COULDN'T KEEP IT TO MYSELF

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In Mark's gospel (1:40) Jesus heals a leper and then promptly tells hm "You mustn't tell anyone about this."  Think about the poor guy's situation. He's been living as a victim of a disease that made him an outcast, that excluded him from every aspect of life in his community. Then this man touches him and heals him of his disease, so that suddenly he has his life back. He is able to live with his family and go to the market and the synagogue and wherever else his wants. His life will never be the same. 

But Jesus commands him solemnly not to tell anybody about it. In Mark's gospel there is this theme that the scholars call "the messianic secret," describing Jesus' constantly telling people not to tell anyone that he is the messiah (because for the Jews of that time, the messiah was a military and political figure, the complete opposite of Jesus's understanding of his identity).

In any case, the newly healed man, immediately goes and starts spreading the wonderful news that he has been cured. There's a gospel song that goes "I said I wasn't gonna tell nobody, but I couldn't keep it to myself." Naturally I think of this song whenever someone in the gospel disregards Jesus' command to be silent about some miraculous event.

The words to that song are a great source of meditation: "I said I wasn't gonna tell nobody, but I couldn't keep it to myself." Mahalia Jackson sings it slowly and reflectively, but I prefer the more lively and upbeat rendition I once heard from the choir at Blessed Sacrament Church in Newark. For me, the reason I'd sing the song so brightly and up-tempo is that I'm so overjoyed because of God's gift to me that I have to just shout out my enthusiasm.

This enthusiastic response is, it seems to me, what my life as a Christian needs to be. I have no right to "keep it to myself" when God has given me so many people who love me, for example, and so many talents, good health, and so on.

When someone says something that offends me, or does something to me that I consider rude, I need to remember that I have experienced God's boundless forgiveness myself. Do I have the right to just keep that experience to myself? No. I need to share that forgiveness with this person who has offended me.
"I said I wasn't gonna tell nobody, but I couldn't keep it to myself." 

 The Lord has been so good to me, so loving that, like that healed leper in the gospel, I just can't keep it to myself; I need to pass it on to people who need a word of encouragement or a thoughtful gesture to make their burden a little lighter.
"I said I wasn't gonna tell nobody, but I couldn't keep it to myself." 

My way of treating or talking about others should be telling them that I've personally experienced God's loving kindness in my life, and that I'm just naturally passing it on.
"I said I wasn't gonna tell nobody, but I couldn't keep it to myself." 

When I manage to love and forgive people whom I find very difficult to deal with, then my life becomes a joyful song:
"I said I wasn't gonna tell nobody, but I couldn't keep it to myself." 

The examples are countless. All of Jesus' commands seem to boil down to the one great command: "Love one another as I have loved you." Yes. That's the idea: Tell everyone by your actions that Jesus has loved you.
"I said I wasn't gonna tell nobody, but I couldn't keep it to myself." 

Happy singing!

I said I wasn't gonna tell nobody, but ...