Our Venerable Father Pimen
Galatians 2:6-10; Mark 5:22-24; 5:35-6:1
Abstention from meat and foods that contain meat
Read Mark 5:22-24; 5:35-6:1
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
“And He strictly charged them that no one should know this…” Why would Our Lord work a miracle in front of people if He did not wish for it to be known? It might strike us as odd that the Son of God who came into the world to reveal Himself would say this. The clue is in verse 40 in which St. Mark records that the people laughed at Jesus when He told them the truth about the little girl; they did not believe Him and probably thought that He was a bit simple. It was very difficult for them to understand what He was doing; it would only become fully revealed after His resurrection from the dead.
How often did people refuse to believe or question the miracles that Jesus worked? Think of the Jewish authorities and how they reacted to the healing of the blind man or the paralytic at the pool. People were not ready to believe Jesus. Even after experiencing Our Lord’s transfiguration when He revealed His divinity Peter still denied Him. Through His resurrection people came to know Jesus as the Risen Lord and this was confirmed in them by the coming of the Holy Spirit. Yet, people still did not believe and people still do not believe today. How then do we respond?
The Church’s mission, which is the mission of all the baptized and not just of bishops, priests, and deacons, is to proclaim the Gospel to everyone so that people might come to know Our Lord and to believe. In order to do so we must place our trust in God and be His servants in the world. We must also know our faith and be able to give a faithful account of it through our words and actions to those we encounter.