20260530 Saturday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

[그리움하나]

(Jude 17, 20b-25; Mark 11, 27-33): "The Assurance of Love That Dispels the Fog of Doubt"

Dear brothers and sisters, there are times in our life’s journey when everything feels peaceful, like walking through a gentle forest of harmonious relationships. Yet, at other times, we accumulate experiences where it feels as though we must fight our way through a fierce storm of driving rain and wind. In the Word of God today, we witness the tense friction born from just such a process.

In the Gospel of Mark (11:28), the chief priests and the scribes approach Jesus in the temple and hurl a sharp, pointed question at him: “By what authority are you doing these things?” In truth, this question did not stem from a pure, earnest desire to know the truth. Rather, it was driven by a twisted, calculated agenda to trap Jesus in order to protect their own vested interests, which they simply refused to let go.

Jesus, piercing through their hidden motives, countered by asking them about the authority of John the Baptist. Consequently, in verses 31 through 33, they begin to frantically click the calculators of their minds, searching for a human excuse. They reasoned among themselves: “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘[Then] why did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘Of human origin’”—they feared the crowd, for they all thought John really was a prophet. In the end, the only answer their lips could produce was a pathetic, “We do not know.”

It was not that they genuinely did not know the truth; they merely pretended not to know out of fear of losing the possessions and the dominant power they had long enjoyed. When a person locks the doors of their heart and builds the walls of doubt high—when they cannot let go of the sweetness that power brings—they become blind even to the Son of God standing right before their eyes. They go so far as to dismiss the truths taught by the Church as nothing more than foolishness born from a total misunderstanding of the world.

“Doubt comes from the calculations of the mind, but faith begins with the love that surrenders the heart.”

The words from the Letter of Jude (verses 17, 20, and 21) stand in stark contrast to this cold confrontation in the Gospel. To us, who are shaken amidst the temptations and false teachings of this world, they offer an incredibly deep and heartwarming prescription: “...build yourselves up in your most holy faith; pray in the holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in the love of God and wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.”

We, too, experience countless moments of shaking in our lives, wondering, "Does God really exist?" or "Why do these trials happen to me when I am trying so hard to live blamelessly?" It is just as the modern spiritual writer, Brother Carlo Carretto, reminded us: the question that awakens our most fundamental agony, yet ultimately drives us to seek God, is "Lord, why?"

Yet, the Lord does not condemn us for this. Instead, in the very next verse, He commands us: “On those who vacillate, have mercy.”

The Lord intimately knows our shaking. That is why He approaches us with a heart of deep compassion. God’s love is not a reward given to us only when we are perfect; it is the dependable pillar that holds us fast when we waver and fall.

And in verses 24 and 25, the scripture beautifully praises Him, reminding us that this is exactly who He is: “To the one who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you unblemished and exultant, in the presence of his glory, to the only God, our savior...”

Dear brothers and sisters, we must never confine God within the limits of our own intellect. Let us not choose the path of those worldly powerful figures who tried to test the Lord with shallow human knowledge. Instead, let us choose the path of true faith—praying with souls humbly emptied in the Holy Spirit, and entrusting ourselves entirely to His mercy. Even today, with His merciful hand, the Lord will turn our doubts into assurance and our anxieties into joy.

I pray that you all have a blessed day, dwelling securely within that warm love that always supports us from behind so that we do not stumble. Amen.