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Wednesday, January 8, 2020

Bishop Barron's Gospel Reflection January 8, 2020

Wednesday, January 8, 2020
Wednesday after Epiphany
Mark 6:45-52
Friends, in today’s Gospel Jesus demonstrates his control over nature by walking on the sea.
What we see here on vivid display is Jesus the miracle-worker. Modern thinkers tend to be put off by this dimension of the Gospel. Thomas Jefferson took a razor to the Gospels, cutting out everything that smacked of the supernatural. The problem is that he had to make an absolute mess of Mark’s Gospel, which is positively chock-a-block with such things.
Jefferson’s contemporary, the great modern philosopher David Hume, claimed that since the laws of nature were set, miracles were, strictly speaking, impossible. Following these Enlightenment era prompts, an awful lot of contemporary Christian theologians and Bible commentators have tried to explain away Jesus’ miracles as spiritual symbols.
N.T. Wright argues that it’s hard to explain the enormous popularity of Jesus apart from this fascination with his wonder-working. More to it, though God typically lets the universe run according to its natural rhythms and patterns, what is to prevent God from shaping it and influencing it occasionally in remarkable ways in order to signal his purpose and his presence?

Wednesday after Epiphany
Lectionary: 214

Reading 1 1 JN 4:11-18

Beloved, if God so loved us,
we also must love one another.
No one has ever seen God.
Yet, if we love one another, God remains in us,
and his love is brought to perfection in us.
This is how we know that we remain in him and he in us,
that he has given us of his Spirit.
Moreover, we have seen and testify
that the Father sent his Son as savior of the world.
Whoever acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God,
God remains in him and he in God.
We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us.
God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him.
In this is love brought to perfection among us,
that we have confidence on the day of judgment
because as he is, so are we in this world.
There is no fear in love,
but perfect love drives out fear
because fear has to do with punishment,
and so one who fears is not yet perfect in love.

Gospel MK 6:45-52

After the five thousand had eaten and were satisfied,
Jesus made his disciples get into the boat
and precede him to the other side toward Bethsaida,
while he dismissed the crowd.
And when he had taken leave of them,
he went off to the mountain to pray.
When it was evening,
the boat was far out on the sea and he was alone on shore.
Then he saw that they were tossed about while rowing,
for the wind was against them.
About the fourth watch of the night,
he came toward them walking on the sea.
He meant to pass by them.
But when they saw him walking on the sea,
they thought it was a ghost and cried out.
They had all seen him and were terrified.
But at once he spoke with them,
“Take courage, it is I, do not be afraid!”
He got into the boat with them and the wind died down.
They were completely astounded.
They had not understood the incident of the loaves.
On the contrary, their hearts were hardened.

 

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