When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. He told them, "The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that," 'they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!'" (Mark 4:10-12)

Mark has just offered his version of the parable of the sower and, as in Matthew, the disciples ask Jesus why he teaches in parables.

The response of Jesus suggests he is being purposefully obscure, even misleading. Jesus justifies this by quoting from Isaiah.

This is from the very start of Isaiah's call to prophecy. In his encounter with God Isaiah has responded, "Here am I, send me."

Isaiah is to say to his people, "Hear and hear, but do not understand. See and see, but do not perceive." (Isaiah 6:8-13)

In Isaiah - and more broadly in the prophetic tradition - disaster can be a process of creative destruction.

Out of pain arises new insights. Out of anguish we may find greater fulfillment. At least these benefits are possible if we embrace the experience in faith.

When this spiritual catharsis is at hand the greater tragedy is to escape its impact and forsake its profound lessons.

I am struck by the parallel of Isaiah and Aeschylus. The following is from Prometheus Bound:

Hear now the sorry tale
Of mortal man.
A thing of no avail
He was, until a living mind I wrought
Within him, and new mastery of thought.
I cast no blame on man; I do but crave
To show what love was in the gifts I gave.
I tell you, sight they had but saw in vain;
Hearing, but heard not; as shapes wax and wane
In dreams, aimless for ever and confused...