I Am The Law

Monday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time

Readings for Monday of the 30th Week in Ordinary Time

Reading 1 Eph 4:32–5:8

Brothers and sisters:Be kind to one another, compassionate,forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ.Be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love,as Christ loved us and handed himself over for usas a sacrificial offering to God for a fragrant aroma.Immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be mentioned among you,as is fitting among holy ones,no obscenity or silly or suggestive talk, which is out of place,but instead, thanksgiving.Be sure of this, that no immoral or impure or greedy person,that is, an idolater,has any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God.Let no one deceive you with empty arguments,for because of these thingsthe wrath of God is coming upon the disobedient.So do not be associated with them.For you were once darkness,but now you are light in the Lord.Live as children of light.

Responsorial Psalm Ps 1:1-2, 3, 4 and 6
R. Behave like God as his very dear children.

Gospel Lk 13:10-17

Jesus was teaching in a synagogue on the sabbath.And a woman was there who for eighteen yearshad 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 sabbathuntie his ox or his ass from the mangerand 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 dayfrom this bondage?”When he said this, all his adversaries were humiliated;and the whole crowd rejoiced at all the splendid deeds done by him.

Reflection:

Although Paul does not say it in this passage from Ephesians, we can almost hear the words; “Be imitators of me, as I imitate Christ.” He calls to us in the place of the Ephesians, since we too are being challenged by deceivers with empty arguments. Today his stern injunction is to avoid those things that contaminate us through sin.

Why is it that we are asked to do such difficult things in the name of our Lord? Why could it not be simpler? One would think that as we get older and wiser in the ways of the Lord that following his commands would become easier. Take if from on of the “old ones”, it does not.

The lord asks us to love on another. That is his chief commandment to us. He has given us his own example in the Gospel of Luke today as a written proof. He confounds the leaders of the Temple who are challenging him because he cured a possessed woman on the Sabbath, thereby violating the Law by doing work. He silenced them and in doing so, once more, gave us an understanding that the Law God gives us is first and foremost one of love.

And when the Lord passed from his life as a man and returned to the Father, he left us with further examples; first the Apostles strengthened by the Holy Spirit, who spread his word, then the early Fathers of the Church who sacrificed their lives so the faith could be codified. They in turn were followed by more great Saints who spread the word even further, asking the difficult questions; questions we ask even today. They left us the answers given to them through discernment and the same Holy Spirit left by Christ for us all, in the teaching Magesterium of the Church.

Through the ages that followed, the law of love the Lord of Love has been instilled in the hearts of great and humble members of the faithful, the Communion of Saints. Their example continues to keep the image of the world of love alive and vibrant. Through two thousand years that torch has been passed, most recently to Mother Theresa of Calcutta and Pope John Paul the Great, and now they have handed that torch to us.

It does not get any easier does it. How can we lift that burden, flawed as we all are? How can people see in us the image of the Lord’s love? It is in our daily lives that this happens and through our ordinary acts of kindness, consideration, and forgiveness. That message is never easy, but we are called and it’s what we do.

Pax