Join Msgr. Don Fischer as he reads and delivers a short reflection on today’s gospel, followed by 3 1/2 minutes of contemplative music and a closing prayer. Msgr. Don hopes that today’s reflection on the gospel will empower you to carry the Word in your heart throughout the day.

Choose either the video or audio below.

Gospel
Mark 6:53-56

After making the crossing to the other side of the sea,
Jesus and his disciples came to land at Gennesaret
and tied up there.
As they were leaving the boat, people immediately recognized him.
They scurried about the surrounding country    
and began to bring in the sick on mats
to wherever they heard he was.
Whatever villages or towns or countryside he entered,
they laid the sick in the marketplaces
and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak;
and as many as touched it were healed.

Reflection

Jesus came into the world to initiate the kingdom of God. It’s a kingdom free of evil, and the power of evil is shame and fear and anger, and it creates dis-ease. And so when he manifests his power to heal, he is really manifesting the kingdom that’s going to come and people are longing for it and yet don't even understand what it's about.

But that's what Jesus came to reveal. And eventually we grow, even today in our consciousness of what this kingdom is really about. About wholeness, fullness, integrity.

Closing Prayer

Father, help us always to recognize in you this power to heal is a sign of the kingdom. And it always somehow comes across as something that is connected to love, to compassion, to understanding. Fill us with these gifts as we go about our day healing our brothers, our sisters from the shame, the fear, the anger that often keeps them outside the kingdom. And we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.