The Gospel according to Mark (1:21-28)
Jesus came to Capernaum with his followers,
and on the sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught.
The people were astonished at his teaching,
for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.
In their synagogue was a man with an unclean spirit;
he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?
Have you come to destroy us?
I know who you are–the Holy One of God!”
Jesus rebuked him and said, “Quiet! Come out of him!”
The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came out of him.
All were amazed and asked one another,
“What is this?
A new teaching with authority.
He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him.”
His fame spread everywhere throughout the whole region of Galilee.
Reflection:
First of all, my prayers for all who have been affected by the wildfires around Los Angeles this past week. At the moment, good progress is being made to get the fires under control, but there’s still the threat of more winds to potentially kick things up again. I pray, too, for those who lost their homes and for those who lost their lives as well. It is times like these that show that we can and must rely on our faith to get us through challenging moments, and that we just have to trust that God is there with us through it all as we journey together.
We return to Ordinary Time this week, and are recalling the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. In today’s Gospel, we see the beginnings of how people reacted to Jesus & His mission and it’s a good lesson for us all, even now. Nowadays, there are so many different voices clamoring for our attention, claiming to be *the* “authority”. It’s sad that many of those voices are all about division and talking down about those who are seen as their “opponents”. That’s not how it is supposed to be. Instead, at its core, Jesus’ message was about how we are ALL loved, and how we are ALL brothers and sisters. If each of us lived our lives with those two points as the focus, how could we not extend care, love and mercy to everyone we meet?
As we know, Jesus’ ministry did not find open hearts with everyone. But, to those who do take in His words, and do our best to live them out, we can never underestimate what God can do through all of our kind actions. We see some of that in the response to the wildfires and the help with the relief effort. On Sunday, Linda and I helped out at one of the locations that was providing help to those impacted by the wildfires, and I was very heartened to see that some of those who were there to help were doing it, just because they felt called to care for others. A couple of the other volunteers came from quite far away to be of service. Even at times of disaster, we do get opportunities to see (and to be) examples of the best of our human nature.
Action for the Day:
Do you know someone who was affected by the wildfires this past week? Reach out to them, even if all you do is let that person know you are thinking of them, and that you are walking with them through what they are facing. If you can do more to help (volunteer, donate, etc.), I definitely encourage that, too!
Link to the DEACON5 website: https://deacon5.com/
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