Faith Daily | 21 January 2021

PRAYER of the WEEK Epiphany Two

Almighty God,

by whose grace alone we are accepted

and called to your service:

strengthen us by your Holy Spirit

and make us worthy of our calling;

through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen

GOSPEL for the Day: Mark 3: 7-12

7 Jesus departed with his disciples to the lake, and a great multitude from Galilee followed him; 8hearing all that he was doing, they came to him in great numbers from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, beyond the Jordan, and the region around Tyre and Sidon. 9He told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, so that they would not crush him; 10for he had cured many, so that all who had diseases pressed upon him to touch him. 11Whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and shouted, ‘You are the Son of God!’ 12But he sternly ordered them not to make him known.

GOSPEL Reflection: Contributed by Peter Brady

In today's reading Jesus moves to the countryside around the Sea of Galilee. This was possibly because He was no longer able to teach in synagogues due to the opposition of the Pharisees but also because He was drawing crowds larger than any building in the Jewish world could hold. Mark's account makes it clear that a crowd, a large crowd (in the tens of thousands) drawn from all of Israel and, indeed, beyond was following Jesus.

The crowd is enthusiastic and understandably want to touch Jesus to be healed. Some of them have traveled great distances to see Him. And in a society where many afflictions marked the sufferer as a social outcast, why wouldn't someone take the opportunity for healing when it arose?

So the crowd desired Jesus. But many did so simply for the immediacy of healing - what He could do for them - rather than His message. Soon, many of the crowd would be calling for his execution. To paraphrase a certain movie, He wasn't the messiah they were looking for. The challenge for us is to not repeat the errors of that crowd. Yes, we can get something - and what a thing it is, Salvation - from Jesus but we should approach him not seeking anything but genuinely desiring to give Him praise.

FINAL PRAYER:

Father,

we rejoice that You rule and guide each of us.

Lead us, renew us and free us to go forward.

Reveal Your strength and power

so that Your will be done on earth.

May Your name be praised.

Amen