Monday – 5th Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel – Mark 6:53-56

Scurrying Around

Welcome Home!

Over the past year, we have been blessed to welcome a number of people and friends into our home – dear friends from SRB and Kateri Center, fellow Deacons, childhood friends, and family, especially Mary, my sister, who has been staying with us through this wintry stretch of cold and even snow!  Apparently, our Tennessee BnB is working just fine – no bad Yelp reviews as yet!  

But none of those extended visits/overnights just sort of happens. It takes a lot of time and energy to prep for a relaxing and enjoyable stay.  There’s the grocery shopping, the organizing of menus, the cleaning, the planning of places to visit and local sites to explore!  A lot of time and energy ahead of time, but so worth the effort!  All the rush and flurry of getting everything ‘just so’!  But it was also a time of great anticipation, joy, and excitement about what was to come.

There is one word that resonates with me in today’s Gospel.  SCURRIES!  Jesus arrives in the land of Gennesaret and the people are scurrying about at His appearance.  Think about that.  Jesus is here!  Jesus is HERE!  OMG!  That preacher and teacher and healer is HERE!  And so they rush around in a frenzy of activity to prepare for His arrival, to welcome Him and to bring their sick to be healed.  What joy they must have felt!  And what faith they must have had!

Do we feel that same joy and excitement in the Eucharist?  Do we find that same faith in the words of the Gospel?  Jesus is HERE!  Right here with us in the Eucharist!  Right here in the Scriptures!  Right here in the comforting touch of a stranger or in the snow-cleaning actions of our neighbor!  Jesus truly is right here!  Are we scurrying about?  Are we cleaning up our lives and preparing for His presence?  Are we excited about what is to come?

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