The gospel for Monday of the fifth week in Ordinary Time is taken from Mark 6, Chapter 53. After making the crossing to the other side of the sea, Jesus disciples came to the land of 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. One of the things that’s clear in the gospel stories is that Jesus had a hard time finding a way to teach and to preach, because those who longed for what he offered were longing most especially for his healing power. And what’s important about that is that the words of God, the teaching of God that we find in Jesus, the invitation on the part of God to be like Jesus in the world, is a healing experience. Everything in the gospel is about a healing experience, becoming who we really are and doing the work that we’re really called to do. Sa. Sam sa.

Satan. Foreign. Father, no matter what encounter we have with your truth, please open our eyes so that we can see that everything you teach us, everything you ask from us, is something that will be about a healing experience. You came to change us, not to tell us what we have to become, but to enable us to become all that you want us to be. And we ask this in Jesus name, Amen.