23RD WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
Psalter: Week 3 / (Green)
Ps 5:5-6, 7, 12
Lead me in your justice, Lord.
1st Reading: 1 Cor 5:1-8
You have become news, with a case of immorality, and such a case that is not even found among pagans. Yes, one of you has taken, as wife, his own stepmother. And you feel proud! Should you not be in mourning, instead, and expel the one who did such a thing? For my part, although I am physically absent, my spirit is with you and, as if present, I have already passed sentence on the man who committed such a sin. Let us meet together, you and my spirit, and in the name of our Lord Jesus, and with his power, you shall deliver him to Satan, for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit be saved in the day of Judgment.
This is not the time to praise yourselves. Do you not know that a little yeast makes the whole mass of dough rise? Throw out, then, the old yeast and be new dough. If Christ became our Passover, you should be unleavened bread. Let us celebrate, therefore, the Passover, no longer with old yeast, which is sin and perversity; let us have unleavened bread, that is purity and sincerity.
Gospel: Lk 6:6-11
On another Sabbath, Jesus entered the synagogue and began teaching. There was a man with a paralyzed right hand, and the teachers of the law and the Pharisees watched him: Would Jesus heal the man on the Sabbath? If he did, they could accuse him.
But Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to the man, “Get up, and stand in the middle.” Then he spoke to them, “I want to ask you: what is allowed by the law on the Sabbath? To do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it?” And Jesus looked around at them all. Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored, becoming as healthy as the other. But they were furious, and began to discuss with one another how they could deal with Jesus.
Reflections
There were scribes and Pharisees in the congregation and, we are told, they “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. Jesus, of course, is fully aware of what is going on. He speaks directly to the disabled man: “Rise up and stand out in the middle!” The command to “rise up” is already an indication of what is going to take place; the man is going to be given back the capacity to walk and lead a normal life. For him, the Law was relative to the dignity and well-being of the person, especially the sick and helpless. No implementation of a law can offend the well-being of everyone. And sometimes following the dignity of the human person may have to go against the letter of the law. What is legal is not always moral. It can be immoral, that is, evil, to obey a law in certain circumstances. What is moral goes beyond the law and may even contradict the law. We will find ourselves in situations where contemporary Pharisees will try to put the Church to proclaim a judgmental God and force fundamentalism in our understanding of the Scripture or the liturgy or morality or something else. These are people who put the letter of the laws, regulations and rubrics before mercy and love. For them it is more important to observe the externals of rules than to be a loving person. They are preoccupied with following the law or the commandments and the exclusion of those who violate them. They forget that the mercy of God is where true faith is lived.
Daily Reflection 2018
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