Monday of the Twenty-Third Week in Ordinary Time. Year II.
Col.1:24-2:3; Luke 6:6-11
As far as helping people was concerned, Jesus was ready to break the Sabbath Law as often as possible. For the Jews, to heal meant working on the Sabbath; so Jesus clearly broke the law by healing the man with a withered right hand. However, the question that he throws to the Scribes and Pharisees is quite instructive, “is it against the law on the Sabbath to do good, or to do evil; to save life, or to destroy it?” Here, Jesus clearly shows that the Scribes and Pharisees were the guilty party, since they were the ones who harboured evil thoughts on the Sabbath.
Friends, we also learn something from the man with a withered hand today. He had courage. He didn’t refuse when he was asked to come to the middle, and he certainly made effort to ‘stretch out’ his hand, even when he knew it was withered. Because he made a move in faith, his hand received strength by Jesus’s power. In our blind attachment to rituals, we sometimes become worse than the Scribes and Pharisees, lacking all human compassion. But like Jesus, may we learn to be defiant for the right reasons, and like the man who was healed today, may we realise that faith makes the impossible, possible.
God bless your week ahead.
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