Saturday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time
Why we meditate the gospel
He came home. Again (the) crowd gathered, making it impossible for them even to eat. When his relatives heard of this they set out to seize him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.” Mk 3,20-21
The previous passage of the gospel contains the list of those who have been called to follow Jesus and consequently to the mission. The list ends with the name “Judas Iscariot, who then betrayed him” (Mk 13,19). Even today, among the christians who are called to the mission, there are always those who betray the Lord and the mandate to evangelize. The passage today shows us the practical way in which he is betrayed: to his call there is always a roll-call of the compassionate common sense from ‘his people’ who say: “ He is out of his mind”. Jesus is now in “home” together with the apostles who follows him every day. This fact hides a deep theological meaning: who is in and sits at the table with Jesus is his new family and he is clearly given to understand the mysteries of the kingdom. To those who are outside the truth of the gospel is explained only in parables, “they may look and see but not perceive, and hear and listen but not understand” (Mk 4,12). But who are these characters outside of the house, the ones who do not understand his message and believe that Jesus was “out of his mind”? We risk to be ourselves. If you do not listen and meditate on his word, so that it opens and pours into us the mysteries of the Kingdom, we remain outside of the house to state that he was “out of his mind”. But if we meditate and pray about what Jesus tells us in the gospel of the day, we enter the house where the Lord explains in full his words.