Wednesday, September 04, 2013 22nd Week in Ordinary Time. First Reading: Col 1: 1-8 Gospel Reading:
Lk 4:38-44
Leaving the synagogue, Jesus went to the house of Simon. His mother-in-law was suffering from high fever and they asked him to do something for her. Bending over her, he rebuked the fever, and it left her. Immediately she got up and waited on them.
At sunset, people suffering from many kinds of sickness were brought to Jesus. Laying his hands on each one, he healed them. Demons were driven out, howling as they departed from their victims, “You are the Son of God!” He rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, for they knew he was the Messiah.
Jesus left at daybreak and looked for a solitary place. People went out in search of him and, finding him, they tried to dissuade him from leaving.
But he said, “I have to go to other towns to announce the good news of the kingdom of God.” (…)
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE (Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
Jesus rebuked the demons and silenced them even though they said they knew him to be the Son of God (Luke 4:38-44). In Hebrew to know is to experience; experience develops into acceptance or possession (McKenzie, SJ., Dictionary of the Bible). This was not the kind of knowledge that demons claimed they had about Jesus. Jesus found their claim revolting and so he silenced them.
How many of us know Jesus the way demons do? The greatest chasm lies between the mind and the heart. This is our poetic way of saying that the heart is not always privy to the affairs of the mind. In other words, conviction of the mind does not necessarily result to persuasion of the heart. The only bridge that can be built across this great chasm is action in charity. Where no bridge is built a person suffers conflicting orders from two command centers. He will be torn between what the mind is convinced of and what the heart beats for. He lives the so called split- level Christianity. The Book of Revelations refers to such persons as lukewarm and warns that God will vomit them in due time (Rev. 3:15). God is the God of life; he cannot take pleasure over something which is dead. If faith without good works is dead (James 2:20), God will fittingly vomit anyone with unsubstantiated faith.
“Devil” read in reverse is “lived”. Nice! The devil used to have life before Lucifer denounced God. So there is something common between the devil and the person of dead faith. Both profess Jesus as Son of God but their hearts are far from Him. God will rebuke and silence both with this warning: “Not all who say ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of God” (Matthew 7:21). – Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email:[email protected]. Website: www.frdan.org.
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