REFLECTION/HOMILY FOR MONDAY OF THE 30TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME 30TH OCTOBER 2023

REFLECTION/HOMILY FOR MONDAY OF THE 30TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME 30TH OCTOBER 2023

Rom.8:12-17; Ps.68; Luke 13:10-17

Remain in the “Synagogue”

In the gospel reading of today, Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. As he was teaching, he noticed the presence of a woman who was suffering from a spirit of infirmity for eighteen years. We are not told that this woman walked up to Jesus to explain herself to him; neither are we told that she approached Jesus for healing. She simply came to the synagogue to worship God as is expected of all particularly on the Sabbath.

What is striking about this woman is that she could still be law abiding even after suffering for eighteen years. One would have expected the woman to give up observing the law of Sabbath worship. She could have concluded that God is not in the synagogue; she could have given in to pressures to compromise her faith in one way or the other. Yet, this woman continued to observe the law. She still believed that God deserved her worship despite the odds she was passing through. What a great demonstration of faith in God! Little wonder Jesus’ attention was drawn to her even when she never approached him.

Christians of today need to learn steadfastness from this woman. The supremacy of God and the worthiness of His temple is not dependent on how effectively we get solutions to our problems. The psalmist assures us that this God of ours is a God who saves. Our God will always save us; only that, we have no idea of his timing and process.

The impatient or greed of many Christians have made them to jump from one prayer house to another in search of one miracle or the other. Some others have observed this tendency in Christians and are manipulating them in order to make a fortune out of it. Many so called spiritualists are like the ruler of the synagogue who pretend to be interested in solving people’s problem but are actually working for their self-aggrandizement.

In the first reading, St. Paul tells us that God did not give us a spirit of slavery but one of sonship. Do not lose your heritage as fellow heirs with Christ just because you want your problems to be solved in your way and at your time. Even prayer warrior has one or more personal problems that his or her prayerfulness has not solved. So, no one can claim to have special powers to solve all problems. It is God who truly saves and he does so in his own way and at his own time. The story of the woman in the gospel reading again teaches us that whatever is Divine, even if it is delayed, it can never be denied. Strive to remain a child of God because God never abandons his children.