"Is it lawful to cure on the sabbath or not?"

 

Scripture readings for this reflection can be found at Friday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time | USCCB

In our gospel we see another confrontation between the Pharisees and Jesus. There he was having dinner in one of their homes, and yet they were looking for ways to jump on him and accuse him of breaking the Jewish laws. We hear in the gospel, “…the people were observing him carefully.”  (Luke 14:1) It’s as if Jesus is being put on the spot.

For the Jewish people, the most important thing in their relationship with God is to make sure they meticulously keep the laws out of fear of being condemned by God. They failed to see that the laws did not prevent them from doing good on the Sabbath. They fell silent when Jesus asked them, “Is it lawful to cure on the sabbath or not?” (Luke 14:3) The Pharisees' silence reveals their unwillingness to answer, as they know their own beliefs are flawed. They value their traditions more than the man's suffering.

Jesus goes on to heal the man with dropsy and then teaches that helping those in need doesn’t break the Sabbath laws but instead fulfills the laws of Love that comes from God. Further, the Lord is teaching us that we are to move beyond being legalistic and to remember that, while it’s important to keep the commandments of God, we should not ignore the needs of those around us as we attempt to keep God’s laws. 

This gospel is a call to prioritize mercy over legalism. It challenges us to examine our own lives and see where we might be putting rules and regulations ahead of people. 

This gospel is another example of what the Lord teaches us elsewhere in the gospels: we are to not only love God with our whole mind, heart and soul, but we are to love our neighbors as ourselves. This includes even giving them help when it might not be convenient. It’s not always easy, but we need to see the Lord in all people we meet and reach out to them in their need, as the Lord reached out to this man with dropsy. In this way, the Lord can work through us to bring healing to those we encounter each day. In doing so, we will be bringing the Love of God to those in most need of receiving God’s love and healing.

For I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want.

 

Scripture readings for this reflection can be found at Friday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time | USCCB

In our first reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans, Paul is talking about the challenges of attempting to live a life as a follower of Jesus Christ. He acknowledges all the temptations that come about because of just being human.

We all know the commandments of love of God and love of neighbor. Further we know we need to avoid looking lustfully at other people we may find attractive. All these things take us away from living a God centered life.

These are all struggles we face daily. For instance, it is good and right to love all people in our lives, but what about those people that get on our nerves? Do we love them as we should? Or do we harbor hatred or resentment towards them? That goes back to what Paul is saying, “For I do not do the good I want but I do the evil I do not want.”

Paul is pointing out the ongoing struggle we have is teaching us that, in all humility, we need to rely on the presence of Christ in our lives to help us to respond to these temptations that take us away from Him.

While the struggle with sin will continue until we are fully free in heaven, we are not left alone to fight alone. The same Holy Spirit that resurrected Jesus can give our mortal bodies new life, empowering us to choose the good and overcome in.

During these struggles it’s important to turn to the Lord in prayer to ask for strength to respond to temptation in a way pleasing God. Further, through the sacrament of Confession, we can receive the gift of forgiveness for the times we fall short and receive strength through the sacrament to pick ourselves up and to attempt to live a life pleasing to God.

Through the intercession of St. Paul, and our guardian angels, let us pray for the strength to always live a life of love of God and love of neighbor. Let us not despair during times we may fail but be grateful for the gift of forgiveness God gives us each time we repent and turn back to him.

 

I wrote the following for my Lay Carmelite Community.

In the month of October, we have two very special Carmelite saints to commemorate. We start the month off with the Little Flower: Saint Theresa of the Child Jesus. Then on October 15^th, we commemorate Saint Teresa of Jesus (of Avila). Both are, because of their writings, considered Doctors of the Church.

St. Theresa of the Child Jesus, while reading the First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians when Paul spoke of love being the root of all vocations in the Church, realized that her vocation was that of “love.” She is quoted as saying, “Yes, I have found my place in the Church and it is you, O my God, who have given me this place: in the heart of the Church, my mother, I shall be love.” She realized that doing all things withing the church without love of God or love of neighbor was meaningless.

With St. Teresa of Jesus, she realized that we need to always live in the presence of God. “Whoever lives in the presence of so good a friend and excellent a teacher as is Jesus Christ, can endure all things. Christ helps us and strengthens us and never fails; he is a true friend.” So, as e live out our Carmelite vocation within the Catholic Church, let us always remember to live in the presence of Jesus. No matter what problems we are facing, if we remember that Jesus is present to us, he’ll help us through our difficulties.

Further, in all that we do, as St. Theresa of Jesus reminds us, we need to have love as the foundation in all we do, whether in our worship of God, or in our dealings with others. Our vocation is to love God with our whole mind, heart, and soul, and love our neighbors as ourselves.

St. Theresa of the Child Jesus and St. Teresa of Jesu, pray for us.

Whoever listens to you listens to me.

 

For the scripture readings for this reflection, go to: Friday of the Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time | USCCB

In our gospel for today Jesus is expressing frustration at those people around him that find it hard to accept him and his teachings. They were present for all his various miracles and healings, and yet they find it hard to accept him for who he is: the long-awaited Messiah.

Our Lord says, “For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have long ago repented…” I often wonder why it was so hard for people, who witnessed the great things Jesus had done, would not have become his followers? Were they so comfortable with their sinful lives that they were unwilling to turn to the Lord in repentance and accept him as Messiah?

Human nature being what it is, people find it easy to just to continue with their familiar ways of living. Putting God first in their lives means work. It means realizing that we need to repent from our sinfulness and to turn to God in love. It means doing some extra work to become a person who loves God with our whole being and to love others as we love ourselves. People tend to find it hard to turn away from their comfortable lives. They find it hard to live a spiritual life with God in the center of who they are. They prefer putting their self-interests ahead of obeying God’s laws of love towards Him and towards others.

Let us not fall into that way of living. We, as followers of Jesus Christ, are called to listen to Jesus through His teachings in Scripture and His teachings as understood in the Catholic Church. Let us repent of any sinfulness we may be guilty of. Let us always keep an open ear, an open mind, and an open heart to where the Lord is calling us to be: people who love God and are willing to serve him in how we live out our lives as Christians.