Gospel Reflections for February 14 2021: 6th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Gospel for February 14 2021 – Mark 1:40-45

Gospel Reflections for February 14 2021

You cannot meet Jesus and stay the same.

In today’s Gospel, a man in desperate need of healing meets the Lord and walks away completely cured.

When you meet the Lord good things happen …broken hearts heal, souls are saved, and hope comes alive for a better future. That is why everything we do at St. Bruno, despite a pandemic. is meant to help us meet the Lord in a personal way that makes a real difference in your life. 

The Season of Lent begins this Wednesday, so now is the time to connect with Our Lord in a deeper way than ever before. Starting Thursday you can join a University Series zoom session every weeknight at 7pm that will help you do just that. (See theuniversityseries.org or our parish website at stbrunochurch.org to sign up.) 

Every session hopes to provide what Jesus did for that sick person in need of healing. We hope every session will help make your life more happy, healthy, and holy!

Sunday is “St. Valentine’s Day.” A strong tradition indicates he was a priest in the late 3rd century. The Roman emperor, Claudius II, needed more soldiers for conquest, but at that time soldiers had to be single, so in order to draft more recruits …Claudius outlawed marriage!

Valentine would have none of that! He knew our Catholic faith holds marriage as a holy sacrament, so he announced that he would perform marriages no matter what the risk. He evaded Roman authorities and performed countless marriages in the nearby forests. Hundreds of couples risked arrest to receive the Sacrament of Marriage from St. Valentine. It is a powerful historical testament to how much these young people wanted the blessing of God on their commitment to love each other forever. 

St. Valentine was eventually caught and executed. Before he died, he wrote a letter to one of the couples he married and signed it, “…from your Valentine.” and so a loving tradition began.

We believe that marriage and family are the very center of our faith. Pope Francis wrote a major letter on this a few years ago (“Amoris Laetitia” or in English, “The Joy of Love”) that strongly affirms all our Catholic traditions that go back to the direct teachings of Jesus. 

The love of Jesus for a sick man heals and changes him for the better in today’s Gospel. Authentic love heals, strengthens and brings great joy, as both Jesus …and Valentine affirm.

God Bless!

Fr. Dave