October 29, 2018
Have you ever been “crippled” by something? Ugly circumstances? Depression? Anxiety? Self-loathing? Illness? Negativity? Shame? Hurt? Today’s gospel tells us that Jesus sees us, he calls us, and he sets us free from the things that cripple us. Jesus was teaching in the synagogue and he noticed a woman who wore her affliction on the outside. She was completely bent over. I know a lot of times I am able to fake it until I make it when I am afflicted with the things that bend me over in fear or shame, but there are those days when my closest friends and family just see it on my face. They’ll say things like, “Are you OK?” or “You look tired”, and then I know that they recognize my affliction. The first thing Jesus did was to notice her. He sees us, friends, because he is always gazing upon us. After he sees her, he calls her, and he says, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” He sees us in our infirmity, he calls us (by name) and he says, “You are set free.” After he spoke The Word, he touched her, and she stood up immediately. He sees us, he calls us, he gives us his Word, and he enters into personal touching relationship with us so that we can stand immediately and be set free.
Of course these tremendous healing stories always have a bit of a twist. The religious leaders accuse him of “working” on the Sabbath, which is a very strict no no. It is one of those religious rules that has evolved over time into an exaggerated and misinterpreted manifestation of keeping the Sabbath holy. For example, some super Orthodox Jewish households have their lights on timers so that they don’t even have to flip the lights on the Sabbath because that is considered work. Doesn’t it seem strange they did not have a problem with Jesus teaching on the Sabbath, just with his performing miracles? I think Jesus has a deeper message than that for us. Looking at one another with compassion, speaking life to one another, and becoming set free from our crippling spirits is not work, but a daily way of life for those that have been seen and touched by Jesus Christ. These are not labors, but the very holiness that keeps the Sabbath holy. The Sabbath is a time to rest in the Lord, to hear The Word, and to receive the miraculous.
Jesus tells us today that the very reason we even have a Holy day is for people to be set free from their crippling spirits. This is the fruit of the Sabbath, not the labor. We are called today on many levels: to be seen by Christ, to be called by name, and to be set free. We are also commissioned today to see each other, to bring one another to Christ, and to speak life into the darkness that bends us over in affliction. This is not work, but life itself if we know Christ, and it is well with my soul.
Reading 1 EPH 4:32–5:8
Brothers and sisters:
Be kind to one another, compassionate,
forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ.
Be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love,
as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us
as a sacrificial offering to God for a fragrant aroma.
Immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be mentioned among you,
as is fitting among holy ones,
no obscenity or silly or suggestive talk, which is out of place,
but instead, thanksgiving.
Be sure of this, that no immoral or impure or greedy person,
that is, an idolater,
has any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God.
Let no one deceive you with empty arguments,
for because of these things
the wrath of God is coming upon the disobedient.
So do not be associated with them.
For you were once darkness,
but now you are light in the Lord.
Live as children of light.
Be kind to one another, compassionate,
forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ.
Be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love,
as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us
as a sacrificial offering to God for a fragrant aroma.
Immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be mentioned among you,
as is fitting among holy ones,
no obscenity or silly or suggestive talk, which is out of place,
but instead, thanksgiving.
Be sure of this, that no immoral or impure or greedy person,
that is, an idolater,
has any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God.
Let no one deceive you with empty arguments,
for because of these things
the wrath of God is coming upon the disobedient.
So do not be associated with them.
For you were once darkness,
but now you are light in the Lord.
Live as children of light.
Responsorial Psalm PS 1:1-2, 3, 4 AND 6
R. (see Eph. 5:1) Behave like God as his very dear children.
Blessed the man who follows not
the counsel of the wicked
Nor walks in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the company of the insolent,
But delights in the law of the LORD
and meditates on his law day and night.
R. Behave like God as his very dear children.
He is like a tree
planted near running water,
That yields its fruit in due season,
and whose leaves never fade.
Whatever he does, prospers.
R. Behave like God as his very dear children.
Not so the wicked, not so;
they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
For the LORD watches over the way of the just,
but the way of the wicked vanishes.
R. Behave like God as his very dear children.
Blessed the man who follows not
the counsel of the wicked
Nor walks in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the company of the insolent,
But delights in the law of the LORD
and meditates on his law day and night.
R. Behave like God as his very dear children.
He is like a tree
planted near running water,
That yields its fruit in due season,
and whose leaves never fade.
Whatever he does, prospers.
R. Behave like God as his very dear children.
Not so the wicked, not so;
they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
For the LORD watches over the way of the just,
but the way of the wicked vanishes.
R. Behave like God as his very dear children.
Alleluia JN 17:17B, 17A
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Your word, O Lord, is truth;
consecrate us in the truth.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Your word, O Lord, is truth;
consecrate us in the truth.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel LK 13:10-17
Jesus was teaching in a synagogue on the sabbath.
And a woman was there who for eighteen years
had been crippled by a spirit;
she was bent over, completely incapable of standing erect.
When Jesus saw her, he called to her and said,
"Woman, you are set free of your infirmity."
He laid his hands on her,
and she at once stood up straight and glorified God.
But the leader of the synagogue,
indignant that Jesus had cured on the sabbath,
said to the crowd in reply,
"There are six days when work should be done.
Come on those days to be cured, not on the sabbath day."
The Lord said to him in reply, "Hypocrites!
Does not each one of you on the sabbath
untie his ox or his ass from the manger
and lead it out for watering?
This daughter of Abraham,
whom Satan has bound for eighteen years now,
ought she not to have been set free on the sabbath day
from this bondage?"
When he said this, all his adversaries were humiliated;
and the whole crowd rejoiced at all the splendid deeds done by him.
And a woman was there who for eighteen years
had been crippled by a spirit;
she was bent over, completely incapable of standing erect.
When Jesus saw her, he called to her and said,
"Woman, you are set free of your infirmity."
He laid his hands on her,
and she at once stood up straight and glorified God.
But the leader of the synagogue,
indignant that Jesus had cured on the sabbath,
said to the crowd in reply,
"There are six days when work should be done.
Come on those days to be cured, not on the sabbath day."
The Lord said to him in reply, "Hypocrites!
Does not each one of you on the sabbath
untie his ox or his ass from the manger
and lead it out for watering?
This daughter of Abraham,
whom Satan has bound for eighteen years now,
ought she not to have been set free on the sabbath day
from this bondage?"
When he said this, all his adversaries were humiliated;
and the whole crowd rejoiced at all the splendid deeds done by him.
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