Daily Reflection | Gospel Reading | RVA

THE WORD

Is 49,8-15 / Jn 5,17-30 MAR

Jesus said to the Jews, “My Father is at work until now, so I am at work.” For this reason the Jews tried all the more to kill him, because he not only broke the sabbath but he also called God his own father, making himself equal to God.

Jesus answered and said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, a son cannot do anything on his own, but only what he sees his father doing; for what he does, his son will do also. For the Father loves his Son and shows him everything that he himself does, and he will show him greater works than these, so that you may be amazed. For just as the Father raises the dead and gives life, so also does the Son give life to whomever he wishes. Nor does the Father judge anyone, but he has given all judgment to his Son, so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.

“Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life and will not come to condemnation, but has passed from death to life. Amen, amen, I say to you, the hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in himself, so also he gave to his Son the possession of life in himself. And he gave him power to exercise judgment, because he is the Son of Man...”

IN OTHER WORDS

In November 2014, the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) advertised 16 key positions for its project among the Congolese refugees in Burundi. Out of more than 600 applicants, we shortlisted 64 candidates for the first round of interviews. One of them was a woman in her early 40s. She applied for the position of Assistant Coordinator for Urban Refugees. When I asked her about her motivation in applying for this job, she said that she had been involved in refugee work for more than 10 years then. Hence working with refugees was already part of her life and had somehow become her “identity.”

Jesus’ identity cannot be separated from his work of salvation. In fact that is exactly what his name means: God saves. Importantly, his identity and that of his Father are intrinsically one and the same. For this reason, he said to the Jews, “My Father is at work until now, so I am at work.”

Furthermore he said, “Amen, amen, I say to you, a son cannot do anything on his own but only what he sees his father doing, for what he does, his son will do also.”

Jesus, in healing sick people on the Sabbath day, did not rescind the importance of the Sabbath.

The Synoptics present the Sabbath as a time “to do good” (Mt 12:12), “to save” (Mk 3:4), “to loose” human beings from physical and spiritual bonds (Lk13:16-17), and to show “mercy” rather than religiosity (Mt 12:7). Unfortunately, instead of seeing the redemptive work that Jesus was doing, the Pharisees chose only to see the man carrying his mat on a Sabbath day.

Sabbath (Sunday) is a day for us to experience God’s redemptive work by ministering to the needs of others. Hopefully, those who hear the words of Jesus and believe in the one who sent him may have eternal life.

• Fr. Romeo Cagatin, SVD | Burundi, Republique du Togo

The Word in other words 2016

An annual project of Logos Publications, The WORD in Other Words Bible Diary contains daily scripture readings and reflections written by priest, brothers, and sisters of the three congregations founded by St. Arnold Janssen (the SVD, SSpS, and SSpSAP). It hopes to serve as a daily companion to readers who continually seek the correlation of the Word of God and human experience.

	Production : Fr. Carlos Maria de Guzman, Jr., SVD and Staff of Logos Publications
	Cover Design : Malou E. Domingo
	Liturgical Calendar : Fr. Atilano Corcuera, SVD
	Production Consultant : Fr. Gerardo del Pinado, SVD
	Scriptural Texts : New American Bible and Daily Roman Missal
	Cover artwork based on photos by Fr. Bar Fabella, SVD
	Published by : Logos Publications, Inc. 1916 Oroquieta St., Sta. Cruz, Manila
	Email Address: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
	Telephone : +63 2 711 1323
	Fax : +63 2 732 273
	Copyright © 2015 Society of the Divine Word

 

THE WORD

Ez 47,1-9.12 / Jn 5,1-3.5-16

There was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem at the Sheep (Gate) a pool called in Hebrew Bethesda, with five porticoes. In these lay a large number of ill, blind, lame, and crippled.

One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been ill for a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be well?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; while I am on my way, someone else gets down there before me.”

Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your mat, and walk.” Immediately the man became well, took up his mat, and walked.

Now that day was a sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who was cured, “It is the sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.” He answered them, “The man who made me well told me, ‘Take up your mat and walk.’” They asked him, “Who is the man who told you, ‘Take it up and walk?’” The man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away, since there was a crowd there.

After this Jesus found him in the temple area and said to him, “Look, you are well; do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse may happen to you.” The man went and told the Jews that Jesus was the one who had made him well. Therefore, the Jews began to persecute Jesus because he did this on a sabbath.

IN OTHER WORDS

Not being able to move by yourself for thirty-eight years is not a joke. Worse is having no one to help you in times of need. But what should be highlighted are the man’s patience, persistence, hope and faith. Despite the fact that someone would always get into the pool before him, which must have really been frustrating, he continued to hope that someday God would make a way for him and help him out of his misery.

Perhaps, this faith was what moved Jesus’ heart when he saw the man. This man probably realized that God had looked upon his sufferings with mercy, and was expecting Jesus to help him get into the pool, but God answered his prayers in a way that was more than he could ever expect.

