Reflection
In the readings today, I felt the core of both was: LOVE
Paul and Timothy are proclaiming their complete surrender to their callings. They express their great LOVE for the recipients of Paul’s communications. He proclaims that his pleasure and duty are to pray for people to whom he has become tightly connected. Isn’t that the point? In our own missionary endeavors, we learn so much about our faith and the love shared by those we get to know. The Spirit is strong and always calls if we listen. How many of us have felt the uplifted spirit when we became people of action?
Maybe this seems a bit difficult, but even a broad smile is normally pretty infectious and can change someone’s day or moment.
With that in mind, we move to the gospel. Here Luke describes the events around a dinner of ‘important’ people in the local Jewish community. They were the hierarchy and authority of their faith. If you read, you may get the sense that no one was talking to or asking Jesus anything. However, you can sure get the feeling of staring eyes along with the low whispers about someone about to challenge ‘rules of law’. Jesus asks, “Is it unlawful to cure on the sabbath or not?” Silence was the response. Before Jesus was a man with dropsy.
Today, this would be known as edema, and there are many types, many prognoses to contemplate, treatments and things to consider. At Jesus’ time, all the man had was anguish and pain.
All of which isn’t important.
For myself, I ask: Can I place myself in the shoes of others?
Daily, are there ways to uplift the lives of others? Can we support love stories which present themselves? How we live can affect law-abiding people of God who seek safety over laws. How would we behave on a lawful sabbath day if we were in their place? Would we rescue our child or ox?
