30th OCTOBER. FRIDAY OF WEEK 30

                   

1st Reading : Romans 9:1-5

Paul would endure anything to win his fellow- Jews to Christ

I am speaking the truth in Christ; I am not lying;  my conscience confirms it by the Holy Spirit. I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my own people, my kindred according to the flesh. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs, and from them, according to the flesh, comes the Messiah, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen

Gospel: Luke 14:1-6

What " keeping the sabbath" really asks of us

On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the Sabbath, they were watching him closely. Just then, in front of him, there was a man who had dropsy. And Jesus asked the lawyers and Pharisees, " Is it lawful to cure people on the Sabbath, or not?" But they were silent. So Jesus took him and healed him, and sent him away. Then he said to them, "If one of you has a child or an ox that has fallen into a well, will you not immediately pull it out on a Sabbath day?" And they could not reply to this.

REFLECTIONS AND MEDITATIONS ON THE READINGS

In our today's gospel we hear Jesus spreading joy and breaking down religious barriers. We can ask ourselves the question that what we have read today in the gospel, " Wasn't all this covered last Monday?" Indeed yes, for the Sabbath story that day is very similar to today's , also from St. Luke. Both tells about Jesus healing and both cures took place on the Sabbath. However, this leads to an argument with the religious authorities about what the  Sabbath requires, and in both cases Jesus comes out on top. But the stories are not identical. One is set in a synagogue, and the objection was from the synagogue ruler. Today's is in the house of a Pharisee, with no reference to the synagogue. In last week's story, it was an arthritic woman that was healed; today it is a woman with ' dropsy' ( swollen limbs with fluid). The connection to two incidents is that  Jesus heals them both there is much rejoicing on the part of all, except for rigid minority. Religious leaders during Jesus time had clear rules about what you could and could not do on a Sabbath; but Jesus showed a freedom to discern when mercy must override the rules. In other word, rituals, traditions and customs should not take precedence over God's mercy. Rituals are there to reinforce the law of mercy and the love of God to be applicable at all times.

Authentic choices

From the gospel scene we can understand that the man with dropsy was deliberately brought into that mealtime setting, as a way to trap for Jesus. This obviously is an indication that unwell man would not normally have been invited to such meal. He was there simply as a kind of a hook to trap Jesus, to see if he would heal this man on the Sabbath. We can notice the difference between and the Pharisees about the attitude towards a person who was sick.  The difference is that, Jesus seems more than happy to fall into the trap set for him, for he immediately healed the man and sent him on his way. Whereas the Pharisees showed scant respect for the clearly unwell man, Jesus showed total respect for him by responding to his need and leading him towards a fuller life.

In the name of defence of God's law, religious experts sometimes display little respect for persons in need. In our today's gospel Jesus teaches us the lesson about the authentic form of religion that treats others  with the respect that is worthy of their dignity as people made in God's image and precious in God's sight. As followers of Jesus we are called to keep taking our lead from him; we are invited to be Christ like; his way of relating to others is to be ours, and his way can be ours with the help of the Holy Spirit that he pours into our hearts. When Jesus' way becomes ours, through the power of the Spirit, then, in the words of Paul in the first reading , we " will reach the perfect goodness which Christ Jesus produces in us for the glory and praise of God."

From the gospel reading we are all invited to think that the law of love supersedes the law of rest. Jesus in this perspective transcends Jewish thinking about Sabbath that the law of love supersedes the law of rest. Jesus transcends Pharisees' legalism by pointing to God's intention for the Sabbath: to do good and to heal