Instead of just helping him, Jesus cured him, “Rise, take up your mat and walk.” He was instantly healed; no more need to go into the pool. He found help through a much better way than he possibly dreamed of. Sometimes, it seems to take a long time for God to answer our prayers, but in His perfect time, God answers our prayers in a much better way, just as what Jesus did to the sick man. We only need to be patient and persevering.

We wonder why the man had no one to help him go into the pool—no friends, no relatives, no neighbors? That is really odd! And then we get the sense of the man being alienated from his community - an ailment much worse than a physical one. When he met the man later at the temple, Jesus addressed this issue by calling him to a conversion from sin—to sin no more and to use God’s grace of healing towards him to make him a better person. This is Jesus’ way of reintegrating the man with his community.

This is the healing that Jesus gives to those of us who hope to be cured. It is total and integral. The man was healed not only physically but spiritually and socially as well. With God’s compassion and mercy, may we gain confidence in ourselves. May this confidence liberate us from individualism and help us discover the healing mercy and compassion of God.

• Fr. Fermin “Joks” Galolo, SVD | CT, Manila

The Word in other words 2016

An annual project of Logos Publications, The WORD in Other Words Bible Diary contains daily scripture readings and reflections written by priest, brothers, and sisters of the three congregations founded by St. Arnold Janssen (the SVD, SSpS, and SSpSAP). It hopes to serve as a daily companion to readers who continually seek the correlation of the Word of God and human experience.

	Production : Fr. Carlos Maria de Guzman, Jr., SVD and Staff of Logos Publications
	Cover Design : Malou E. Domingo
	Liturgical Calendar : Fr. Atilano Corcuera, SVD
	Production Consultant : Fr. Gerardo del Pinado, SVD
	Scriptural Texts : New American Bible and Daily Roman Missal
	Cover artwork based on photos by Fr. Bar Fabella, SVD
	Published by : Logos Publications, Inc. 1916 Oroquieta St., Sta. Cruz, Manila
	Email Address: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
	Telephone : +63 2 711 1323
	Fax : +63 2 732 273
	Copyright © 2015 Society of the Divine Word

 

THE WORD

Is 65, 17-21 / Jn 4,43-54

After the two days, he left there for Galilee. For Jesus himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his native place. When he came into Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, since they had seen all he had done in Jerusalem at the feast; for they themselves had gone to the feast. Then he returned to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. Now there was a royal official whose son was ill in Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, who was near death. Jesus said to him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.” The royal official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” Jesus said to him, “You may go; your son will live.” The man believed what Jesus said to him and left . While he was on his way back, his slaves met him and told him that his boy would live. He asked them when he began to recover. They told him, “the fever left him yesterday, about one in the afternoon.” The father realized that just at that time Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live,” and he and his whole household came to believe. (Now) this was the second sign Jesus did when he came to Galilee from Judea.

IN OTHER WORDS

“Father, I do not know if I will still live till tomorrow. I want to confess and ask for an anointing of the sick.” These were some of the most bothering words I had ever heard from a faithful. After

Sunday mass this man approached me at the sacristy, explaining that he would have surgery on the following day as a result of a complex health situation. After that, I never heard of him anymore until one of our lay ministers phoned me to say that the surgery never took place in the end because, upon further examination before it, the doctors found him totally healed. I said to myself: “Thanks be to God!”

When we experience frustrating moments in life that are beyond our control we cling to God for mercy and healing. Both the guy who asked for confession and anointing, and the court official in the gospel reading, experienced tremendous frustrations. But despite their conditions they never lost faith in God. Jesus, in the gospel reading, said to the court offi cial, “Your son will live.” I believe Jesus also told the guy who approached me in the silence of his heart, “You will be healed.”

Jesus is our Lord who cannot refuse our sincere prayers. He always gives us new life, new hope and new journey to heaven. Jesus once said: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. (Lk. 11:9)” He gives us a hint. Believe in Him. Let us firmly believe in Jesus, the Son of the living God. He doesn’t only heal us but also gives us life, a life prepared in heaven. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (Jn.3:16)”

• Fr. Garry Bacol, SVD | Argentina                                                                                

The Word in other words 2016

An annual project of Logos Publications, The WORD in Other Words Bible Diary contains daily scripture readings and reflections written by priest, brothers, and sisters of the three congregations founded by St. Arnold Janssen (the SVD, SSpS, and SSpSAP). It hopes to serve as a daily companion to readers who continually seek the correlation of the Word of God and human experience.

	Production : Fr. Carlos Maria de Guzman, Jr., SVD and Staff of Logos Publications
	Cover Design : Malou E. Domingo
	Liturgical Calendar : Fr. Atilano Corcuera, SVD
	Production Consultant : Fr. Gerardo del Pinado, SVD
	Scriptural Texts : New American Bible and Daily Roman Missal
	Cover artwork based on photos by Fr. Bar Fabella, SVD
	Published by : Logos Publications, Inc. 1916 Oroquieta St., Sta. Cruz, Manila
	Email Address: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
	Telephone : +63 2 711 1323
	Fax : +63 2 732 273
	Copyright © 2015 Society of the Divine Word

 

THE WORD

FIRST READING Jos 5,9.10-12

Then the LORD said to Joshua: Today I have removed the reproach of Egypt from you. Therefore the place is called Gilgal to the present day.

