Perseverance‍ in trials

Wednesday, ‍
January 22, 2020
2nd Week in Ordinary Time
First Reading: 1 Sm 17:32–33, 37, 40–51
Gospel Reading: ‍
Mk 3:1-6
AGAIN Jesus entered the synagogue. A man who had a paralyzed hand was there and some people watched Jesus: Would he heal the man on the sabbath? If he did they could accuse him.
Jesus said to the man with the paralyzed hand, “Stand here in the center.” Then he asked them, “What does the Law allow us to do on the Sabbath? To do good or to do harm? To save life or to kill?” But they were silent. Then Jesus looked around at them with anger and deep sadness because they had closed their minds. And he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out and his hand was healed. But as soon as the Pharisees left, they met with Herod’s supporters, looking for a way to destroy Jesus.
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
“Matira Matibay” succinctly describes the fight between God and the devil. Consider how Jesus carried out the fight in today’s Gospel reading. Instantaneous cure was the best the paralyzed man could get from Jesus, never mind the unsettled issue of whether or not curing by mere words already constituted work and therefore violative of the Sabbath Law. Jesus did cure him to the consternation of his adversaries who closed their eyes on the greater good and condemned him as a law breaker. Jesus did not relent but fought back. He asked: “What does the Law allow us to do on the Sabbath? To do good or to do harm? To save life or to kill?”
The answer was obvious yet they kept mum because anything they’d say would expose their cerebral bankruptcy. Embarrassed at their defeat and desirous to get even yet helpless over Jesus’ command of logic they resorted to the scheme of killing him. They had their way when Pilate convicted Jesus. But Jesus was so imbued with a sense of mission that not even his conviction deterred him. Like a lamb led to the slaughter he carried his cross to Calvary in obedience to the Father’s Will. When Jesus was lowered from the cross and fed to the mouth of the grave, the devil thought he had conquered God for good by pushing him into the sticky web of death. But Jesus bounced back mighty as ever in the resurrection. “O death where is your sting; O death where is your victory?”
As in the case of Jesus our malefactors will always find something to charge us with even as we do good to God and neighbors. Their apparent unbeatable strength combined notwithstanding, we can persevere because when our intentions are pure and our overt acts charitable the grace of the resurrection will make us unbeatable. “MatiraMatibay!” – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., J.D., D.M.