September 6, Monday

TWENTY-THIRD WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

PREACHING CHRIST

      In the first reading of today we hear Paul speak with conviction and enthusiasm about his mission of preaching the gospel. It is a glorious task. We can feel how the gospel fills him and has become the sole meaning of his life. Let Christ also be the meaning of our lives. If so, we cannot but preach him by our words and our way of life.

      It is strange how, as we read in the gospel, faithful, practicing religious people, like the scribes and Pharisees – the regular churchgoers of their day – were a big obstacle to the work of Jesus. They are upset and angry because Jesus cures a man with a withered hand on the day of the Lord. Jesus came to do good and to preserve life, as he said, to carry out a mission of love and life, and these cannot be adequately expressed in laws and commands. We may and should do good also on Sundays!

 

First Reading: Colossians 1:24–2:3

I want you to know how glad I am that it’s me sitting here in this jail and not you. There’s a lot of suffering to be entered into in this world—the kind of suffering Christ takes on. I welcome the chance to take my share in the church’s part of that suffering. When I became a servant in this church, I experienced this suffering as a sheer gift, God’s way of helping me serve you, laying out the whole truth.

This mystery has been kept in the dark for a long time, but now it’s out in the open. God wanted everyone, not just Jews, to know this rich and glorious secret inside and out, regardless of their background, regardless of their religious standing. The mystery in a nutshell is just this: Christ is in you, so therefore you can look forward to sharing in God’s glory. It’s that simple. That is the substance of our Message. We preach Christ, warning people not to add to the Message. We teach in a spirit of profound common sense so that we can bring each person to maturity. To be mature is to be basic. Christ! No more, no less. That’s what I’m working so hard at day after day, year after year, doing my best with the energy God so generously gives me.

I want you to realize that I continue to work as hard as I know how for you, and also for the Christians over at Laodicea. Not many of you have met me face-to-face, but that doesn’t make any difference. Know that I’m on your side, right alongside you. You’re not in this alone.

I want you woven into a tapestry of love, in touch with everything there is to know of God. Then you will have minds confident and at rest, focused on Christ, God’s great mystery. All the richest treasures of wisdom and knowledge are embedded in that mystery and nowhere else. And we’ve been shown the mystery!

 

Gospel: Luke 6:6-11

On another Sabbath he went to the meeting place and taught. There was a man there with a crippled right hand. The religion scholars and Pharisees had their eye on Jesus to see if he would heal the man, hoping to catch him in a Sabbath infraction. He knew what they were up to and spoke to the man with the crippled hand: “Get up and stand here before us.” He did.

Then Jesus addressed them, “Let me ask you something: What kind of action suits the Sabbath best? Doing good or doing evil? Helping people or leaving them helpless?”

He looked around, looked each one in the eye. He said to the man, “Hold out your hand.” He held it out—it was as good as new! They were beside themselves with anger, and started plotting how they might get even with him.

 

Prayer

Lord our God,
in your Son Jesus Christ
you have revealed to us
your treasures of wisdom and love.
His life and his gospel are so full and rich
that we can never exhaust their wisdom.
Let it be a life and a wisdom
in which we grow day after day.
Make us complete in Christ,
that we may hasten
the coming of his kingdom
in ourselves and among people far and near.
We ask you this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

Reflection:

Moving from law to love

We have already seen the meaning of the Sabbath as a day of great joy, intended to be spent in prayer, listening to the Word of God and sharing meals together – in short, a time spent with the Lord. But, over many years of religious practices, the rabbis interpreted the scriptures in ways that suited them best. It became a day of obligation, more than a day of great celebration. Immediately following the incident of plucking the grains in the cornfield, Luke records another confrontation of Jesus with religious leaders, also on a Sabbath day. He heals a man with a withered hand in the synagogue. Luke narrates that the scribes and Pharisees in the congregation “were watching him” to see whether he would heal the man on a Sabbath day so that they could accuse him of breaking the Law. The text implies that the detractors of Jesus knew by now that a needy person would not go unnoticed before Jesus. They indeed expected him to do good. There is something important in this passage that calls our attention as Christians. By our very identity as followers of Christ, people around us expect us to behave in a certain way. The world is watching us. Perhaps, it is a trap, but they expect us to act in a certain way, doing good. When our actions and attitudes do not match the teachings of Christ, when we omit the good works expected of us, we give a wrong witness to Christ. Practicing a profession or trade was prohibited on a Sabbath day. Healing the sick was medical profession and therefore, was forbidden on the Sabbath. Both Jesus and the Pharisees are stressing on the law, but their understanding of the law is different. For Jesus, the law must promote life and support good. But for the Pharisees, obedience to the law is more important that the intended outcome. Jesus calls on leaders of the religion to amend their legalistic attitude and to become more empathetic and compassionate to the needs and sufferings of people. The gospel poses a challenge for us Christians today. Sometimes we find ourselves in situations where contemporary Pharisees try to put the Church into a straitjacket of narrow-mindedness and fundamentalism. On matters of celebration of the liturgy, interpretation of the scriptures, issues on morality and teachings, there are people who put the letter of the law, regulations and rubrics before the commandment of love. For them it is more important to observe the externals of rules than to be a loving person. The God of Jesus was a liberating, inclusive and merciful God. We are invited to discover the consequences of believing in such a God.

 

Video available on Youtube: Moving from law to love