The Catcher in the Rye - Mark 1:14-20 Mark 2:13-17

 What does the crude, irreverent, alienated hero of The Catcher in the Rye possibly have to do with the gospel and the good news of Jesus Christ ?  It turns out - quite a lot.

Wisdom from the Ancient Church on our scripture for today

Why do we have to go through the unpleasant process of repentance to know God ?

Irenaeus in about 180 AD wrote:

“What competent doctor, when asked to cure a sick person would simply follow the desires of the patient, and not act in accordance with the requirements of good medicine?  … How then, are the sick to be made strong ? How are sinners to repent ? Is it by merely holding fast to what they are presently doing ? Or, on the contrary, by undergoing a great change and reversal of their previous behavior, by which they had brought upon themselves serious illness and many sins ?”

Gregory of Nyssa in about 380 AD wrote:

“They who use the knife to remove certain unnatural growths in the body do not bring to the person they are serving a method of healing that is painless, though certainly they apply the knife without any intention of injuring the patient… Just as the excision of the wart gives sharp pain to the skin of the body, so then must there be some anguish in the recovering soul which had a strong bent to evil”

What does it mean to follow Jesus ?

The Venerable Bede in about 690 AD wrote:

“By ‘follow’ he meant not so much the movement of feet as of the heart, the carrying out of a way of life.   For one who says that he lives in Christ ought himself to walk just as he walked, not to aim at earthly things, not to pursue perishable gains, but to flee base praise, to embrace willingly the contempt of all that is worldly for the sake of heavenly glory, to do good to all, to inflict injuries upon no one in bitterness, to suffer patiently those injuries that come to oneself, to ask God’s forgiveness for those who oppress, never to seek one’s own glory but always God’s, and to uphold whatever helps one love heavenly things.  This is what is meant by following Christ.  In this way, disregarding earthly gains, Matthew attached himself to the band of followers of One who had no riches.  For the Lord himself, who outwardly called Matthew by a word, inwardly bestowed upon him the gift of an invisible impulse so that he was able to follow.”

Augustine wrote in about 410 AD:

“The will is free when it is sound, and it is sound in proportion to its submission to divine mercy and grace.”