Lockdown and Gospel - Day 13, January 22 (Friday of the second week of Ordinary time)

(How does today’s Gospel speak to me during this lockdown? Allow me to share a humble reflection.)

He went up the mountain and called to him those whom he wanted, and they came to him.  And he appointed twelve, whom he also named apostles, to be with him, and to be sent out to proclaim the message, and to have authority to cast out demons. (Mark 3:13-15)

In Mark’s Gospel, mountains are places of revelation, of proximity to God. Jesus calls the Twelve to him on a mountain. This small group, the nucleus out of which the Church will grow, is introduced by Jesus into divine intimacy. He establishes them in a stable fashion “to be with him”. This relationship gives rise to a mission: proclaiming Jesus’s message and doing good to others.

Can this lockdown become God’s mountain for me, a space set apart from the world, difficult to inhabit but pregnant with the divine? Could this confinement be an occasion for me to discover more deeply what it means to “be with Jesus”? He calls me, here and now, to share the hope that inhabits me and to expel the demons of anxiety, discouragement and indifference.

Abba, Father, it’s not easy to climb this lockdown mountain. I would rather stay in the plain, where one can easily journey, surrounded by comfortable landscapes. Yet, this mountain that challenges me is a place of encounter, of intimacy and of mission. Help me recognize your presence, let me hear your voice, allow me to walk with the Twelve in the footsteps of Jesus.

Amen.