A Reflection for Wednesday of the First Week in Ordinary Time
Find today’s readings here.
“Everyone is looking for you.” (Mark 1:37)
I try to talk to Jesus on a regular basis. Of late, that includes when I’m rocking my daughter to sleep (and when I’m trying to fall asleep myself), when I get frustrated in conversations or while driving and, in my better moments, when I read the news.
Sometimes I just ask Jesus to help me out, or I’ll mutter “Lord, what’s this about?” Other times I just repeat the Jesus prayer, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” (More recently, after someone gave me the Novena of Surrender, I incorporated, “O Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything!”)
I often picture Jesus on the cross—an image of the all powerful God who made himself vulnerable to us. So few of his followers stood by him that day.
Today’s Gospel gives us another dimension: Jesus uses his divine power to heal, and people just can’t get enough of him. Jesus rises early to pray by himself, but his followers track him down.
“Everyone is looking for you.”
If I had gone off to a deserted place to pray early in the morning, and then a bunch of people showed up bugging me, my response would certainly not have been, “Let us go to the nearby villages that I may preach there also.”
I’m going to think of this scene as I pray in the coming weeks. Jesus, the Lord who welcomes interruptions—even early in the morning. This, too, is the Lord. The same Lord who was born of humble means, who was baptized by his cousin in the Jordan River, who washed his disciples’ feet and who died on the cross. Jesus, the patient teacher who receives those who seek him. No wonder people were looking for him. People still are.
