compassion that drives me to act in some concrete way, perhaps it is time to attend to my own heart, to ask why I am seeing and not caring. Whom do I know whose heart shows openness? Maybe I should spend more time with them.
This miracle story tells me that those who follow Jesus cannot not be part of Jesus’ mission of responding to the world’s hunger for physical and spiritual nourishment. As Jesus put it to his followers, “You give them something to eat.” Then, Jesus went about providing abundance that the disciples indeed could share. We live in the presence of that same abundance. We eat and drink of it each Sunday in Holy Eucharist. Those starving for that love need eucharistic ministers who will be bread and wine to them. You and I are the source of that bread and wine to those absent from the table we share.
Deep seeing could well lead to overcoming the closure of heart. It did for Jesus. What am I not seeing or seeing only superficially? Time to overcome closure of heart.
* A Search for God in Time and Memory (Notre Dame, IN: Notre Dame UP, 1969), pp. 176.
Collect of the Day, The Third Sunday in Lent
Almighty God, you know that we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves: Keep us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls, that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, p. 218).
Collect for Thursday of the Third Sunday In Lent
Keep watch over your Church, O Lord, with your unfailing love; and, since it is grounded in human weakness and cannot maintain itself without your aid, protect it from all danger, and keep it in the way of salvation; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.. (Holy Women, Holy Men, p. 51).
Today we celebrate the Feast of Perpetua and Felicity, martyrs. (died ca 202/203 CE).
Collect of the Feast of Perpetua and Felicity
O God, the King of Saints, who strengthened your servants Perpetua, Felicity, and their companions to make a good confession and encourage one another in the time of trial: Grant that we who cherish their blessed memory may share their pure and steadfast faith and win with them the palm of victory; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
A Collect for Protection
O God, the life of all who live, the light of the faithful, the strength of those who labor, and the repose of the dead: We thank you for the blessings of the day that is past, and humbly ask for your protection through the coming night. Bring us in safety to the morning hours; through him who died and rose again for us, your Son our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. (BCP, 124)
A GAELIC PRAYER
As the rain hides the stars,
As the Autumn mist hides the hills,
As the clouds veil the blue of the sky,
So the dark happenings of my lot
Hide the shining of thy face from me.
Yet, if I may hold thy hand in the darkness,
It is enough.
Since I know, that though I may stumble in my going
Thou dost not fall.
(Theme prayer for the congregation of the Saxon Church of Escomb, England
Church constructed in 670-690 CE and still the site of worship for the parish. The visitor's handbook attributes some of the architectural features to Irish Celtic influence. Source: The Saxon Church: Escomb: A Guide for Pilgrims. The Saxon Church. Escomb, Durham County, England.)
In the Order of Worship for Evening
Almighty, everlasting God, let our prayer in your sight be as incense, the lifting up of our hands as the evening sacrifice. Give us grace to behold you, present in your Word and Sacraments, and to recognize you in the lives of those around us. Stir up in us the flame of that love which burned in the heart of your Son as he bore his passion, and let it burn in us to eternal life and to the ages of ages. Amen. (BCP, 113)
A Collect for Mission
Everliving God, whose will it is that all should come to you through your Son Jesus Christ: Inspire our witness to him, that all may know the power of his forgiveness and the hope of his resurrection; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (BCP, 816-817)
Daily Office Gospel, Mark 6:30-46
30 The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. 31He said to them, ‘Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.’ For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. 32And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. 33Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. 34As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things. 35When it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, ‘This is a deserted place, and the hour is now very late; 36send them away so that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy something for themselves to eat.’ 37But he answered them, ‘You give them something to eat.’ They said to him, ‘Are we to go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread, and give it to them to eat?’ 38And he said to them, ‘How many loaves have you? Go and see.’ When they had found out, they said, ‘Five, and two fish.’ 39Then he ordered them to get all the people to sit down in groups on the green grass. 40So they sat down in groups of hundreds and of fifties. 41Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and he divided the two fish among them all. 42And all ate and were filled; 43and they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. 44Those who had eaten the loaves numbered five thousand men.
45 Immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. 46After saying farewell to them, he went up on the mountain to pray.
Daily Offices in The Book of Common Prayer
Morning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, The Book of Common Prayer
Noonday Prayer, page 103, Book of Common Prayer
Order of Worship for Evening (Vespers), p 109, Book of Common Prayer
Evening Prayer, Rite 2, page 115, Book of Common Prayer
Compline (Night Prayer), page 127, Book of Common Prayer
Daily Devotionals, page 136, Book of Common Prayer
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