6 January 2024 Mark 1:7-11
Journalist Douglas Murray is one of many atheists today who are beginning to question their atheism. Murray actually calls himself a “Christian Atheist” because he has come to believe that Christians can talk more meaningfully about meaning certainly than atheists or any materialists can, maybe than anyone can. He has said that what he most wants the church to do is to preach its gospel because he is coming to believe again that perhaps there is more hope there than anyplace else.
He was asked recently what it would take for him to reclaim the Christian faith he walked away from in his 20s.
He said, “I would need to hear a voice.”
How about this voice: “He saw the heavens being torn open, and the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon him” (Mark 1:10).
The Old Testament tells the story of the comings and goings of the Holy Spirit. God created Eden, but people walked away. The Ark of the Covenant went before the people, but people started treating it like a rabbit’s foot that they could control, and the Ark was taken away. Prophets were sent, but people paid no attention and kings called them “troublers of Israel.” And prophets went away. By the time of John the Baptist, there had not been a prophet in Israel for over 400 years.
But now the heavens have been “torn open” – not opened like a curtain, in such a way that they could be closed again, as they had always been closed again, but opened in such a way that they would stay open. Forever. And now the Holy Spirit of God, the life of God himself, has descended upon Jesus, “in whom the fullness of God was pleased to dwell” (Colossians 1:19) – there was not one part of Jesus that was not the “fullness of God.” And this Jesus, raised from the dead has said to us all, “Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).
How about that voice?
And that same Jesus, in whom the fullness of God is still pleased to dwell, touches earth with heaven every day. Every time Mass is said heaven touches earth, heaven touches us, the very life of God is placed in our hands and from there touches the inmost parts of us. Every time someone is baptized or confirmed, heaven touches earth, heaven touches us, and the very life of God is given again to us. Every time someone is married heaven touches earth, heaven touches us, and two people are made one flesh in Jesus.
Hundreds of millions of people will eat today, and have clothes to wear today, and go to school today, and have hospitals for their sick today, because there are people whom heaven has touched today, and whose gratitude has made them love the poor. Only the U.S. federal government gives more to the poor than the Catholic Church, and the feds have the advantage of being able to tax and print their own money.
How about that voice?
Now the heavens are “torn open,” opened in such a way that they cannot be closed again, and the Spirit of God is not coming and going, but coming again and again and again, touching earth with heaven every day, thousands, millions of times every day. Maybe that’s the voice that Douglas Murray and others like him need to hear. Maybe they will hear it if people like us – people who have been baptized and confirmed and received the gift of the Holy Spirit, people who go to Mass, people who are joyfully “one flesh” with our spouses in Jesus, people who love the people Jesus loves – live like we have heard it. Loudly.
How about that voice? Can you hear it now?
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