People immediately recognized him

8 FEBRUARY (Mk 6,53-56)

There are many ways and different layers to get to know a person. This may be known for his physical appearance, his intelligence, science, spiritual abilities, he can also be known for the nobility of spirit that distinguishes him, for good and for evil, he can be known as an angel and as the devil. There is a material, literal and even spiritual knowledge even of God. Jesus knows every man for his fidelity or infidelity to the Law of his Father and this knowledge is revealed by the Gospel of Matthew not just to condemn the Pharisees of Jesus’ time, but to reveal to his disciples that such a knowledge of God does not produce fruits of life, but of death.

As for you, do not be called ‘Rabbi.’ You have but one teacher, and you are all brothers. Call no one on earth your father; you have but one Father in heaven. Do not be called ‘Master’; you have but one master, the Messiah. The greatest among you must be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You lock the kingdom of heaven before human beings. You do not enter yourselves, nor do you allow entrance to those trying to enter. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You traverse sea and land to make one convert, and when that happens you make him a child of Gehenna twice as much as yourselves.

“Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If one swears by the temple, it means nothing, but if one swears by the gold of the temple, one is obligated.’ Blind fools, which is greater, the gold, or the temple that made the gold sacred? And you say, ‘If one swears by the altar, it means nothing, but if one swears by the gift on the altar, one is obligated.’ You blind ones, which is greater, the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred? One who swears by the altar swears by it and all that is upon it; one who swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it; one who swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who is seated on it.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You pay tithes of mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier things of the law: judgment and mercy and fidelity. (But) these you should have done, without neglecting the others. Blind guides, who strain out the gnat and swallow the camel! “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You cleanse the outside of cup and dish, but inside they are full of plunder and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may be clean (Mt 23,8-26).

People see Jesus and recognize him immediately. This is not just a physical knowledge and nor purely spiritual. They recognize him as their only Saviour, their only source of life, their spring of truth and grace. They recognize him as a person belonging to God and not to this world. They see him as the real Sent by God to bring peace to the soul, the spirit and the body. People have a true knowledge of Jesus, although it still lacks so much spiritual and doctrinal formation.

After making the crossing, they came to land at Gennesaret and tied up there. As they were leaving the boat, people immediately recognized him. They scurried about the surrounding country and began to bring in the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. Whatever villages or towns or countryside he entered, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak; and as many as touched it were healed.

A Christian, especially a priest, a bishop, a pope, is the sacrament of Christ, his same body and his life. People should recognize our being from God. Often instead we are recognized as the presence of hell. People often say: “That one is a devil, one possessed, a person without mercy, a man without piety, a minister without grace.” If people do not recognize the Christian as a Christian, the priest as a priest, the bishop as the bishop, the pope as the pope, but see in them simply men, men and not divine men, never will there be the spark of faith, conversion, truth and acceptance of Christ. The invisible Christ is welcomed for the vision of the visible Christ. If the visible Christ obscures the invisible Christ, never might one attain true faith. The visible Christ that is true bridge so that the invisible Christ is seen, reached and is conquered, is missing. The real problems of the faith are all enclosed in this separation between the invisible Christ and the visible Christ.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints make us true visible Christ.