Devotional Thought of the Day:

²⁰  Then Jesus went home. Again such a large crowd gathered that Jesus and his disciples had no time to eat. ²¹  When his family heard about it, they set out to take charge of him, because people were saying, “He’s gone mad!” Mark 3:20-21 (TEV)

910    Your ideal, your vocation: it’s madness. And your friends, your brothers: they’re crazy. Haven’t you heard that cry deep down within you sometimes? Answer firmly that you are grateful to God for the honor of being one of those “lunatics.”

It’s been a while since mad was a synonym for crazy, but the idea is that you are not in control of your emotions, and your emotions are in control of you.

It sounds like an odd description for Jesus, the one who is fully God, fully man!  Especially the fully God part.  Can God really be mad, crazy, a lunatic?  There were times people were sure he was insane, a raving madman.  

Who else would tell people to love their enemies?  To not stand against what was evil?  Who would demonstrate these were not just sayings, but would actually prove the logic of the madness. 

And while we may doubt the sanity of some of his followers, Jesus did tell us the world wouldn’t understand our madness, even to the point they would persecute us. 

There is another word for the madness, in Hebrew, it is cHesed; in Greek, agape; in Olde English, it was Charity; in modern English, the depth of the word love.  An affection, a care for someone where you do what is best for them, no matter the cost.   Where you put their salvation before your comfort, and often times, their comfort before you own need, or wants, or desire.

Not just those like you, Jesus makes that clear in Matthew 5.  All people. 

Which means you must know His love, and how it put you first, without any thought of cost. To know God’s love…because He loves us, we love Him.

This is madness to the world, but it is God’s logic, God’s love… it is reality.

AMEN!

Escriva, Josemaria. The Way (Kindle Locations 2116-2118). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.