February 11, 2019
Monday, 5th Week in
Ordinary Time OUR LADY OF LOURDES
1st Reading: Gen 1:1-19
Gospel: Mk 6:53–56
Having crossed the lake, they came ashore at Gennesaret where they tied up the boat. As soon as they landed, people recognized Jesus and ran to spread the news throughout the countryside. Wherever he was they brought to him the sick lying on their mats. And wherever he went, to villages, towns or farms, they laid the sick in the marketplace and begged him to let them touch just the fringe of his cloak. And all who touched him were cured.
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assi-milated Life Experience)
God has charged us with the care of the physical world, but we have abused the po-wer that goes with stewardship. We have oppressed the sun by destroying the ozone layer, violated the heavens by polluting the skies with toxic gases, and ravaged the earth by abusing its resources. The outcome is the proliferation of sicknesses.
With these blatant abuses we are committing, is God still the generous healer that he was in the time of Jesus? Surely He still is! But his hands are immobilized with a pair of handcuffs. The first handcuff is comeuppance. Comeuppance means suffering the results of our own wrongdoing. When we persist in abusing the physical world, we harvest the adverse effects of such abuse, such as the proliferation of illnesses. This is the natural course of nature, which God will not disturb.
The second handcuff is our insincerity. Would you consider a person sincere in asking God for healing when he also goes to quack doctors? Some sick people follow the instructions of quack doctors more than they follow the teachings of the Church. It is of no moment that some quack doctors have incorporated in their craft the use of liturgical symbols such as the use of holy water. Lately somebody asked me for a small bottle of holy water because his faith healer had asked him to tie it around his waist as ‘talisman’. Those who call upon God as they submit themselves to the power of quack doctors would like to keep their proverbial cake and eat it too. They have nothing to lose, so why should God feel indebted to them? If one is sincere, he will undergo normal medication and pray hard for God’s intervention.
As we invoke the power of intercession of Our Lady of Lourdes whose feast we celebrate today, let us espouse her brand of stewardship. God placed her as steward of Jesus and took care of Him until the end. With the same de-dication let us take care of this ailing world and avert the worsening of the environment that is causing a lot of illnesses. In facilitating the healing the world, we heal ourselves by the power of God. (Atty.) – Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M.
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