Mark Chapter 3

In Chapter Three, Jesus heals a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath and the Pharisees and Herodians plot against him. A great crowd flocks to him as he has healed many. He then appoints the twelve apostles before warning that whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit is guilty of an eternal sin. Reading Mark in Advent is an 18-part podcast series that sees us upload a chapter of Mark’s Gospel each weekday of the season. With a global pandemic sweeping the world and lockdowns and restrictions placed on our everyday living – not to mention patterns of worship and prayer – this is very much “the Word in Lockdown”. But the Word of God is never locked down, isolated and contained. As Pope Francis says: “The word of God is alive and active (Hebrews 4:12); it does not die, nor does it age, but it remains for ever (cf. 1 Peter 1:25). It stays young in the presence of all that passes away (cf. Matthew 25:35) and preserves those who put it into practice from inner aging.”