Gospel: Mark 10:1-12
Jesus then left that place and went to the province of Judea, beyond the Jordan River. Once more, crowds gathered
around him and, once more, he taught them, as he always did. Some (Pharisees came and) put him to the test with this
question: “Is it right for a husband to divorce his wife?” He replied, “What law did Moses give you?” They answered, “Moses
allowed us to write a certificate of dismissal in order to divorce.” Then Jesus said to them, “Moses wrote this law for you, because

Gospel: Mark 9:41-50
If anyone gives you a drink of water because you belong to Christ and bear his name, truly, I say to you, he will not go without reward.
If anyone should cause one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble and sin, it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea
with a great millstone around his neck. If your hand makes you fall into sin, cut it off! It is better for you to enter life without a hand,

Gospel: Mark 8:1-10
Soon afterward, Jesus was in the midst of another large crowd, that obviously had nothing to eat. So he called his disciples and said to them,
“I feel sorry for these people, because they have been with me for three days and now have nothing to eat. If I send them to their homes hungry,
they will faint on the way; some of them have come a long way.” His disciples replied, “Where, in a deserted place like this, could we get enough

Gospel: Mark 7:31-37
Again, Jesus set out: from the country of Tyre he passed through Sidon and, skirting the sea of Galilee, he
came to the territory of Decapolis. There, a deaf man, who also had difficulty in speaking, was brought to him.

Gospel: Mark 7:24-30
When Jesus left that place, he went to the border of the Tyrian country. There, he entered a house, and did
not want anyone to know he was there; but he could not remain hidden. A woman, whose small daughter had an evil
spirit, heard of him, and came and fell at his feet. Now this woman was a pagan, a Syrophoenician by birth, and she
begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter. Jesus told her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children’s
bread and throw it to the puppies.” But she replied, “Sir, even the puppies under the table eat the crumbs from the children’s bread.”
Then Jesus said to her, “You may go your way; because of such a response, the demon has gone out of your daughter.”
And when the woman went home, she found her child lying in bed, and the demon gone.

Reflection:

Did Jesus really heal the woman’s daughter? If we go by
Jesus’ own words – “Because of such a response, the demon has
gone out of your daughter” – we realize that the healing simply
happened at her very response. What was so powerful about her
response that made the demon walk out? It expressed a faith
built on deep humility, a virtue unbearable for demons as they
are personifications of pride. St. Anthony Mary Claret, who made
humility his foundational virtue, writes: “The virtue of humility
consists in this: in realizing that I am nothing, can do nothing
but sin, and depend on God in everything – being, conservation,
movement, and grace. (Aut. 347).” With all his wisdom and
experience in life, Solomon fell away from God due to his pride,
whereas humility lifted up the woman and her daughter and
drew God’s favor and healing instantaneously.

© Copyright Bible Diary 2022

Gospel: Mark 7:14-23
Jesus then called the people to him again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and try to understand.
Nothing that enters a person from the outside can make that person unclean. It is what comes from within that
makes a person unclean. Let everyone who has ears listen.” When Jesus got home and was away from the crowd, his

Gospel: Mark 7:1-13
One day, the Pharisees gathered around Jesus, and with them were some teachers of the law who had just come from Jerusalem.
They noticed that some of his disciples were eating their meal with unclean hands, that is, without washing them. Now the Pharisees,
and in fact all the Jews, never eat without washing their hands, for they follow the tradition received from their ancestors. Nor do they

Gospel: Mark 6:53-56
Having crossed the lake, they came ashore at Gennesaret, where they tied up the boat. As soon as they landed, people
recognized Jesus, and ran to spread the news throughout the countryside. Wherever he was, they brought to him the sick
lying on their mats; and wherever he went, to villages, towns or farms, they laid the sick in the marketplace, and begged
him to let them touch just the fringe of his cloak. And all who touched him were cured.

Reflection:

Compare the majesty, grandeur, and the awe-inspiring
presence of God in the Ark that Solomon brought to Jerusalem,
with the simplicity, ordinariness, familiarity, down-to-earthiness
Jesus displays in rubbing shoulders with the people
around him! If the Ark evoked fear and trembling, and no one
dared to touch the Ark because touching the Ark could get them
killed, as in the case of Uzzah (2 Sam 6:6-7), we see people milling
around Jesus pleading him to touch them and reaching out
and touching him and getting cured! What we witness is the
true kenosis (Phil. 2:6-8) of God for the sake of us, human beings:
the “I-Am-Who-Am” becoming Emmanuel, “God-with-Us”, the
Ark becoming Flesh, to dwell amidst us as one among us. The
fear-evoking presence of God in the Ark becomes the loveinspiring
touch of God in Christ. How has this kenosis transformed
our lives?

© Copyright Bible Diary 2022

Gospel: Luke 5:1-11
One day, as Jesus stood by the Lake of Gennesaret, with a crowd gathered around him listening to the word of God, he caught sight
of two boats, left at the water’s edge by fishermen, now washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon,
and asked him to pull out a little from the shore. There he sat, and continued to teach the crowd. When he had finished speaking, he said to
Simon, “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.” Simon replied, “Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing. But if you say
so, I will lower the nets.” This they did, and caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. They signaled their partners in the other
boat to come and help them. They came, and they filled both boats almost to the point of sinking. Upon seeing this, Simon Peter fell at Jesus’ knees,
saying, “Leave me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” For he and his companions were amazed at the catch they had made, and so were Simon’s partners,
James and John, Zebedee’s sons. Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid. You will catch people from now on.” So they brought their boats to land and
followed him, leaving everything.

Reflection:

Revelation is always a twinrevelation: who God is and who we
are. Before the vision of the immense grandeur and holiness of God, Isaiah
can only become self-conscious of his own sinfulness. Before the miraculous
catch of fish that Jesus worked, Peter can only murmur: “Leave me, Lord,
for I am a sinful man.” And Paul knows very well that he was so despicable
that he neither merited a visitation from God nor the title apostle.
This self-awareness is invariably a consciousness of the vast gulf
existing between God’s goodness and holiness, and our creatureliness
and sinfulness. Thankfully, within this gulf plays God’s Grace that
transforms us into whom God desires us to be—as it happened with Isaiah,
Paul, and Peter. So, perhaps I should correct myself: Revelation is always
three-pronged: Who God is, who we are, and who we can be, by God’s
Grace.

© Copyright Bible Diary 2022

Corinthians 15:1-11
Let me remind you, brothers and sisters, of the Good News that I preached to you, and which you received, and
on which, you stand firm. By that gospel, you are saved, provided that you hold to it, as I preached it. Otherwise,
you will have believed in vain. In the first place, I have passed on to you what I, myself, received: that Christ died