Daily Reflection – 1/22/2026
Sacred Scripture
Jesus withdrew toward the sea with his disciples. A large number of people followed from Galilee and from Judea. Hearing what he was doing, a large number of people came to him also from Jerusalem, from Idumea, from beyond the Jordan, and from the neighborhood of Tyre and Sidon. He told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, so that they would not crush him. He had cured many and, as a result, those who had diseases were pressing upon him to touch him. And whenever unclean spirits saw him they would fall down before him and shout, “You are the Son of God.” He warned them sternly not to make him known. (Mark 3:7-12)
Reflection
Today in the Gospel we see something on which we can never focus enough: the great attractiveness of the Lord Jesus.
Mark tells us that such a large crowd of people were following Jesus that he needed to have a boat ready to push a little bit away from the shore so that the people wouldn’t crush him.
They were all pressing upon Jesus, who was curing and teaching. Even the demons couldn’t resist. When they saw him, they fell down before him — in other words, in begrudging adoration — and shouted, “You are the Son of God.”
We need constantly to ask whether Jesus maintains this attraction for us and others.
Many say they believe in him, but what they likely mean is that they believe he existed; they don’t really live by faith, committing themselves to him and being drawn fundamentally not by duty but by fascination, by love, by attraction. Those who are fascinated by Jesus will hunger for his word and become men and women whose lives are drenched by the daily dew of the Gospel.
Those who take Jesus seriously will, in union with him, go out as Good Samaritans to care for a wounded world. Jesus has never lost his attractiveness. He’s as attractive today as ever. But many times, our lives, our hearts, our minds, are so saturated with worldly cares and anxieties, with lesser hopes, with false gods that we place first in our lives, that the type of wonder, fascination, love and attraction we’re supposed to have toward Jesus is extinguished partially or fully.
You might be a person who for years has carried a hurt in your heart, a resentment against a family member or a friend that has alienated you from that person. That anger might be so much a part of you that you that you cannot imagine truly being able to forgive or to be forgiven. This gospel tells you it is not too late. Turn to Jesus and ask for mercy and believe that Jesus has the power to grant it.
You might be a person who for most of your life has struggled with a habit of sin. It might be prejudice or selfishness or some kind of addiction. As much as you have struggled against it, you have never been able to conquer it. It seems that you can never change. It is not too late. Turn to Jesus and ask him to remember you. Believe that he has the power to save you.
There might be someone in your life who you love and who you worry about all the time. You worry because this person is depressed, has made a mess of things, or lives without hope. Despite your prayers and efforts, that person has never been able to find happiness. It is never too late. Believe in a God who seeks out the lost and forgotten and will save even those who have no hope.
If Jesus could save a convicted criminal in the last moments of life and make him the first to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, then none of us can limit God’s power to save and to heal us. So turn to Jesus. Call out his name. Believe that despite our desperation, our doubt, and our unworthiness, he wants to share life with us. He intends to welcome us into paradise.
Prayer of The Day
Jesus, draw me close to You again.
Where my heart has grown crowded, clear space.
Where I have carried resentment, soften me.
Where I feel trapped in old patterns, free me.
Where I fear for those I love, remind me that Your mercy reaches farther than my worry ever could.
Let me feel again the pull of Your presence —
the beauty, the tenderness, the strength,
the love that has never stopped seeking me.
Make my life a place where Your grace can rest.
Amen.
Daily Thought
Jesus has never stopped being attractive — but sometimes our hearts forget how to look at Him. Today is an invitation to let ourselves be drawn again, not by duty or fear, but by the quiet pull of His love.
