Today’s Reflection
Gospel: Lk 8:1-3
September 16, 2022 | Friday

Today’s Gospel

Jesus walked through towns and countryside, preaching and giving the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve followed him, and also some women, who had been healed of evil spirits and diseases: Mary called Magdalene, who had been freed of seven demons; Joanna, wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward; Suzanna; and others, who provided for them out of their own funds.

Today’s Reflection:

In today’s Gospel reading Jesus and his apostles are accompanied by some women. The culture that prevailed during his days considered women as second-class citizens and inferior in a mainly patriarchal society.

The women (Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Susana and many others), as Luke narrates, had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities. Jesus knew their sufferings and remained close to them. They were treated as equals, along with men. Their encounter of love and compassion with Christ radically changed them. They, too, spent the rest of their lives accompanying Jesus, listening to his word, and becoming his disciples.

The Gospel inspires us so that freed from sickness or the condition of slavery and sin, men and women would live as disciples, having been touched by God’s love. We are called to serve Jesus. Indeed, the fact that women would depend only on God, and not on money or another man, is an evangelical revolution that generated women saints and martyrs in the Church. Many women have consecrated their lives to God. /Vulnerasti, 2022