Tagged: Daily Promises

“Oh, that today you would hear His voice: ‘Harden not your hearts.’ ” –Psalm 95:7-8 Jesus miraculously and instantaneously healed a leper and then gave him a stern warning not to tell anyone (Mk 1:43-44). The man promptly and completely disobeyed Jesus and began to publicize the whole matter (Mk 1:45). This casual attitude toward disobedience has been the curse of the human race from Adam and Eve to the last person going to hell. All of us recognize this casual attitude toward disobedience in other people. We chide or condemn those who disobey in areas where we may be...

“As evening drew on, they brought Him all who were ill, and those possessed by demons.” –Mark 1:32 In today’s Gospel, Jesus heals in the evening, in the midst of the darkness (Mk 1:32-34). Jesus entered the darkness to drive the demons out of the darkness. “A people living in darkness has seen a great light. On those who inhabit a land overshadowed by death, light has arisen” (Mt 4:16). In today’s first reading, Jesus enters the darkness of our fallen human state (Heb 2:14ff). He became one of us. The Almighty God, Whom the universe could not contain (1...

“Have You come to destroy?” –Mark 1:24 The Church has now entered the season of Ordinary Time. A more precise meaning would be “Ordered Time,” for this season of the Church Year is marked by godly order rather than ordinary, boring activity. Today’s Gospel shows the impact of God’s order coming into a situation. A man in the synagogue is possessed by a demon (Mk 1:23). His life is disordered by Satan and his demons rather than ordered under the freedom and order of the children of God. Jesus casts out the demon and sets this man free. This is...

Jesus “observed Simon and his brother Andrew casting their nets into the sea.” –Mark 1:16 Jesus called the fishermen, Simon and Andrew, after observing them casting their nets into the sea. When Jesus called them, “they immediately abandoned their nets and became His followers” (Mk 1:18). He called the next two apostles, James and John, while they were putting their nets in order (Mk 1:19). Nets are mentioned three times in Mark’s account of Jesus calling the first four apostles. What is the significance of the nets? From the fish’s point of view, nets are traps which take away the...

“The Holy Spirit descended on Him in visible form like a dove.” –Luke 3:22 On this last day of the Christmas season, we can receive in a new way the outpouring of the Spirit. Like Jesus, we must go to our Jordan and meet our St. John the Baptizer. There’s a person and a place that the Lord has chosen to be instrumental in lavishing His Spirit on us (Ti 3:6). Like Jesus, we will have to deny and humble ourselves to be at the right place at the right time (Mt 3:15). We will struggle interiorly to “let it...