24-Oct-16

Gospel LK 13:10-17
Jesus was teaching in a synagogue on the sabbath.
And a woman was there who for eighteen years
had 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 sabbath
untie his ox or his ass from the manger
and 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 day
from 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:
There is beauty in the person who has the self confidence to step forth from the crowd and act in the face of injustice.
Jesus undoubtedly knew that the leader of the synagogue would be indignant if He healed the crippled woman on the sabbath day.
But, Jesus never backed away from doing "the next right thing."
That kind of courage stems from knowing one's self, one's purpose in life.
Jesus knew that His purpose in life was to make known the love of God, through both word and deed.
Mankind has always been impressed with those who, like Jesus, stood up for what they knew to be right, even in the face of opposition and ridicule.
Gandhi was such a person, leading the people of India out of colonial bondage. Mandela was such a man, sacrificing years of his life in prison to break the bonds of injustice for blacks in South Africa. Martin Luther King was the same, finally giving his life in his quest to set his people free.
When we are more concerned with what God thinks of us rather than the opinion of our fellow man, only then will we too find the courage to do "the next right thing."
"When we heal the wound of another person our own wounds begin to disappear." - - Unknown