Today’s Gospel provides us with a snapshot of “a day in the life” of Jesus of Nazareth. We see Jesus teaching in the synagogue of Capernaum, going for a meal with his friends, healing Simon’s mother-in-law, meeting the crowds, healing the sick and casting out the demons. Very early the next morning, Jesus slips off to a quiet place to pray, to spend some quality time with his Father. Refreshed and refueled, he moves on with his disciples to the next town, continuing to proclaim the Good News in word and deed.
Being divine does seem to give Jesus an advantage that puts him in a whole different category from the rest of us. Our creed confirms his distinctness. Jesus is “God from God, light from light, true God from true God . . . one with the Father.” Does this mean that the life, teaching, suffering and death of Jesus are not real, but fake?
Last Sunday, the Feast of the Baptism of Jesus was celebrated, bringing the Christmas-Epiphany cycle to its conclusion. Unlike Matthew and Luke, who begin with the infancy narratives, Mark begins his Gospel with the baptism of Jesus: the heavens opened, the Spirit descending like a dove, and the Father’s voice: “You are my Son, my beloved; with you I am well-pleased.” Each day of his life, in every aspect of his mission on earth, Jesus lived out of the truth of those words spoken by his Father: he lived as the Beloved Son of God.
Creator,
as I prepare to go into the world,
help me to see the sacrament
in the wearing of this cloth ---
let it be “an outward sign of an inward grace” ---
a tangible and visible way
of living love for my neighbors,
as I love myself.
St. Monica's Parish