In this section you can find a daily commentary on the Gospel of the Day.

Thursday 21 January 2021

Second Week in Ordinary Time

Word for today
The Gospel of Mark 3:7-12

Pressing

People were pressing upon him to touch Him, literally, they were throwing themselves upon him to stitch themselves to him, to tie a knot, and to adhere to him.
The Greek text uses two verbs: epipìpto, "I fall on, fall upon, attack, throw myself with all my might wildly upon" - which is made up of the preposition epì, "on, upon" and the verb pìpto, "I fall, I throw myself" - and àpto, here in the middle voice, "I join, stitch together, tie, knot," and also "I attach, touch, adhere, grasp, join together." The people sensed that their health, peace, happiness, prosperity, joy, affection, success, and love depended on the quality of their union or separation with Him.
The demons
would fall down before him and shout, "You are the Son of God." Here the verbs that are used are prospìpto, "I fall to the ground" and kràzo, "I cry." The demons are the ones who know Jesus best, they are perfectly aware of His origin and essence. The verb prospìpto "I come to fall in, I let myself fall into, I run to meet, I cast myself, I pleadingly throw myself on" is made up of pros, "in, on" joined to pìpto, "I fall, I press." The verb kràzo is onomatopoeic and refers to "croak," "squawk." More than a scream, it was a shrill screeching, a rasping, it was as if, overwhelmed by an emotion on hearing something, the words became blocked. It was a strangled cry because important words were stifled due to strong emotions.
People and demons fall down at His feet.  Everyone and everything in all directions seemed to bow down to Jesus. People pressed upon Him to stitch themselves to Him, to adhere to Him, to be touched by His power and His divine, healing harmony. Evil spirits fell down before him and were forced to adore Him and to shout out what they knew about Him. Their worship was paradoxical, a counter-worshipping, but they were unable to  ignore the power and the truth of the One who stood before them. They shouted out their desperate, guttural shouts because even the demons realized that separated from Him, nothing about being and existing had any meaning. They felt the fathomless abyss between Him and  themselves, and they were aware that they would never ever be able to unite with Him.