NOTES for Mar 4:21-25

Have you noticed how widespread schizophrenia is in our time? Some specialists already refuse to draw a boundary between it and normality, because a divided consciousness and a double—or multiple—life have in fact become the norm. We are one person in public and another when we are alone. We live on the assumption that no one will find out what we are like in solitude. We have lost the wholeness and integrity of life because we think that when no one is looking at us, no one sees us; we have lost the sense of God’s presence. But Jesus warns that what we keep hidden within ourselves gradually grows, taking possession of more and more of our self, until it finally breaks out. What is secret becomes manifest.

To prevent such a catastrophe, Jesus offers us a whole and undivided life, a life of continually standing before God, regardless of whether people see us at that moment. If nothing is concealed, there is no reason to fear the light.