Did St. Matthew want us to smile? “Jesus warned them sternly, ‘See that no one knows about this.’ But they went out and spread word of him through all that land.” Even Jesus couldn’t get people to behave! What lay behind Jesus’ (ignored) command to keep their cure private? My guess is that Our Lord was reluctant to be known as the miracle man. People would flock to him for immediate cures of their physical ailments and ignore the spiritual and societal cure that was at the heart of his mission from the Heavenly Father. Hence, the command to silence was designed to make sure that he was being clear in the message he was presenting… something we should all strive to do.
