Gospel Reflection For The 5th day of February in the year of Our Lord, 2024
Gospel
Mark 6:53-56
53 And when they had passed over, they came into the land of Genezareth, and set to the shore. 54 And when they were gone out of the ship, immediately they knew him: 55 And running through that whole country, they began to carry about in beds those that were sick, where they heard he was.
56 And whithersoever he entered, into towns or into villages or cities, they laid the sick in the streets, and besought him that they might touch but the hem of his garment: and as many as touched him were made whole.
The contrast between today’s first reading and the Gospel is stark. The first reading tells of the grand procession led by King Solomon, bringing the Ark of the Covenant into the Temple of the Lord. When God led His people through the desert, He appeared as a dark and dense cloud of smoke and fire. Once again, in the Temple, He appeared as a cloud, in the presence of which, even the Levitical Priests could not remain. Even among His people, the face of God remained hidden, and there was a profound separation between Him and his priests. Further, the priests had to perform elaborate ritual cleansing ceremonies, wear special garments and say special prayers to serve in the Temple. Yet, here was Jesus, the Living God, in the marketplaces and wherever there were common people. All could approach Him. All could see His face. No cleansing or rituals were required. There was no separation. Jesus put asunder the Mosaic Law and destroyed the Temple through His simple, humble compassion. He destroyed it by His life and death, and raised up a New Temple, and New Covenant and a perfected religion on the third day. All that was had passed. In the new religion of Christianity, there would be no separation and we would be free from Torah Law and even death itself.
Today, I urge you to view the Face of Jesus as preserved in the cloth with which Saint Veronica wiped our Lord’s face on His way to the Crucifixion and the Shroud of Turin. These are among the oldest and most holy relics of Christianity and have been preserved by the Catholic Church from the beginning. We, too, can look upon the holy Face of Jesus. We can see God and live. An excellent devotion is to the Holy Face of Jesus. Enroll in the Arch confraternity of The Holy Face of Jesus. Their website is www.martinians.org. They will send you a white scapular that bears the image of the Holy Face, a special cross with the same image and the prayers that are to be said.
catholictradition.org tells us:
An Archconfraternity of the Holy Face was established in Tours, France, 1884; its members make reparation for the blasphemies hurled at Christ. Since St. Therese's devotion to the Holy Face has become known, this devotion has spread worldwide.
In addition, a devout and pious nun, Sr. Pierina, who died in 1945, was given many visions through Our Blessed Lady who appeared to her, as did Our Lord Jesus. They urged her to make reparation for the many insults Jesus suffered in His Passion, such as to be slapped, spit upon and kissed by Judas, as well as now being dishonored in many ways in the Blessed Sacrament by neglect, sacrileges, and profanations.
Our Lord promised many blessings through devotion to His Holy Face. Some are personal, but most importantly He promised to save us from the evils of Atheism, Communism and the related ideologies that set the world on fire during the 20th Century and still threaten to annihilate humanity through nuclear and biological war. Along with the Rosary and the Divine Mercy Chaplet, Devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus should be a daily practice, and it only take a few minutes.
A Daily Catholic Devotional Reflections on the Daily Mass readings January-June, 2024. may be purchased as a .pdf directly from me using this link https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2023/12/a-daily-catholic-devotional-reflections.html or in paperback on Amazon amazon.com/dp/B0CPD1DC7Q
I am also giving the .pdf as a free Thank You gift to anyone who becomes a paid subscriber to The Uncensored Catholic newsletter.
Gospel passages are taken from the Douay Rheims Bible.