A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark
Then he said to the Pharisees, “Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?” But they remained silent. Looking around at them with anger and grieved at their hardness of heart, Jesus said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out and his hand was restored.
The Pharisees lay a trap for Jesus to see if he would cure a man’s withered hand on the sabbath. After Jesus restores the man’s hand, Mark tells us, “The Pharisees went out and immediately took counsel with the Herodians against him to put him to death.” The Gospel passage for today shows Jesus’ grief and anger at their hardness of heart, an anger that is justifiable. As God made man, Jesus wants to bring salvation to the Pharisees, but the love he shows for the man with the withered hand becomes an obstacle. How often today will I place an obstacle between God and myself? Perhaps unintentionally, I will forget to allow God to act, following my own rigid agenda instead.
God, you are near. Your Son came to save the life of all who believed in him and to do good on the sabbath and on every day of his life. How do I remain supple and open to your will? Jesus read the hearts of the Pharisees and knew they wanted to kill him, asking them, “Is it lawful . . . to save life rather than to destroy it?” If the Pharisees had known that the author of life stood before them, would their hearts have remained hardened? Guide me today, Lord, with your presence; in every word and action, give me the grace to stretch out my hand to you.
God, give me faith today and every day through an openness of heart. As Saint John Paul II wrote, “Faith, in its deepest essence, is the openness of the human heart to the gift: to God’s self-communication in the Holy Spirit.”
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.