Homily: October 24, 2022, Monday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time.

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“There are six days when work should be done. Come on those days to be cured, not on the sabbath day.”

It sounds logical, doesn’t it? Since Jewish law forbade any work on the sabbath day, why did people still go to the synagogue on sabbath hoping to be healed? Why did Jesus not wait till after the sabbath to heal them?

For the common folks of that time, they worked from dawn till night every day, except the sabbath day. There was no other day to seek God for His help and mercy, to find healing and hope. That was the only day they could go to the synagogue.

And for Jesus, He is fully aware and obedient to the third commandment, ‘observe the sabbath and keep it holy’, and He does so in it’s true spirit.

What does it mean to keep the sabbath day holy? It is to stop all labour, so that time and energy are spent honoring God and doing His will.

In the Gospel, we see a woman who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years and no one in the synagogue helped her. Only God can. Try to imagine what it is like to be bent over, every minute, every day for so many years. It is suffering, humiliating, depressing.

If God was right there in the synagogue, what would He do for her? Of course, He would heal her! And that was what He did! Jesus was there. Jesus healed her.

God’s will is to free everyone from the bondages of sin and evil. By healing the woman in the house of God, Jesus gave glory to God and did His will. What better day to do this than the sabbath day! He kept the sabbath holy, better than anyone, especially the Jewish leaders.

We do not follow Jewish law but we follow Jesus’ way. There are six days to keep holy, especially on the Lord’s Day, Sunday.

Every day we should find ways to honour God and live according to His will. To free ourselves from the bondage of material obsession and worldly success, from bending over to sinful pleasures and straightening up to the dignity God gave to us. Let us always come to Jesus, any day, and be set free from our spiritual infirmities and live as the children of light. Amen.


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