Gospel (Mk 6:53-56)

And when they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret, and moored to the shore. And when they got out of the boat, immediately the people recognized him, and ran about the whole neighborhood and began to bring sick people on their pallets to any place where they heard he was. And wherever he came, in villages, cities, or country, they laid the sick in the market places, and besought him that they might touch even the fringe of his garment; and as many as touched it were made well.

Commentary

The arrival of an important person usually gives rise to some commotion in the places they visit, especially if these sites are unaccustomed to experiencing great events. Life in a small town is normally marked by the repetitive cadence of daily routine: doing the same things and seeing the same people.

Therefore Jesus’ arrival in Gennesaret produced a great commotion. As soon as the people recognized him, the news spread rapidly from mouth to mouth. The squares of the villages and towns in that area of ​​Galilee quickly filled up with the sick lying on their stretchers. It was the opportunity of a lifetime.

Pope Francis likes to talk about the “revolution of tenderness” produced by the Incarnation of the Son of God (cf. Evangelii Gaudium, no. 88). It is easy to imagine Jesus’s face marked by this tenderness as he healed each sick person, while also producing in them the true “revolution,” that of forgiving their sins, as when he healed the paralytic in Capernaum (cf. Mk 2:5).

But this revolution requires a prior step: “when they got out of the boat, immediately the people recognized him.” Someone can be healed by Christ only if they are able to recognize him. Perhaps, as the saints did, we can begin by recognizing Jesus in the flesh of our sick brothers and sisters, looking with tenderness on all the wounds of their soul and body.