22ND WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
Psalter: Week 2 / (Green)
Ps 33:12-13, 14-15, 20-21
Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
1st Reading: 1 Cor 3:1-9
I could not, friends, speak to you as spiritual persons but as fleshly people, for you are still infants in Christ. I gave you milk, and not solid food, for you were not ready for it and, up to now, you cannot receive it, for you are still of the flesh. As long as there is jealousy and strife, what can I say, but that you are at the level of the flesh, and behave like ordinary people.
While one says: “I follow Paul,” and the other: “I follow Apollos,” what are you, but people still at a human level?
For what is Apollos? What is Paul? They are ministers; and through them, you believed, as it was given by the Lord to each of them. I planted, Apollos watered the plant, but God made it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything but God, who makes the plant grow.
The one who plants and the one who waters work to the same end, and the Lord will pay each, according to their work. We are fellow-workers with God, but you are God’s field and building.
Gospel: Lk 4:38-44
Leaving the synagogue, Jesus went to the house of Simon. His mother-in-law was suffering from high fever, and they asked him to do something for her. Bending over her, he rebuked the fever, and it left her. Immediately, she got up and waited on them.
At sunset, people suffering from many kinds of sickness were brought to Jesus. Laying his hands on each one, he healed them. Demons were driven out, howling as they departed from their victims, “You are the Son of God!” He rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, for they knew he was the Messiah.
Jesus left at daybreak and looked for a solitary place. People went out in search of him, and finding him, they tried to dissuade him from leaving. But he said, “I have to go to other towns, to announce the good news of the kingdom of God. That is what I was sent to do.” And Jesus continued to preach in the synagogues of Galilee.
Reflections
He “laid his hands on every one of them” and healed them from their illnesses. As Jesus had announced in the synagogue in Nazareth, the Reign of God is now actively entering the lives of people with Jesus bringing them healing and wholeness. Evil spirits shouted at Jesus “You are the Son of God” as an effort to control him. Whether these were actual cases of possession or were psychological or moral disorders which made people behave in abnormal and harmful ways is not clear. But clearly the presence of the Kingdom is being felt. Healing is taking place and those possessed by evil spirits are freed from their clutches. They experience the healing power of Jesus.
At daybreak, he went off into a quiet place. The desert is the place where God is to be found and very likely, Jesus went there to be alone and pray. The people, who had seen what he did for them, wanted him to stay with them. But he could not and would not. “I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also; that is why I have been sent.” No place could have a monopoly on his healing presence. We need to follow him and keep close to him but we cannot cling to him in a way that prevents others from experiencing his healing touch.
Daily Reflection 2018
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Biblical Texts are taken from Christian Community Bible, Catholic Pastoral Edition (57th Edition) The New English Translation for the ROMAN MISSAL
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