Category: Uncategorized

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Gospel: Luke 13: 10-17

Jesus was teaching in a synagogue on the sabbath.
And a woman was there who for eighteen years
had been crippled by a spirit;
she was bent over, completely incapable of standing erect.
When Jesus saw her, he called to her and said,
“Woman, you are set free of your infirmity.”
He laid his hands on her,
and she at once stood up straight and glorified God.
But the leader of the synagogue,
indignant that Jesus had cured on the sabbath,
said to the crowd in reply,
“There are six days when work should be done.
Come on those days to be cured, not on the sabbath day.”
The Lord said to him in reply, “Hypocrites!
Does not each one of you on the sabbath
untie his ox or his ass from the manger
and lead it out for watering?
This daughter of Abraham,
whom Satan has bound for eighteen years now,
ought she not to have been set free on the sabbath day
from this bondage?”
When he said this, all his adversaries were humiliated;
and the whole crowd rejoiced at all the splendid deeds done by him.

The Gospel of the Lord.

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This is the last time we see Jesus in a synagogue. He knows he has captured the ire of the religious authorities. They are now starting to plot his death. Breaking the Sabbath by healing a crippled woman only adds fuel to the fire.

As Christians – or simply people of good will – we can imagine the pain this woman endured. For 18 years, some 6,500 days of her life, she was unable to straighten her bent body.

The curvature of her spine produced tight knots in her shoulders and sharp pain in her neck, making simple tasks like getting dressed or looking up to see who’s in front of her torturous. 

No wonder Christ was moved with compassion.

I’m sure the leader of the synagogue also felt bad for this woman, but there was something he valued more than her health: sticking to the rules. For Jews, no work – not even a work of compassion – was permitted on the Sabbath.

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Jesus heals her intentionally on this sacred day of rest in order to teach his people a lesson. There are times when the laws that define our lives, even religious ones, need to be stretched, re-interpreted, or updated.

There is no rule higher than charity. If we find our neighbor hunched over, weighed down by the pressures of life, then we are obligated to help them. Suffering should never last a second longer than necessary. 

Yet how much human misery continues in our world because people are either blind, indifferent, or paralyzed by politics, culture, civic, even religious institutions?

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Beneath it all, we are human. 

We share the common dignity of being made in God’s image and likeness. May we do something to reflect this truth today.

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Image credits: (1) Pointing the Way by Arrow (2) Bent Woman, Milos Todorovic (3) Facebook

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Romans: 7: 18-25

Brothers and sisters:
I know that good does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh.
The willing is ready at hand, but doing the good is not.
For I do not do the good I want,
but I do the evil I do not want.
Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it,
but sin that dwells in me.
So, then, I discover the principle
that when I want to do right, evil is at hand.
For I take delight in the law of God, in my inner self,
but I see in my members another principle
at war with the law of my mind,
taking me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.
Miserable one that I am!
Who will deliver me from this mortal body?
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Word of the Lord.

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I was once a pen pal with a young man serving a prison sentence. In his heart of hearts, he was a good man. I knew him long before he got into trouble. But one thing led to another, and eventually he found himself behind bars.

While there, he started reading the bible and was overcome when he came across Saint Paul’s confession from our first reading, his Letter to the Romans: “I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want.”

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Paul, a man we revere as a Saint, was torn between his flesh and his spirit. He knew what was right and wanted to do it always; yet, at times, he failed. He knew what was wrong and longed to avoid it; but, at times, he gave in.

Whatever his struggle was, it haunted him. Paul experienced what we all experience – attraction to and hatred for our sins. 

If knowledge of the truth alone were strong enough to guide our actions, then life would be easy. We’d all be saints! But we need more than knowledge; we also need grace. 

We will only experience true and lasting freedom when Christ has full command of our heart.

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So, where do I experience this tension in my life? When do I do what I “hate”?

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Jesus does not come to judge or condemn us. Rather, he comes to forgive, to heal, to inspire, and to change us.

May we be patient with ourselves – and others – as we merge evermore with Christ. As Paul himself prayed, “May God who has begun this good work within you bring it to fulfillment.” 

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Image credits: (1) Saylorville Church (2) Borivali Assembly (3) FreePik

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Gospel: Luke 12: 49-53

Jesus said to his disciples:
“I have come to set the earth on fire,
and how I wish it were already blazing!
There is a baptism with which I must be baptized,
and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished!
Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth?
No, I tell you, but rather division.
From now on a household of five will be divided,
three against two and two against three;
a father will be divided against his son
and a son against his father,
a mother against her daughter
and a daughter against her mother,
a mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

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This is one of the more difficult Gospel passages because of what Jesus promises: division. And not the kind of division we’d hope for, such as the separation between evildoers and the righteous, but division at home.

In families; in marriages; in the relationships we often value most.

Yet there is nothing we can experience which Jesus has not already felt. Multiple times in the Gospels, we see this tension between his human and divine family unfolding.

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Consider what happened when Mary and Joseph found Jesus in the Temple after searching frantically for him for three days. An exasperated Mary asked him, “Son, why have you done this to us?”

To which Jesus responded, “Did you not know I must be about my Father’s business?”

Or when he was an adult, and an onlooker notified him that his family was outside waiting to speak with him. He turned and asked them, “Who is my mother? Who are my sisters and brothers? Those who hear the Word of God and observe it.”

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At every turn, Jesus chose his divine family over his human family – as we are also invited to do. This decision can not only create division, but also fear. 

Fear because Christ’s disciples are willing to leave their home – and all dwelling within it – if he calls us.

Fear because his Word runs deeper, and guides our steps more intimately, than even the best family advice.

Fear because there are parts of ourselves that we may share with Him but not with others we love.

Fear because our worldview is not framed by popular opinion, secular culture, or subjectivism, but by unchanging Truth.

Fear because we dedicate our lives to someone whom others, even our own family members, may not believe in or understand.

Fear because the Gospel is not a butter knife but a sword. It can set us free, but it can also divide, “three against two and two against three.” Children against their parents, and spouses against their in-laws. 

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It’s a divisive truth because our human family always comes second to Christ.

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Image credits: (1) Christianity Today (2) X (3) YouTube, Above Inspiration