30th week in ordinary time; Monday, October 30, 2006

Scripture: Ephesians 4:32-5:8. Psalm 1. Luke 13:18-27

Today we learn of Jesus' last teaching in a synagogue. His journey to Jerusalem is coming to an end, but we have this first of three miracles before he is sentenced to death.Since it is a Sabbath the overstrict leader of the synagogue challenges the healing that he performs as an infringement of the rituals and rules of the Sabbath. There is much for us to learn from this incident in the life of Jesus during his active ministry. The conservative leader of the synagogue bases his statements against Jesus on Exodus 20:9-10 and Deuteronomy 5:13-14. Jesus knows the law but gives it a more benign interpretation and a more reasonable one. He argues as do the teachers of the law from a lesser care of animals on the Sabbath to that of a greater concern for a woman who is afflicted with osteoporosis for the past eighteen years. This disease is still prevalent today as a condition that effects older women and is characterized by a decrease in bone mass which causes the person to be bent over permanently. One of the friends of my family suffered this so seriously that her body structure resembled that of a human chair. Here is how Luke describes the woman whom Jesus heals: "She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight." (Luke 13:11c). As we know from other healings, Jesus was quite attentive to what was happening around him and also who was around him. He had an eye for those in need especially for the blind, the poor, the widows who had no one to care for them.

It is Luke who gives us this most patient, compassionate and kind image of Jesus. He shows Jesus as a wisdom teacher in his intelligent and reasonable approach to the Sabbath going beyond the mundane and ordinary interpretation. He is showing the loving-kindness of God his Father in this interpretive action of curing this woman. We are to love God first and our neighbor as ourselves. Jesus realizes that he is performing a mitzvah or commandment of loving-kindness. Moreover, he already said the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. He is keeping the Sabbath in its true and deeper purpose of resting in the Lord. The woman now can do that and pray more intensely in thanksgiving. Often we ourselves have our rules and regulations by which we judge ourselves and others; but these have to be scrutinized and evaluated often for they are sometimes methods for controlling others and self made systems to make us feel at ease with our ownselves and our responsibilites. We should not inflict our rules on others.

Our Psalm gives us the true spirit of how to interpret and live out the laws of God. It is the magnificen opening to the whole Psalter and is a wisdom psalm. Jesus was familiar with this Psalm 1 and carefully meditated upon it and pondered it over many times. Through its inspiration he probably knows how to interpret all 613 commandments of the Torah. And, like the Psalmist, Jesus meditates on the laws of the Lord day and night. In Luke's presentation of Jesus we see him as a person of great prayer. This is not so emphasized in the other Gospels; Luke has Jesus at prayer some twenty-two times. It is especially evident on those occasions of great decisions like the naming of the twelve apostles. This will continue in the Acts of the Apostles where the community lives out the life and spirit of Jesus. They gather as his disciples and listen to the word of God; they pray and break bread together in the Eucharist.

I found that our selection for the first reading in Ephesians helps me to live out the message of the Gospel. We are to interpret the commandments of God with Paul's suggestion: "Be kind to one another, compassionate, and mutually forgiving, just as God has forgiven you in Christ." May we experience today's Sunday and yesterday's Sabbath like the woman whom Jesus healed. She was a better person for it and lived a wholesome and holy life in the service of the Lord. Amen.