Hi everyone. Welcome back to the podcast where we take a look at the gospel reading from today's mass.

And then we look at the literal sense of the text, which is often an angle that we

don't get to hear in homilies, but it's the place we have to start. We have to start with the

literal sense of the text. What was the original author trying to convey to his audience?

And today if you go to Mass, you'll hear from Mark chapter 6, verses 53 to 56. Having made the crossing,

Jesus and his disciples came to land at Ganesaret and tied up. No sooner had they stepped out of the boat

than people recognized him and started hurrying all through the countryside

and brought the sick on stretches to wherever they heard he was.

And wherever he went to village or town or farm, they laid down the sick in the open spaces,

begging him to let them touch even the fringe of his cloak.

And all those who touched him were cured.

So the first thing to say is that if you've been following along with the Gospel of Mark in

the last few weeks, we have skipped a little.

So the last time we had a weekday, we looked at Mark 6, verse 30 to 34,

and now we've skipped to verse 53 to 56. So the bit that we've missed in the middle, which is

verse 34 through to 52, we don't hear it at this time of the year. But it's not taken out

completely. It's just moved until just after Christmas.

So on January 8th, we hear from the feeding of the 5,000 in Mark chapter 6, and then on January 9th, we hear Jesus walking on the water.

So those two stories for Mark chapter 6, we won't get to hear in this sequence of days, but they are

there in early January. So the context then is Jesus has just walked on the water up to verse 52. And now in

verse 53, Mark says, having made the crossing. So he's talking about crossing the lake. So Jesus has just

walked on the water and now they come to land at Ganesaret. So that's a place that's somewhat

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