Commentary on the Gospel of
Three different miracles were immediately presented by Mark after the narrative of the martyrdom of John the Baptist. The first relates to the nourishment of the body, the second is a nature miracle where Jesus walked on water and the last of those miracles is found in today’s Gospel: the different healings that Jesus performed at Gennesaret. While Mark’s Gospel may be episodic in character, it does not remove the fact that he presents miracles that underline different aspects of Jesus power and attention to human beings. This miracle relates to bodily infirmities and God pays attention to our bodily infirmities too. Today the world is struggling with the difficulties occasioned by an aggressive virus that has caused a worldwide pandemic. People are struggling and making all sorts of effort to contribute to its eradication.
People of faith are also contributing their quota to this struggle through prayers. There exists, however, a certain tendency among non-religionists to taunt people of faith as those who chase shadows while serious contributors like scientists carry on their work. Thinking of this, we should never forget that people told Jesus to get down from his cross if indeed he had powers and is favored by God. There is no reason efforts from science should be seen as opposed to efforts through faith because, when all is said and done, it is only God that grants everything, including scientific knowledge. We in Africa today believe that the effects of this pandemic have been mitigated through God’s mercy. We should pray for the attention of Jesus to be turned to world and that we may be healed. God has his ways and those ways may not be easily seen or appreciated by the world. However, this does not make those ways any less effective.
