Reading
Mark 3:7-12
7 Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the lake, and a large crowd from Galilee followed. 8 When they heard about all he was doing, many people came to him from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, and the regions across the Jordan and around Tyre and Sidon. 9 Because of the crowd he told his disciples to have a small boat ready for him, to keep the people from crowding him. 10 For he had healed many, so that those with diseases were pushing forward to touch him. 11 Whenever the impure spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” 12 But he gave them strict orders not to tell others about him.
Meditation
The retreat of Jesus to the lake of Gennesaret, which marks the border with the pagan territories, indicates his definitive break with the synagogue and the opening of his message to all peoples. The crowds that follow him testify to his great fame, despite the hostility of the Pharisees and the Herodians.
The crowd is such that it risks crushing Jesus, people throw themselves on him, as indicated by the Greek verb thlibo, whose meaning is to tighten, creating a sense of oppression. Jesus "defends himself" by getting into a boat. Sometimes even those who have faith force God into categories that make him almost an "idol", with a devotion that looks only in search of the miracle.
Jesus has pity even on these crowds of "simple" and afflicted men. The evils from which those who throw themselves at him seek healing are literally "wounds" (Gr. Mastigas), a term used to indicate various pathologies, but which can also be understood with the meaning of "correction," punishment ". Like the plagues sent to the Egyptians and those described in the Book of Revelation, these are evils sent by God to prompt repentance.
The demons recognize the identity of Jesus, but even if they fear it, they do not submit to it. God calls us to establish a relationship with him, to grow in charity and not only in the intellectual knowledge of his mystery. However rich our theological culture may be, it will be worthless if orthopraxis does not live up to orthodoxy.
Jesus takes back the demons, telling them not to reveal his identity; he wants to be welcomed by men not for the testimony of evil spirits but for his own works and words, which clearly proclaim who he is. For this he re-establishes a distance from the multitudes; a distance full of solicitude, but able to leave room for a more attentive and meditated - less instinctive - consideration of his person.
Prayer
Grant us, Lord, to seek you with a pure heart; so that we can welcome you as the one who with his own wounds came to heal the wounds produced in us by sin. Amen.
- Rev. Dr. Luca Vona
