DAILY MEDITATION: "Jesus journeyed from one town and village to another,..."

Liturgical day: Friday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel text (Lk 8,1-3): Jesus journeyed from one town and village to another, preaching and proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom of God. Accompanying him were the Twelve and some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza, Susanna, and many others who provided for them out of their resources.

"Jesus journeyed from one town and village to another, preaching and proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom of God"

Fr. Jordi PASCUAL i Bancells
(Salt, Girona, Spain)

Today, in the Gospel, we can appreciate what a normal day in the three years of Jesus' public life should have been. St. Luke explains it in a few words: “Jesus journeyed from one town and village to another, preaching and proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom of God” (Lk 8, 1). This is what we contemplate in the third Mystery of Light of the Holy Rosary.

While commenting this mystery His Holiness St. John Paul II says: “Another mystery of light is the preaching by which Jesus proclaims the coming of the Kingdom of God, calls to conversion and forgives the sins of all who draw near to him in humble trust: the inauguration of that ministry of mercy which he continues to exercise until the end of the world, particularly through the Sacrament of Reconciliation which he has entrusted to his Church.”

Jesus keeps on passing by close to us and offering us His supernatural goods: when we pray; when we read and ponder over the Gospel, to know and love Him better and imitate His life; when we receive a sacrament, especially the Eucharist and the Penance; when we devote ourselves with effort and perseverance to our every day’s chores; when we have to deal with our family, our friends or our neighbors; when we help that person who is in need of material or spiritual help; when we have a rest or amuse ourselves... In all those circumstances we may find Jesus and follow Him just as those Twelve and those saintly women also did.

But, above all, each one of us is called by God to also be “the passing Jesus”, that is, to speak to those we deal with —with our deeds and our words— about the faith that fills our existence with meaning, about the hope that impels us to go on forward through the paths of life designed by God, and about the charity that should guide all our acts.

The first one to follow Jesus and “to be Jesus” is Mary. That with her example and mediation she may help us!

Source: evangeli.net