Daily Gospel Reflection

There’s Something About Home

What does home mean to you? I grew up in Sydney, Australia. And I've lived here in the States now for more than 25 years. But there's something about flying into Sydney-- there's something about flying into Sydney and seeing that opera house and the harbor and the harbor bridge. There's just something about home. And that is true for us all. Home has a powerful effect on us. Very often we grow up, we live in our parents' homes, and then we maybe rent a place with some friends or go to college and really have a home. But there comes a time in our lives where we have a place where we feel like, "Okay, this is home. This is my place." And it's not about the place or how big it is or small it is or where it is. It's more psychological.

Today's reading-- Jesus Comes Home-- readings from the third chapter of Mark's Gospel, verse 20, 21-- a short reading. "Then Jesus went home and the crowd came together again so that they could not even eat. And when his friends heard it, they went out to seize him where they said, 'He must be beside himself.'" So firstly, great friends-- right, great friends are thinking about Jesus. They care about Jesus. But Jesus came home. He couldn't even get peace at home. And isn't that one of the things that we look for in our home? Isn't that one of the things we consider to be sacred about our space, that it is our space that we can find peace there and quiet there? So Jesus has come home and it's still mayhem. And people are everywhere trying to get to him, trying to get near him. They want something from him. They're pulling at him. He doesn't even have time to eat. He can't even find peace and quiet and space to eat.

And so his friends heard about this. They didn't say, "Oh, well, he's God, so he'll be fine." No, he's friends, they heard about this. They got concerned for him. They went out to seize him. It's an interesting word, right, to seize him. Maybe you need to be seized. Maybe you need friends to come and seize you right now. And maybe something's going on in your life. You've got yourself all caught up in something, and maybe you can't get yourself out of it. Maybe you need to be rescued. Maybe you need friends like that to come and seize you and pull you away from-- because maybe you're beside yourself. What is it this time in your life that you need to be rescued from? What is it that you need-- your friends, or you need God? You need the angels and the saints to come and seize you, rescue you from-- to save you from-- think about that today. Don't gloss over it. It's easy to gloss over these things. They're difficult. They're challenging-- to think about ourselves in this way. Think about that. What is it that you need to be seized away from at this time in your life? God bless you. Have a great day. Don't just be yourself. Be the very best version of yourself, all that God created you to be.