Readings for Monday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time[1][2]
Reading from the Jerusalem Bible
Commentary:
Reading 1 Rom 8:12-17
St. Paul continues his discourse about the importance of making life in the spirit a priority as opposed to the life of the “unspiritual”. He reminds his Christian audience that when they became Christians they were not made slaves but adopted children of God. Able, he tells them, of calling God “Abba” the familial term used by Jesus, emphasizing that they are coheirs with Christ whose sufferings and glory they share.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 68:2 and 4, 6-7ab, 20-21
R. Our God is the God of salvation.
This song of thanksgiving exalts the Lord for his salvation of his children. His faithful, the singer calls, enjoy his strength, even his power over death.
Gospel Lk 13:10-17
The story of the cure of the crippled woman is parallel to the story of Jesus curing the man with dropsy on the Sabbath (Luke 14:1-6). He is challenged by the local Jewish leadership for doing “work” on God’s holy day. As before, he uses the need to tend to the necessities of life on the sabbath as parallel to his need to cure the woman.
Reflection:
Visualize the scene painted in St. Luke’s Gospel. It is the sabbath and Jesus is in the local Temple to worship with the community when he sees this afflicted woman. She is probably by herself since the people of that time would have seen her affliction as a punishment from God.
The Lord will observe her for just a moment as compassion for her suffering wells within him. Perhaps he notices other women there who fall into two groups; one group who are secretly pleased with this poor woman’s affliction and another group who are sorry to see their friend in such a state. Her solitude, however, reflects the common feeling of fear among those present, that by coming too close they will fall victim to the same punishment.
Jesus walks over to the woman. As he passes into the area reserved from women, some of the men there may even reach out tentatively as if to prevent him or to warn him. But he is undeterred and walks right over to the woman and says an amazing thing. He says “Woman, you are set free of your infirmity.” (We imagine a murmur of wonder among those present. They had no doubt heard things about this wandering Rabbi.) Then to everyone’s amazement, lifting his eyes and head slightly, he touches her!
Perhaps a look of amazement crosses her face as she realizes that cramped muscles and frozen tendons no longer prevent her from moving, from standing up straight. Then she straightens up for the first time in eighteen years. Imagine the quiet roar that must have enveloped the worship space. We are told the woman immediately began glorifying God. Curious that she did not embrace Jesus and thank him isn’t it? No she heard the Lord say you are set free. God had released her from her infirmity. To him was praise and glory due.
Ah, but what about the scribes and Pharisees? They were in the men’s part of the Temple and they were not happy. This person had just done something they classified as work and in so doing violated the law against laboring on the sabbath.
The Lord’s argument with them is familiar to us. But we note something else in the story and the Lord’s response. His example of “untying an ox” would be an act, not just of compassion, but of necessity. A person would not give their beast of burden a drink of water because the felt sorry for it, but because it was their duty to take care of it.
Using that same example, we now understand something new about the Lord’s message. We, who as St. Paul tells us in his Letter to the Romans, are heirs to God’s Kingdom, coheirs with Jesus, are not to see our acts of mercy on his behalf as simple compassion. No, it is our duty as his disciples, to do whatever he calls us to do. And when God is glorified because of what his servants have done, we look at those actions not with pride, but with the same satisfaction as the master carpenter views his finished commission, as a job well done.
Pax
[1] After Links to Readings Expire
[2] The picture today is “Beggars and Cripples” by Hieronymus Bosch, 17th Century
Reading from the Jerusalem Bible
Commentary:
Reading 1 Rom 8:12-17
St. Paul continues his discourse about the importance of making life in the spirit a priority as opposed to the life of the “unspiritual”. He reminds his Christian audience that when they became Christians they were not made slaves but adopted children of God. Able, he tells them, of calling God “Abba” the familial term used by Jesus, emphasizing that they are coheirs with Christ whose sufferings and glory they share.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 68:2 and 4, 6-7ab, 20-21
R. Our God is the God of salvation.
This song of thanksgiving exalts the Lord for his salvation of his children. His faithful, the singer calls, enjoy his strength, even his power over death.
Gospel Lk 13:10-17
The story of the cure of the crippled woman is parallel to the story of Jesus curing the man with dropsy on the Sabbath (Luke 14:1-6). He is challenged by the local Jewish leadership for doing “work” on God’s holy day. As before, he uses the need to tend to the necessities of life on the sabbath as parallel to his need to cure the woman.
Reflection:
Visualize the scene painted in St. Luke’s Gospel. It is the sabbath and Jesus is in the local Temple to worship with the community when he sees this afflicted woman. She is probably by herself since the people of that time would have seen her affliction as a punishment from God.
The Lord will observe her for just a moment as compassion for her suffering wells within him. Perhaps he notices other women there who fall into two groups; one group who are secretly pleased with this poor woman’s affliction and another group who are sorry to see their friend in such a state. Her solitude, however, reflects the common feeling of fear among those present, that by coming too close they will fall victim to the same punishment.
Jesus walks over to the woman. As he passes into the area reserved from women, some of the men there may even reach out tentatively as if to prevent him or to warn him. But he is undeterred and walks right over to the woman and says an amazing thing. He says “Woman, you are set free of your infirmity.” (We imagine a murmur of wonder among those present. They had no doubt heard things about this wandering Rabbi.) Then to everyone’s amazement, lifting his eyes and head slightly, he touches her!
Perhaps a look of amazement crosses her face as she realizes that cramped muscles and frozen tendons no longer prevent her from moving, from standing up straight. Then she straightens up for the first time in eighteen years. Imagine the quiet roar that must have enveloped the worship space. We are told the woman immediately began glorifying God. Curious that she did not embrace Jesus and thank him isn’t it? No she heard the Lord say you are set free. God had released her from her infirmity. To him was praise and glory due.
Ah, but what about the scribes and Pharisees? They were in the men’s part of the Temple and they were not happy. This person had just done something they classified as work and in so doing violated the law against laboring on the sabbath.
The Lord’s argument with them is familiar to us. But we note something else in the story and the Lord’s response. His example of “untying an ox” would be an act, not just of compassion, but of necessity. A person would not give their beast of burden a drink of water because the felt sorry for it, but because it was their duty to take care of it.
Using that same example, we now understand something new about the Lord’s message. We, who as St. Paul tells us in his Letter to the Romans, are heirs to God’s Kingdom, coheirs with Jesus, are not to see our acts of mercy on his behalf as simple compassion. No, it is our duty as his disciples, to do whatever he calls us to do. And when God is glorified because of what his servants have done, we look at those actions not with pride, but with the same satisfaction as the master carpenter views his finished commission, as a job well done.
Pax
[1] After Links to Readings Expire
[2] The picture today is “Beggars and Cripples” by Hieronymus Bosch, 17th Century
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