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Commentary on the Gospel for Wednesday, January 8, 2025
Something I find almost amusing is the style of the evangelist Mark. His style is devoid of rhetoric. Mark recounts what he has seen or heard with remarkable simplicity, like a chronicler reporting events without adding any personal evaluations. It’s as if he has no opinion and no intention of evoking amazement or admiration—he just tells it like it is. He is extremely concrete and attentive to material reality. His style is unpretentious, without adjectives. He doesn’t omit details, but he doesn’t offer his interpretation or appeal to emotions either. Things happened this way: one person said this, another did that… and that’s it.
Today, we are presented with an astounding miracle, something incredible, extraordinary, even harder to believe than a resurrection like that of Jairus’ daughter or the widow’s son. Yet, it happened just as Mark recounts.
Every day, miracles happen around us. Yet, Christians—and especially those with higher academic education—often prefer scientific, pseudoscientific, sociological, or psychological explanations for unexplainable events. This is ironic, considering that Christian faith is founded on something concrete, real… and deeply miraculous: a Child born of a woman who came into the world over two thousand years ago. A God who became incarnate, taking on human nature with all its consequences except sin. Jesus Christ, the cornerstone of the Creed we profess, is the greatest and most admirable of all miracles. Through Him, the Word, all things were created, and everything is subject to His power for the glory of God the Father, with the Holy Spirit.
Today, we are invited to reflect on our lives and recognize the wonder in the ordinary—the miracle of our own existence, which required an infinite series of unique events “programmed” millennia in advance to come into being. The marvel of life, our bodies, our minds, and the spirit that moves us. The events we endure or enjoy: a sum of wonders. The beauty of the planet we inhabit: countless scientists, including several Nobel laureates, affirm that even the slightest variation in the constants of matter and their relationships would make life impossible.
Let us celebrate the miracle and give thanks to Almighty God for His “miracle-working” in our lives.