While the Israelites were encamped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, they celebrated the Passover on the evening of the fourteenth day of the month. On the day after the Passover they ate of the produce of the land in the form of unleavened cakes and parched grain. On that same day after they ate of the produce of the land, the manna ceased. No longer was there manna for the Israelites, who that year ate of the yield of the land of Canaan.

SECOND READING: 2 Cor 5,17-21

So whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come. And all this is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and given us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. So we are ambassadors for Christ, as if God were appealing through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

GOSPEL: Lk 15,1-3.11-32

The tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to him, but the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” So to them he addressed this parable.

Then he said, “A man had two sons, and the younger son said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of your estate that should come to me.’ So the father divided the property between them. After a few days, the younger son collected all his belongings and set off to a distant country where he squandered his inheritance on a life of dissipation. When he had freely spent everything, a severe famine struck that country, and he found himself in dire need. So he hired himself out to one of the local citizens who sent him to his farm to tend the swine. And he longed to eat his fill of the pods on which the swine fed, but nobody gave him any.

Coming to his senses he thought, ‘How many of my father’s hired workers have more than enough food to eat, but here am I, dying from hunger. I shall get up and go to my father and I shall say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as you would treat one of your hired workers.”’

So he got up and went back to his father. While he was still a long way off, his father caught sight of him, and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him. His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you; I no longer deserve to be called your son.’

But his father ordered his servants, ‘Quickly bring the fi nest robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Take the fattened calf and slaughter it. Then let us celebrate with a feast, because this son of mine was dead, and has come to life again; he was lost, and has been found.’ Then the celebration began.

Now the older son had been out in the field and, on his way back, as he neared the house, he heard the sound of music and dancing. He called one of the servants and asked what this might mean. The servant said to him, ‘Your brother has returned and your father has slaughtered the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’

He became angry, and when he refused to enter the house, his father came out and pleaded with him. He said to his father in reply, ‘Look, all these years I served you and not once did I disobey your orders; yet you never gave me even a young goat to feast on with my friends. But when your son returns who swallowed upyour property with prostitutes, for him you slaughter the fattened calf.’

He said to him, ‘My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours. But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.’

IN OTHER WORDS

You and I love stories with happy endings, like “and they lived happily ever after.” The question, however, is “Can we say this after reading the parable of the prodigal son or, as some prefer, the parable of the prodigal and foolish father who followed the reasons of his heart instead of the logic in his head.

Were we dealing with an ordinary, earthly and practical father, the story would have ended with the parent showing the door to both his sons who gravely disappointed him with what they had done and one can believe with difficulty that Jesus was trying, by means of this parable, to show that his Father, and our Father too, has a standard of forgiveness and a passion for us which is “way out of this world.” God’s love and forgiveness are beyond our human capacity to comprehend. We just have to believe and accept.

When we look at the people around us or at the violence being committed by men on their own brothers, or look at the objectively pathetic turn of events in our own friends’ and relatives’ lives, we wonder at times loudly if for these wayward people there is still some hope for salvation. The parable Jesus told us—if understood and, more importantly, accepted-- is a powerful source to be optimistic. Our optimism is based on St. Ireneus’ claim that “Man fully alive is God’s greatest glory.”

Dame Julian of Norwich, the English mystic from the 15th century, was so convinced of God’s love overcoming all human resistance at the end. She, in a language borne of an insight which is truly extraordinary claims that at the end, “All is well, all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.”

• Fr.Florencio Lagura, SVD | (U.S.A.)

The Word in other words 2016

An annual project of Logos Publications, The WORD in Other Words Bible Diary contains daily scripture readings and reflections written by priest, brothers, and sisters of the three congregations founded by St. Arnold Janssen (the SVD, SSpS, and SSpSAP). It hopes to serve as a daily companion to readers who continually seek the correlation of the Word of God and human experience.

	Production : Fr. Carlos Maria de Guzman, Jr., SVD and Staff of Logos Publications
	Cover Design : Malou E. Domingo
	Liturgical Calendar : Fr. Atilano Corcuera, SVD
	Production Consultant : Fr. Gerardo del Pinado, SVD
	Scriptural Texts : New American Bible and Daily Roman Missal
	Cover artwork based on photos by Fr. Bar Fabella, SVD
	Published by : Logos Publications, Inc. 1916 Oroquieta St., Sta. Cruz, Manila
	Email Address: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
	Telephone : +63 2 711 1323
	Fax : +63 2 732 273
	Copyright © 2015 Society of the Divine Word