At Peace (Mark 9: 30-37, Psalm 55: 23)

It seems strange that on the one hand, the Gospel for the day speaks of Jesus' prediction that the Son of Man being handed over to be killed and yet the Psalms for the day says that never will God permit the just man to be disturbed.

I guess this suggests that what matters is not the absence of horrible situations but that in the presence of those horrible situations (the reading from the letter of James today talks about wars, for example), we are able to maintain a certain sense of (what might be called in Kung Fu Panda as :-) inner peace.

The Psalms tell us to throw our cares on the Lord and God will support us. And that support is the source of inner peace.

The thought that he would be handed over to man, (tortured) and killed must have made Jesus queasy but he threw his cares upon his Father, received support, and thus maintained inner peace (or at the very least, the courage to do what had to be done).