September 10, 2012
Monday – Weekday
by
Rev. Fr. Joy Ramos
Afternoon mass at EDSA Shrine, Our
Lady of Peace Quasi-Parish
6 On another sabbath,
when he entered the synagogue and taught, a man was there whose right hand was
withered. 7 And the scribes and the Pharisees watched him, to see whether he
would heal on the sabbath, so that they might find an accusation against him. 8
But he knew their thoughts, and he said to the man who had the withered hand,
"Come and stand here." And he rose and stood there. 9 And Jesus said
to them, "I ask you, is it lawful on the sabbath to do good or to do harm,
to save life or to destroy it?" 10 And he looked around on them all, and
said to him, "Stretch out your hand." And he did so, and his hand was
restored. 11 But they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what
they might do to Jesus.
HOMILY
The Readings and the Gospel that we just heard is a reflection of God's own generosity. And when we talk of God's generosity, we talk about God's love for His people. If we will quote again the Gospel Reading, it says, "I ask you, is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?" Looking at the context of the Gospel, we can see that there were Pharisees and Scribes trying to watch Jesus closely, to see if He will do something on Sabbath Day. Indeed, on that day, Jesus healed a man who had a withered right hand.
Looking back on our personal experiences of God's generosity, today's Gospel gives us consolation on how God freely gives gifts to us so that we can share them to others. Sadly, oftentimes we are like the Pharisees. We always look at others and see only that which is bad, then we make judgments. But if we are to embrace God's generosity, we will be able to understand and empathize with others. We pray in today's Eucharist na matuto tayong maghanap ng kabutihan sa halip na maghanap ng kasaaman sa ating kapwa. If we are going to identify with the Scribes and the Pharisees, our own goal in life is to look only for the wrong and the bad in others, like what they did to Jesus. But if we are rooted on God's generosity, our goal will always be to look for goodness. Let us pray that the Lord may lead us into His justice so that we may be able to empathize with others, especially those whom we find hard to live with. Let us pray that when we go back to our work place, when we go back to our families, we can embrace the love that God has shared to us in this Celebration.
No comments:
Post a Comment