THE GOOD NEWS OF THE KINGDOM

September 1, Wednesday

TWENTY-SECOND WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

 

      Paul thanks God and the Colossians that the good news of Jesus Christ has taken root among the Colossians and is spreading all over the Roman world.

      Jesus has preached his message of hope in the lake town of Capernaum and confirmed it by liberating the poor and the sick from the powers of evil. He has to bring the same good news to other places. The gospel of hope in a new world is destined for all. With the people healed by Jesus, let us in this eucharist thank the Lord for his good news.

 

First Reading: Colossians 1:1-8

I, Paul, have been sent on special assignment by Christ as part of God’s master plan. Together with my friend Timothy, I greet the Christians and stalwart followers of Christ who live in Colossi. May everything good from God our Father be yours!

Our prayers for you are always spilling over into thanksgivings. We can’t quit thanking God our Father and Jesus our Messiah for you! We keep getting reports on your steady faith in Christ, our Jesus, and the love you continuously extend to all Christians. The lines of purpose in your lives never grow slack, tightly tied as they are to your future in heaven, kept taut by hope.

The Message is as true among you today as when you first heard it. It doesn’t diminish or weaken over time. It’s the same all over the world. The Message bears fruit and gets larger and stronger, just as it has in you. From the very first day you heard and recognized the truth of what God is doing, you’ve been hungry for more. It’s as vigorous in you now as when you learned it from our friend and close associate Epaphras. He is one reliable worker for Christ! I could always depend on him. He’s the one who told us how thoroughly love had been worked into your lives by the Spirit.

 

Gospel: Luke 4:38-44

He left the meeting place and went to Simon’s house. Simon’s mother-in-law was running a high fever and they asked him to do something for her. He stood over her, told the fever to leave—and it left. Before they knew it, she was up getting dinner for them.

When the sun went down, everyone who had anyone sick with some ailment or other brought them to him. One by one he placed his hands on them and healed them. Demons left in droves, screaming, “Son of God! You’re the Son of God!” But he shut them up, refusing to let them speak because they knew too much, knew him to be the Messiah.

He left the next day for open country. But the crowds went looking and, when they found him, clung to him so he couldn’t go on. He told them, “Don’t you realize that there are yet other villages where I have to tell the Message of God’s kingdom, that this is the work God sent me to do?” Meanwhile he continued preaching in the meeting places of Galilee.

 

Prayer

Lord our God,
we thank you today for Jesus, your Son.
He came to heal our wounds
and to set us going on the way
to you and to one another.
Help us in our fumbling, stumbling attempts
to continue looking for him
and to make his gospel of hope and love
come true among us as the good news
that your Son is alive among us
and that he is our Lord for ever. Amen.

 

Reflection:

A Church on the move

We continue to read from the account of Evangelist Luke about Jesus spending a Sabbath day in Capernaum. After driving out an ugly demon from a person in the Synagogue and refusing even to have any dialogue with the evil powers, Jesus moves to the house of Peter.

Fr. Armellini would explain this act of Jesus moving from the synagogue to the House of Peter as a symbolic gesture. For the community of Luke, the House of Peter is a symbol of the house of the disciples of Jesus – i.e., the Church. Jesus walks in and first heals the woman suffering from a fever. The Church has its own fevers and illnesses that paralyses it from getting up and being at the service of others. Anything that makes us lazy or prevents us from being at the service of others is a fever that forces us on the bed. Being in the Church, if we refuse to be at the service of others, it is an indication that we are sick and we need an urgent healing!

For the Church to move on with its mission of healing the wounds of the world, it needs to be healed of its own fevers in the first place. Therefore, when Jesus walks in to the house of Peter, his first action would be to bring healing to the fevers of those within the household. Once healed of her fever, Peter’s mother-in-law get up immediately and moves on with her mission of serving them.

All the people who were sick, with various illnesses were brought to the house of Peter, seeking a healing touch of the Lord. It is also a symbol of the sick world that stands before the Church, in need of the healing touch. The Church shares the mission of Christ to bring healing to the world. “He laid his hands on each of them and cured them,” says the Gospel. Nobody is excluded from the mercy and grace of Christ. And this our mission too.

Demons, as they did in the synagogue earlier, continue their trade here too – shouting “You are the Son of God.” But Jesus wouldn’t fall into their trap of soliciting any public applause or adulations. Once the mission is completed, he does not stay there any longer. Despite the plea of the people, Jesus moves on to other places. Here is a lesson to learn for the Missionary Church. Our mission is to be on the move in service of God’s people and not to be stationed in the comforts of places where we are appreciated and accepted.

 

Video available on Youtube: A Church on the move