Learning to bend our knees

Saturday, October 04, 2014
26th Week in Ordinary Time St. Francis of Assisi
1st Reading:
Jb 42:1-3,5-6,12-17
Gospel: Luke 10:17-24

The seventy-two disciples returned full of joy. They said, “Lord, even the demons obeyed us when we called on your name.” Then Jesus replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. You see, I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the Enemy, so that nothing will harm you. Nevertheless, don’t rejoice because the evil spirits submit to you; rejoice rather that your names are written in heaven.”

At that time Jesus was filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit and said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and made them known to the little ones. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. I have been given all things by my Father, so that no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and he to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”

Then Jesus turned to his disciples and said to them privately, “Fortunate are you to see what you see, for I tell you that many prophets and kings would have liked to see what you see but did not, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.”

D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)

While under formation at the Major Seminary I dabbled as a seminary electrician. One late afternoon, the rector asked me to work on the electrical connections of the old sacristy which he had converted into a lounge for priests. Standing on an aluminum ladder, I was splicing a live wire near the ceiling. Too tired from a class outing that day I leaned on an old iron fire-escape ladder protruding from the wall close by. Suddenly I become part of a high voltage circuit. The desire to live was strong but aI could hardly move as my muscles stiffened. I knew I was going to die any minute. Finally I bent my knees and gravity took care of the rest. I landed on the floor unconscious but alive.

In today’s Gospel Jesus said he saw Satan falling like lightning from heaven. I fell down from the ladder and lived but Satan who once was Lucifer the Archangel fell down from heaven and died. Flexing my knees spared me; the refusal to flex his knees in humility led Lucifer to death for all eternity. That death made Lucifer a being of the past. “Devil” read in reverse is a past tense, and aptly applied to Lucifer who “lived” with God before but is now among the living dead.

Humility is important to spiritual life. When we bend our knees in humility we may fall a million times but still we will live. – Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email:[email protected]. Website:www.frdan.org.

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