Friends,
in our Gospel we see Jesus in action. He is always hurrying from place
to place, on the go. Today Luke gives us a sort of "day in the life" of
Jesus. And it is quite a day! Our Gospel opens just after the dramatic
expulsion of a demon in the Capernaum synagogue. And after entering the
house of Simon, Jesus cures Peter’s mother-in-law, and then the entire
town comes to his door. He spends the whole evening curing presumably
hundreds who were
variously afflicted.
In
the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries, in an attempt to
make Jesus more palatable to rationalists and "realists," theologians
put great stress on Jesus’ preaching, especially his ethical teaching.
But this is not the Jesus that Luke presents. Rather, he is a healer: Soter, rendered in Latin as Salvator, which just means "the bearer of the salus"
or health. Jesus is portrayed as a healer, a savior. In him, divinity
and humanity have come together; in him, the divine life and divine
power are breaking through. God’s deepest intentions for his beloved
creatures appears—what God plans for us in the Kingdom to come is now
historically anticipated.
Wednesday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 433
Brothers and sisters,
I could not talk to you as spiritual people,
but as fleshly people, as infants in Christ.
I fed you milk, not solid food,
because you were unable to take it.
Indeed, you are still not able, even now,
for you are still of the flesh.
While there is jealousy and rivalry among you,
are you not of the flesh, and walking
according to the manner of man?
Whenever someone says, "I belong to Paul," and another,
"I belong to Apollos," are you not merely men?
What is Apollos, after all, and what is Paul?
Ministers through whom you became believers,
just as the Lord assigned each one.
I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused the growth.
Therefore, neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything,
but only God, who causes the growth.
He who plants and he who waters are one,
and each will receive wages in proportion to his labor.
For we are God's co-workers;
you are God's field, God's building.
After Jesus left the synagogue, he entered the house of Simon.
Simon's mother-in-law was afflicted with a severe fever,
and they interceded with him about her.
He stood over her, rebuked the fever, and it left her.
She got up immediately and waited on them.
At sunset, all who had people sick with various diseases
brought them to him.
He laid his hands on each of them and cured them.
And demons also came out from many, shouting, "You are the Son of God."
But he rebuked them and did not allow them to speak
because they knew that he was the Christ.
At daybreak, Jesus left and went to a deserted place.
The crowds went looking for him, and when they came to him,
they tried to prevent him from leaving them.
But he said to them, "To the other towns also
I must proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God,
because for this purpose I have been sent."
And he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea.
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