Daily Gospel Reflection – Memorial of Saints Cyril, Monk, and Methodius, Bishop
Bishop Robert Barron
February 14, 2023
Memorial of Saints Cyril, Monk, and Methodius, Bishop
Gospel: Mk 8:14-21
The disciples had forgotten to bring bread,
and they had only one loaf with them in the boat.
Jesus enjoined them, "Watch out,
guard against the leaven of the Pharisees
and the leaven of Herod."
They concluded among themselves that
it was because they had no bread.
When he became aware of this he said to them,
"Why do you conclude that it is because you have no bread?
Do you not yet understand or comprehend?
Are your hearts hardened?
Do you have eyes and not see, ears and not hear?
And do you not remember,
when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand,
how many wicker baskets full of fragments you picked up?"
They answered him, "Twelve."
"When I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand,
how many full baskets of fragments did you pick up?"
They answered him, "Seven."
He said to them, "Do you still not understand?"
*United States Conference of Catholic
Bishop Robert Barron
Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus warns his disciples against the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod. Conversely, he wanted them to be the leaven that would transform their culture.
The Second Vatican Council spoke of the universal call to holiness—the summons of all the baptized to be a transforming leaven in the wider society. The Vatican II fathers wanted to inspire a generation of great Catholic professionals in the hopes that such people would carry the holiness they learned in the Church out to their areas of specialization in the secular world.
The Church manifests the way of ordering things born of love—love for God and love for neighbor. Generosity, peace, nonviolence, and trust will give rise to a new way of ordering things. This is true of a family, a school, a parish, a community, a nation-state.
Now, how in the world does one get this project off the ground? As should be clear to even the most naïve person, this never happens all at once, overnight. Rather, in small ways, people begin living according to the Lord’s ways. And then, in God’s time, this new community begins to have a leavening effect on the wider society.
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