Monday, Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

According to today’s first reading, ‘the glory of the Lord filled the Lord’s Temple’. The Temple in Jerusalem was considered to be the place where God had chosen to dwell, which is why people went up there on pilgrimage from all over Israel and beyond. In the gospels, Jesus begins his public ministry with the announcement, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near’. Jesus announces that God was now powerfully present and at work in and through his own ministry. God’s powerful presence has moved from the Temple in Jerusalem to Jesus. Rather than going on pilgrimage to the Temple, it is to Jesus that people now need to go on pilgrimage. This is what we find people doing in today’s gospel reading. People hurried all through the countryside to reach him and to bring their sick to him for healing. Unlike the Temple, however, Jesus was not stationary in one place. As well as people going to him, he went to them. According to the gospel reading, he went to village, town and farm, to places where people lived and worked, and when he arrived in their neighbourhood they responded by reaching out to him, hoping to touch even the fringe of his cloak.  The same Jesus, now risen Lord, is present among us today especially when we celebrate the Eucharist, which is why people come to Mass in all weathers. However, as in the gospels, the Lord is not stationary in churches. He comes to us where we live and work, to our cities, towns, villages, farms and homes. He is always coming towards us, entering our lives. We can turn towards him at any time and in any place and, like the people in the gospel reading, experience his healing and strengthening presence.