Daily Gospel Reflection for January 21, 2025

Join us as we reflect, ponder, and pray together inspired by today's Gospel.

Today's Gospel: Mark 2:23-28

It doesn’t matter what time of year it is, mothers are always busy. Even now that Christmas is past, we moms can hardly catch a few minutes of quiet rest.

Our days fly by with homework, sports and activities, meals, and bedtime routines. There is a temptation to put off grocery shopping, cleaning, and other busy-work until Sunday because it may be the only day of the week without commitments.

Yet today’s Gospel reminds us that Sundays were designed by God to be a day of rest for everyone.

“The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath.” Mark 2:27

God intentionally gave us that last day to spend in communion with Him at His house of worship and not to do work, instead resting and enjoying quality time with family.

There are several instances in the TV series The Chosen in which the religious leaders get upset with Jesus for healing or plucking grain on the Sabbath. Jesus turns it back on them for their overzealous rules forbid doing even good works, which went beyond God’s intentions for the third commandment.

This reminds me of my grandmother Agnes, whose name day is today, who lovingly prepared a home-cooked meal for us every other Sunday. We drove half an hour to spend that day as a family. Technically, the cooking and driving might have been considered “work” that shouldn’t be done on Sundays. Most of her cooking was done prior to Sunday (especially her homemade fruit pies), but some last-minute efforts had to be done on Sunday. This kind of loving, good work that leads to quality family time together fits Jesus’ vision of the Sabbath.

Ponder:

How can you better spend your Sabbath day of rest to honor God? What good work would God appreciate, and what unnecessary work should be done on another day?

Pray:

My dear Jesus, thank You for making the Sabbath day for us to worship You and give our minds and bodies the rest they need. Help us to be more faithful to Your commandment by delaying work that should not be done on this day.

Daily Gospel 2