Tuesday, September 13, 2016 24th Week in Ordinary Time
1st Reading: 1 Cor 12: 12-14. 27-31a Gospel: Luke 7:11-17
Jesus went to a town called Naim and many of his disciples went with him – a great number of people. As he reached the gate of the town, a dead man was being carried out. He was the only son of his mother and she was a widow; there followed a large crowd of townspeople.
On seeing her, the Lord had pity on her and said, “Don’t cry.” Then he came up and touched the stretcher and the men who carried it stopped. Jesus then said, “Young man, awake, I tell you.” And the dead man got up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. A holy fear came over them all and they praised God saying, “A great prophet has appeared among us; God has visited his people.” This news spread out in the Jewish country and the surrounding places.
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the
Assimilated Life
Experience)
While queuing for my turn to dip at the public bath of the Lourdes’ Grotto in France in 2005, I saw a young man wheeled to the same queue. He was immobile. His face was pale. That man must have been as young as the dead man of today’s Gospel reading. The mother following his gurney must have been a widow too.
I was curious at what the miraculous water would do to that boy. Two extreme possibilities came to my mind. First: a miracle would happen and he’d come out of the bath in the pink of health walking on his own. Second: he’d die after dipping naked into the freezing water. None of these happened. He was in the same condition as he was wheeled in. Something inside me was protesting. If it was difficult for me to get to Lourdes, how much more difficult it was for that sick boy to get to the place. How unfair that he did not get even an ounce of cure.
If the boy did not get any miracle, what miracle was there to expect for myself? I was even tempted to question the claims that the water was miraculous. I almost missed the glow on the face of the mother as she wheeled her son back to the grotto to thank the Blessed Virgin. A different miracle happened, not the one I expected. When we always look for the spectacular, we miss the glow of the ember of faith. Only a man of faith can see miracle where the faithless mortal finds disappointment.
I lined up to dip in the public bath at Lourdes in France in 2005 to ask for a secret miracle. The case of that bedridden boy changed my paradigm. I dipped in the bath asking for more faith, not the faith that can move mountains but enough to make me grateful that I still can walk on both feet and move on my own. –(Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM, MMExM, MAPM, REB. Email:dan.delosangeles@gmail.com.
May comment ka ba sa column ni Father Dan? May tanong ka ba sa kanya?
I-type ang BANDERA
REACT <message/ name/age/address> at i-send sa 4467.