The man with a withered hand

Monday,
September 5, 2016
23rd Week
in Ordinary Time
First Reading:
1 Cor 5: 1-8
Gospel Reading:
Lk 6:6-11
On a certain Sabbath Jesus went into the synagogue and taught,and there was a man there whose right hand was withered.The scribes and the Pharisees watched him closely to see if hewould cure on the Sabbath so that they might discover a reasonto accuse him. But he realized their intentions and said to theman with the withered hand, “Come up and stand before us.”And he rose and stood there. Then Jesus said to them, “I askyou, is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath rather than to doevil, to save life rather than to destroy it?” Looking around atthem all, he then said to him, “Stretch out your hand.” He didso and his hand was restored. But they became enraged anddiscussed together what they might do to Jesus.
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the
Assimilated Life Experience)
“Everyone who is born holds dual citizenship, in the kingdom of the well and in the kingdom of the sick,” wrote Susan Sontag (The New York Times Review of Books). If there is such thing as dual kingdoms, we know to which kingdom the Scribes and the Pharisees belong. Their hands may never have been withered physically, but their hearts were too withered to take pity on a sick countryman.
As if it was not bad enough that they did nothing to rehabilitate the man with a withered hand, they also made it impossible for Jesus to heal him. The man was not even their personal enemy. They were just so fanatic about the Law. Their fanaticism ripened into vigilant intolerance against perceived violators of the smallest punctuation of the Law. Thus it happened that on a Sabbath they watched Jesus closely, ready to pounce on him should he heal anyone.
Jesus exposed them by asking them whether it was lawful to do good on the Sabbath. Jesus tried to open their eyes to the priority of saving lives over fanaticism. This way they too were beneficiaries of Jesus’ healing powers as Jesus tried to heal them of their moral obliquity. Jesus’ attempt at healing them failed because they were their own barriers to their healing. Jesus’ attempt to heal the man with a withered hand was successful because the barriers, being external, were within Jesus’ power to surmount.
If there is such thing as dual kingdoms, the kingdom of the well is a ghost kingdom. Nobody is well. Either we are sick physically, or we are psychologically, morally, or spiritually despite having a God offering healing at all levels. Let us open up to Jesus’ healing power and be the first to move to the kingdom of the well. – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM, MMExM, MAPM, REB. Email: dan.delosangeles@gmail.com.
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