Today’s Reflection
Gospel: Lk 13:10-17
October 24, 2022 | Monday

Today’s Gospel

Jesus was teaching in a synagogue on the Sabbath, and a crippled woman was there. An evil spirit had kept her bent for eighteen years, so that she could not straighten up at all. On seeing her, Jesus called her and said, “Woman, you are freed from your infirmity.” Then he laid his hands upon her, and immediately she was made straight and praised God.

But the ruler of the synagogue was indignant, because Jesus had performed this healing on the Sabbath day, and he said to the people, “There are six days in which to work. Come on those days to be healed, and not on the Sabbath!”

But the Lord replied, “You hypocrites! Everyone of you unties his ox or his donkey on the Sabbath, and leads it out of the barn to give it water. And here you have a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan had bound for eighteen years. Should she not be freed from her bonds on the Sabbath?”

When Jesus said this, all his opponents felt ashamed. But the people rejoiced at the many wonderful things that happened because of him.

Today’s Reflection:

Jesus stirred up a controversy with a leader of the synagogue during his days, who pointed out that he could heal the sick during the six days of the week, but never during the day of rest or on Sabbath. The said Jewish leader’s hypocrisy prompted the Lord to condemn him and his colleagues for making religion a hindrance to noble act of helping others by healing them. What they did was exactly the opposite – they used religion to oppress other people. For Jesus, the mark of a true religion is liberation – the ability to have a personal contact with people and free them from the bondage of sins, which cause them physical and spiritual suffering and pain. God has ordained that through his Church all people will be able to experience the loving presence of God who saves  /Vulnerasti, 2022