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
Paul, an Apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the holy ones and faithful brothers and sisters in Christ in Colossae: grace to you and peace from God our Father. We always give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you have for all the holy ones because of the hope reserved for you in heaven. Of this you have already heard through the word of truth, the Gospel, that has come to you. Just as in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing, so also among you, from the day you heard it and came to know the grace of God in truth, as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow slave, who is a trustworthy minister of Christ on your behalf and who also told us of your love in the Spirit.
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.
| 
No comments:
Post a Comment