REFLECTIONS TODAY
As in other societies in the ancient world, it was well understood that the Jewish people would always have the poor with them (Dt 15:11; Mt 26:11). The rich would be found mostly among the influential people, those who drew profit from their post and the favors granted by the rulers, or from their lands. On the other side were the poor and the weak, the small men, those who did not have enough money to fulfill basic needs such as food, clothing, or shelter.
Poverty had negative effects on their health, including the risk of mental illness, chronic diseases, and higher mortality rates. These are the kind of people whom Jesus encounters in Gennesaret and in villages, towns, and countryside. He enters into this human condition and is deeply moved by tender compassion that compels him to help and heal.
Jesus brings love, affection, and care to a world where there is apathy or complacency for the conditions of the poor and the sick. And just as he tends to the miseries of people, he asks us to have concern for the sick and the feeble, and make provisions for the aged and the mentally disturbed people in our midst.
First Reading • Gn 1:1-19
In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless wasteland, and darkness covered the abyss, while a mighty wind sweept over the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light, and there was light.”
God saw how good the light was. God then separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” Thus evening came, and morning followed—the first day. Then God said, “Let there be a dome in the middle of the waters, to separate one body of water from the other.” God made the dome, and it separated the water above the dome from the water below it. God called the dome the “sky.” Evening came, and morning followed—the second day.
Then God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered into a single basin, so that the dry land may appear.”And so it happened: the water under the sky was gathered into its basin, and the dry land appeared. God called the dry land “earth,” and the basin of water he called “sea.” God saw how good it was. Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth vegetation: every kind of plant that bears seed and every kind of fruit tree on earth that bears fruit with its seed in it.”
And so it happened: the earth brought forth vegetation: every kind of plant that bears seed and every kind of fruit tree on earth that bears fruit with its seed in it. God saw how good it was. Evening came, and morning followed—the third day. Then God said, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky, to separate day from night.
Let them mark the fixed times, the days and the years, and serve as luminaries in the dome of the sky, to shed light upon the earth. And so it happened: God made the two great lights, the greater one to govern the day, and the lesser one to govern the night, and he made the stars.
God set them in the dome of the sky, to shed light upon the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. God saw how good it was. Evening came, and morning followed—the fourth day.
Gospel • Mark 6:53-56
After making the crossing to the other side of the sea, Jesus and his disciples came to land at 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.
Source: “365 Days with the Lord 2025,” St. Paul’s, 7708 St. Paul Rd., SAV, Makati City (Phils.); Tel.: 632-895-9701; E-mail: publishing@stpauls.ph; Website: http://www.stpauls.ph.