To preserve life, not to destroy it
In the first reading of today, we hear Paul speaks with conviction and enthusiasm about his mission of preaching the Gospel. It is a glorious task. We can feel how the Gospel fills him and has become the sole meaning of his life. Let Christ also be the meaning of our lives. If so, we cannot but preach him by our words and our way of life.
It is strange how, as we read in the Gospel, faithful, practicing religious people, like the scribes and Pharisees—the regular churchgoers of their day—were a big obstacle to the work of Jesus. They are upset and angry because Jesus cures a man with a withered hand on the day of the Lord. Jesus came to do good and to preserve life, as he said, to carry out a mission of love and life, and these cannot be adequately expressed in laws and commands. We may and should do good also on Sundays!
Reading: Colossians 1:24–2:3
I want you to know how glad I am that it’s me sitting here in this jail and not you. There’s a lot of suffering to be entered into in this world—the kind of suffering Christ takes on. I welcome the chance to take my share in the church’s part of that suffering. When I became a servant in this church, I experienced this suffering as a sheer gift, God’s way of helping me serve you, laying out the whole truth.
This mystery has been kept in the dark for a long time, but now it’s out in the open. God wanted everyone, not just Jews, to know this rich and glorious secret inside and out, regardless of their background, regardless of their religious standing. The mystery in a nutshell is just this: Christ is in you, so therefore you can look forward to sharing in God’s glory. It’s that simple. That is the substance of our Message. We preach Christ, warning people not to add to the Message. We teach in a spirit of profound common sense so that we can bring each person to maturity. To be mature is to be basic. Christ! No more, no less. That’s what I’m working so hard at day after day, year after year, doing my best with the energy God so generously gives me.
I want you to realize that I continue to work as hard as I know how for you, and also for the Christians over at Laodicea. Not many of you have met me face-to-face, but that doesn’t make any difference. Know that I’m on your side, right alongside you. You’re not in this alone.
I want you woven into a tapestry of love, in touch with everything there is to know of God. Then you will have minds confident and at rest, focused on Christ, God’s great mystery. All the richest treasures of wisdom and knowledge are embedded in that mystery and nowhere else. And we’ve been shown the mystery!
Gospel: Luke 6:6-11
On another Sabbath he went to the meeting place and taught. There was a man there with a crippled right hand. The religion scholars and Pharisees had their eye on Jesus to see if he would heal the man, hoping to catch him in a Sabbath infraction. He knew what they were up to and spoke to the man with the crippled hand: “Get up and stand here before us.” He did.
Then Jesus addressed them, “Let me ask you something: What kind of action suits the Sabbath best? Doing good or doing evil? Helping people or leaving them helpless?”
He looked around, looked each one in the eye. He said to the man, “Hold out your hand.” He held it out—it was as good as new! They were beside themselves with anger, and started plotting how they might get even with him.
Prayer
God our Father,
we thank you for your Son, Jesus Christ.
He went around doing good
and no law made by human beings could keep him
from carrying out his mission of life and love.
Let your Spirit enlighten us
to understand his mentality
and to give first place to what is important,
that we may live by the law of love
of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
