Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

“Be alert.” Mk, 8:14-21

The disciples go in a boat with Jesus, worried and arguing about having forgotten to bring bread for the journey. They are so upset that they don’t even pay attention to what Jesus asks of them: to be vigilant and avoid the leaven of the Pharisees and Herod. Today it also happens to us that the concern for material things, for what we have to eat, for clothing, for work, for fame… makes us forget how fundamental the Lord is, whom we ignore and turn to only when we need something. Thus, we can easily fall into temptations like the leaven of which Jesus warns us: that of the Pharisees reflected in hypocrisy, in false piety and religiosity more of protagonism than of faith and that of Herod: greed and with it, corruption, the lust for power and possession, which distances us from God.