23 Jan
Wed
2nd Week in Ordinary Time
1 Sam. 17:32-33, 37, 40-51
Ps. 43:1, 2, 9-10
Mk.3:1-6
How To Pray With Shalom
Home Page of Shalom
Index of This Month
 

More than once in the Gospel we are told that some unfortunate people were used by the enemies of Jesus to entrap him. Today we have a man with a withered hand being planted in the middle of the synagogue during the Sabbath day prayers to see whether Jesus would cure him. Medical work was forbidden on the Sabbath. It is also worth observing that this was a chronic illness, probably from birth, and there was no urgency whatever in the healing. It could easily have waited till the next day. But Jesus cuts through the legalism and literalism of his opponents and goes to the heart of the question: "Is it against the Law to do good on the Sabbath? To save life or to kill?" They refused to answer because there was only one answer. Jesus, angry at their pigheadedness and dishonesty, goes ahead and heals the man. What better day to receive the Lord's healing than on the Sabbath? But the enemies of Jesus are too blinded by their prejudice to see the obvious. They immediately went out to conspire with the Herodians, a group they normally detested, to plot against Jesus.

It is all too easy for us, too, to be blinded by prejudice and hate and not to be able to see goodness staring us in the face. Who are the people in my life to whom I find it difficult to give credit?



Dear Jesus, help me to be free from all kinds of narrow-mindedness and to acknowledge truth and goodness wherever and in whomever it may appear.

DAILY OFFERING
Eternal Father, I offer You everything I do this day; my thoughts, words, joys and sufferings. Grant that, vivified by the Holy Spirit and united to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, my life this day may be of service to You and to others. I also pray that all those preparing for marriage discover in Sacrament the source of Christ's grace for living a fithful and fruitful love. Amen.

PRAYING WITH THE CHURCH
INTENTION
That Christians may intensify their efforts to announce together Jesus Christ, the only Saviour of the world.
Elaboration

- END -









P R A Y I N G    W I T H    T H E    C H U R C H    

INTENTION : That Christians may intensify their efforts to announce together Jesus Christ, the only Saviour of the world.

In the Apostolic Letter At the Beginning of the New Millennium Pope John Paul II looks towards the future and exhorts the members of the Church not to be afraid to leave the coastal waters "where there is nothing to fish" and move into deep waters. If we are prepared to do this, our catch will be abundant. The Pope particularly exhorts Christ's disciples to intensify their efforts to bring greater unity in the Christian Community.

The invocation "Launch out into the deep" is a binding imperative, the strength that sustains us, and a salutary rebuke for our slowness and closed-heartedness. It is on Jesus' prayer and not on our own strength that we base the hope that even within history we shall be able to reach full and visible communion with all Christians.

Our trust that we may succeed in attaining the full and visible communion of all Christians, "rests on Jesus' prayer, not on our own capacity". The Lord calls us to unity and will not fail to pour forth His grace on us. But in this context also, as in all our relations with God's salvific grace, we too must do our share. God does not save us against our will; God does not save us if we do not collaborate towards our salvation.




- END -