Monday in the Sixth Week of Ordinary Time, February 15, 2021

Mark 8:11-13

The Pharisees came forward and began to argue with Jesus, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him. He sighed from the depth of his spirit and said, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Amen, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.” Then he left them, got into the boat again, and went off to the other shore.

The Lord arrives on the boat near a town on the coast of the Sea of Galilee called Dalmanutha.  No other mention of this town is found in the Scriptures or anywhere else.  The site of the town is itself disputed, with some scholars suggesting it lay near Magdala.  It must have been an insignificant place with few inhabitants, but the Lord Jesus set out for it nonetheless.  He shows us his determination to go to any place so that all  might hear him.  He would overlook no one.  St. Mark does not tell us what he said to the people there, but it seems he did preach to a certain number of people, for we are told that “the Pharisees came forward”.  They “came forward” to argue with the Lord, which they would not have done had the Lord not been preaching.  They were “seeking from him a sign from heaven” such as none of the prophets or even Moses gave.  That is, they were asking for a sign in the sky to validate him and his teaching.  Considering the fact that the Lord at this stage in his ministry was preaching about the approach of the Kingdom and the need for repentance, this demand from them is quite extraordinary.  He does not go far beyond what John the Baptist had done, except for his miracles, which evidently the Pharisees would not accept as “a sign from heaven”, and yet they did not require .John to produce signs.  We can conclude from this that though the Lord was not yet making special claims about himself and his relationship with the Father, the Pharisees were anxious about him.  “A sign from heaven to test him.”  That is, so that his identity might be revealed to them.  But as we know, not even the Lord’s rising from the dead was enough for them.

“He sighed from the depth of his spirit.”  They demanded a sign, but would refuse to believe it when they saw it.  The Lord’s exasperation here brings to mind his words as spoken through the Prophet Micah: “O my people, what have I done to you? In what have I wearied you? Answer me!” (Micah 6, 3).  The Lord cried out to his Chosen People, seeking the reason for why they have abandoned him for other gods.  This verse is used in the “reproaches” on Good Friday.  “Why does this generation seek a sign?”  The Greek and Hebrew words that are translated as “generation” also carry the meanings of “an age”, “an epoch”, “a cycle of time”, and so on.  According to the reckoning of the early Christians, we are living in the sixth generation or age.  It began with the Incarnation of the Lord Jesus, and will end with his coming to judgment.  Thereafter shall reign the seventh age, an eternal Sabbath in which the just shall rest from their labors.  The present generation is an evil one (cf. Matthew 12, 39) and distinctly lacks faith.  Already in the earthly lifetime of Jesus so little faith existed that he wondered aloud, “When the Son of man comes, will he find faith on earth?”  (Luke 18, 8).  “Amen, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.”  Elsewhere, the Lord says that only “the sign of Jonah” would be given.  In fact, the time for signs ended with his Incarnation.  This is the time of the fulfillment of those signs.  Earlier was the time for shadows.  Now is the time of the sun which cast those shadows.  The Lord shows this in his preaching and in his miracles.

“Then he left them, got into the boat again, and went off to the other shore.”

His leaving the Pharisees without another word is itself a sign.  It is a sign for how he will leave the Jews and proceed to the Gentiles through the later preaching of his Apostles.  He does not condemn these men to hell, he does not threaten them, he does not harm them.  He simply walks away, as he walked away when he was rejected by his own people at Nazareth, and as he will do in other places where the people will not listen to him.  He goes his way.  In the same way, he does not force us to attend Holy Mass, to read the Scriptures, to pray the rosary, or to perform charitable works.  We may let the day slip by without doing these things.  But by doing them we cling to the Lord so that wherever he goes, we go too, and he does not slip away from us.