Daily Gospel Reflection for February 6, 2017

Today's Gospel: Mark 6, 53-56 - St. Paul Miki & Companions

Although this is a short reading – and really sort of the end of another story – it is rich with description. Jesus comes to us through our human senses; God our Father knows this is how we best understand things.

I can taste the salt of the sea as Jesus and his disciples com to shore. I can imagine people taking a close look at Jesus – and then their look of recognition, and what that calls each person to next. I can see them, to use the authors word, “scurrying” off to bring the person they know who is most in need straight to Jesus. I can hear the sound of the many voices calling out and even begging for Jesus’s attention – some voices are anxious and harried, other voices are skeptical but hopeful, and some voices are excited and joyful! I can smell the different foods and wares and animals in the marketplaces of the cities and towns Jesus visited as he makes his "physician's rounds."

I am most amazed by what happens when I am touched by the very person of Jesus, as the sick, suffering, and poor were in the places and days and times of Mark’s gospel. I am quieted, soothed, relieved, rejuvenated, healed, and transformed. It is this encounter - the act of being touched by the person of Jesus - that calls me to deeper intimacy with him through the other people in my life: those who desperately need healing, those who might give healing, and most importantly even those who perhaps might not want to be healed.

I know all of those people. Because I am all of those people as well. And Jesus desires to encounter us all.

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Ponder:

What part of myself and my life is Jesus waiting for me to bring forward for him to touch and heal? Who is the person in my life I am supposed to "scurry" off to bring to Jesus?

Pray:

Lord Jesus, teach me to recognize you by your presence in my human senses. Help me leave distractions behind and use the gift of my senses to "scurry" to you. Heal me that I may recognize you more easily next time.

Colleen O’Dowd is the Director of Youth Ministry at Holy Spirit Parish in Stevens Point, WI. She loves being Catholic, her converse all-stars are always liturgically correct, and she is a super-saint-geek! She blogs very occasionally at ourheartswereburningwithin.wordpress.com and can also be found @catholiccolleen on Twitter and Instagram.