Daily Office Readings for Friday after the Third Sunday of Lent: Year 2
Psalm 95 [for the Invitatory] 88; Psalm 91, 92 Gen. 47:1-26; 1 Cor. 9:16-27; Mark 6:47-56
“And wherever he went, into villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the market-places, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed.” (Mark 6: 56)
Our Lord Jesus often tells people, after they have been healed, to “Go in peace, your faith has made you well.” Today’s reading offers a classic example of their faith healing. Like the woman who eased up close to our Lord Jesus in the crowd as he was going to heal the sick twelve year old girl, the woman said to herself “for she said, ‘If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.” (Mark 5:28) So too, the people of Gennesaret wanted to do the same, and in doing so, they were healed. My point is, their initiative got them the healing they needed. They touched his cloak, their faith made them well through our Lord Jesus.
We can so much use this healing now in light of this Coronavirus or Covid 19 infection that has gone global, that is, pandemic. Today we can still touch the cloth of our Lord Jesus by reading the Gospels during this Lent. I recommend reading at least two Gospels this Lent, perhaps John and one of the synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark or Luke). As you read and touch the pages of your Bible (the cloak of our Lord), and feel those ancient words of healings with your fingers, healing is made manifest through your own faith. This is the same faith that the people of Jesus’ day had. He used the faith that was in them as a path to their recovery. I know it’s not time yet because we are still in Lent but, “Alleluia,” Thank You Lord Jesus.
Let us hear what the Spirit is saying to and through the saints of God and then ponder anew what the Almighty can do. John
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