Gospel: January 23, 2025
January 23, 2025 (Thursday)
2nd Week in Ordinary Time
Psalter: Week 2 (Green/White/Red)
St. Marianne Cope, virgin (USA) St. Vincent, deacon & martyr
Ps 40:7-8a, 8b-9, 10, 17
Here am I Lord; I come to do your will
1st Reading: Hebrews 7:25–8:6
Gospel: Mark 3:7-12
Jesus and his disciples withdrew to the lakeside, and a large crowd from Galilee followed him. A great number of people also came from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, Transjordan, and from the region of Tyre and Sidon, for they had heard of all that he was doing. Because of the crowd, Jesus told his disciples to have a boat ready for him, to prevent the people from crushing him. He healed so many, that all who had diseases kept pressing toward him to touch him. Even the people who had evil spirits, whenever they saw him, they would fall down before him and cry out, “You are the Son of God.” But he warned them sternly not to tell anyone who he was.
Reflection:
“You are the Son of God.”
The desire to get close to Jesus is very intense in today’s Gospel. He has healed the sick, and his reputation goes before him, so much so that he is in danger of being crushed by the crowds, all pressing forward to touch him. Do we have that level of desire for Christ? That fervor and desire for connection or spiritual union with the Lord was a fundamental motivation for missionaries and martyrs of the early Church, such as St. Vincent of Saragossa, who was imprisoned during the time of Emperor Diocletian and refused to burn Holy Scripture to gain his freedom. His faith and his relationship with Christ his Savior was more important to him than prolonging his earthly life. Our sense of connection with Jesus is essential to a having a faith that is alive, that is something not just of the head, but of the heart, too. To grow in that desire for God we need to cultivate a taste for the things of God. Reach out to Christ, and by his response you will want to get closer. May the martyrs inspire us to a greater love and fervor.
