Monday of Week 30 of Ordinary Time – Gospel

Commentary on Luke 13:10-17

Last Saturday we saw Jesus telling people that they should not be distracted from their own obligations by getting caught up in tragedies which happened to others. Rather than wonder about the eternal salvation of others, they should pay more attention to their own situation. Today we have an example of people so busy criticising what others are doing that they are totally unaware of the emptiness in their own lives.

We are told that Jesus was teaching in a synagogue on a sabbath day. In the congregation was a woman who was suffering from what seems to be curvature of the spine for 18 years. There is a certain symbolism in the fact that she was badly stooped and was not able to stand up straight. Spiritually speaking, is that not also our problem too? So many of us are bowed down with the burdens and worries of our lives.

In fact, nearly all the healings done by Jesus can be seen as symbolic of deeper afflictions from which all of us can suffer, and even at the same time! For example, we might be deaf (we can’t hear God speaking to us), blind (we cannot see the truth or understand the Word of Jesus in the Gospel), mute (we can’t or won’t proclaim our faith), or paralysed and have other crippling afflictions (we are not able to do the things we ought to be doing). We might suffer from leprosy (we are cut off from relating with others or we cut other people off), or be possessed by evil spirits (in the grip of various compulsions and addictions).

Jesus saw the woman, called her to him and told her she was free from her affliction. Her affliction was seen as caused by an evil spirit and Jesus had liberated her. He laid his hand on her and immediately she stood up straight and began thanking God.

One might expect that everyone present would also start thanking and praising God for what had happened to the poor woman. But alas no, the chief of the synagogue was indignant that the healing had taken place on the Sabbath because medical services were not allowed on the day of rest. He said, “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured and not on the Sabbath day.”

The ruler of the synagogue was not a priest. He was responsible for conducting services, inviting people to read the Scriptures and preach, and in general maintaining order. He was a layman who also had administrative duties such as taking care of the building. Normally, only one person held this post, but sometimes it could be simply an honorary position.

In a way, of course, the ruler was perfectly right. A woman who had lived with this kind of ailment for 18 years could easily have waited for just one more day to be cured. But that was not the point, as Jesus made perfectly clear. He accused the synagogue head and his like of pure hypocrisy:

Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it to water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the Sabbath day?

They put the needs of animals before that of a human being. All the synagogue head could see was the letter of the law. He could not marvel at the healing power of Jesus and the deep compassion behind it. He could not see that he was in the presence of God’s very power.

It would be like someone at Mass criticising the brevity of a lector’s dress while being totally oblivious to the Word of God she was reading—perhaps this very text!

There is also the sinister possibility, which was the case on other similar occasions, that the woman had been put there deliberately to see whether Jesus would violate the Sabbath. It was not the Sabbath that some of the religious leaders were concerned about, but rather the gathering of evidence to convict Jesus of heresy. The story is an example of taking the beam out of our own eye before dealing with the speck in someone else’s, or of none being so blind as those who refuse to see.

In the end, we are told that Jesus’ critics were “put to shame”, while the ordinary people, often with far more insight than their religious leaders were:

…rejoicing at all the wonderful things being done by him.

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Monday of Week 30 of Ordinary Time – First Reading

Commentary on Romans 8:12-17

Paul continues his comparison between being “in the flesh” and being “in Christ”. He focuses today especially on baptised Christians, to whom his letter is mainly addressed.

Paul begins by repeating what he has already said about the difference between living in the “flesh” and living in the Spirit. Now that we are in Christ, there is no obligation to be ruled by our lower human nature, our sensual selves. To live that way leads to self-destruction. On the other hand, if, by the power of the Spirit of God working in us, we can overcome the habits which originate from the body, then we will truly live. By the power of the Spirit, we can nullify the pull of our lower nature and experience life in its fullness—physical, moral, social and spiritual.

Because, he says:

…all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.

Actually, the Holy Spirit is much more than one who inwardly guides; he is the very principle of a truly divine life. As Paul said of himself:

…it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.
(Gal 2:20)

He emphasises elsewhere that the whole community is the Body of the Risen Christ, in whom Christ is really present.

In a general sense, of course, God is the Father of every single person, to whom he extends his love and providential care. That is what we mean when we pray ‘Our’ Father—and that ‘our’ cannot exclude a single person. But when we identify ourselves with Christ as Lord through faith and accept his gospel message as our Way, then we become children in a special sense. Then we are children not merely by accident of birth, but by faith, thus setting up a special positive relationship.

And, as children, we:

…do not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but…a spirit of adoption.

This enables us to cry out “Abba, Father!” These words seem partly addressed to those Jewish Christians who want to bring back the Law as their way of life. To live under a law in this way is a kind of slavery and it engenders fear, an ongoing anxiety that the law is not being perfectly observed.

On the contrary, through faith, we have been adopted into the family of Christ, who is our Brother, with God as our Father. Adoption was common among the Greeks and Romans, who granted the adopted son all the privileges of a natural son, including inheritance rights. We Christians are adopted children by grace; Christ himself, however, is God’s Son by nature.

It was in the garden on the Mount of Olives that Jesus called out:

Abba, Father, for you all things are possible… (Mark 14:36)

‘Abba’ is a universal term found all over the world for a child to address his or her father with intimacy, love and affection. In English, we might say, ‘Papa’ or ‘Daddy’. The Chinese term sounds almost exactly the same as Abba—”Ah Ba”. Now we, too, can address our God in the same words and with the same feelings. For the traditional Jew or Muslim this would be unthinkable, where the name of God is held in such respect that it can hardly be mentioned. Even Matthew, in many parts of his Gospel, goes out of his way to avoid directly using the name of God.

Furthermore, Paul says:

…it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God…

When it is clear from all our behaviour that we are filled with the Spirit of God and Christ, when our spirit and the Spirit of Christ merge as one in us, then we know that we are truly his adopted children.

From this, Paul draws another conclusion:

…and if children, then heirs: heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if we in fact suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

As adopted children of God, we share also in the inheritance that comes to Jesus. We are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. The glory that is Jesus’ will also be ours, provided we share in his suffering.

It is presumed that we accept from God all the experiences, some of which may be very painful, that may come in living our faith openly, in publicly identifying with Christ and his Way and in giving witness to the Kingdom. We are not only heirs; we need to act like heirs, with our co-heir, Jesus, as our model.

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