October 31, 2015

Oct. 31

October 31, 2015:  Saturday, 30th week, Ordinary Time




  • 'Classroom' tie:  Blessed those you teach, Lord (psalm)
  • 'Girl with heart' pin:  Judgment shall be with justice, and the upright of heart shall follow it. (psalm)
  • 'Silverware' tie bar:  Jesus dined at a Pharisee's house... (gospel)
  • 'Eyeball' pin:  ...and they were observing him carefully (gospel)
  • Green shirt:  Ordinary Time season


Listen

Pope Francis
Friday homily:  God shows compassion for each of us and all humanity; he sent his son to heal, regenerate, and renew the human race.  In the Prodigal Son parable, when the father, the figure of a forgiving God, sees his son, he feels compassion.  God’s compassion isn’t about pity.  I can feel pity for a dying dog, but God’s compassion is empathizing with another's problem or situation.
Jesus healed people but isn't a healer.  No; he healed as a sign of God’s compassion, to save people, to bring back the lost sheep.  God loves each of us like a Father.  And he forgives like a Father, not a court official who reads a verdict.  He forgives from his heart because he loves.
Jesus was sent to bring good news, to free the oppressed, and to enter each of us, to free us from our sins and evil.  A priest feels empathy towards others and becomes involved in people's life, like Jesus.  We criticize priests who aren't interested in what's happening to those in their congregation, who don’t care about them; they're not good priests!  A good priest gets involved in human problems.
To Christian Union of Italian Business Executives:  Your emphasis on Christian formation and training, mainly through deepening of Church social teaching, is noble.  Keep balance between work and family life.  A company and executive office can become places of holiness, through commitment to build fraternal relations, co-responsibility, and collaboration in the common interest.
The call to be missionaries in the complex world of labor, economics, and business involves being open and close to diverse situations such as poverty.  Women in the workplace face special challenges; how often is one let go because she's pregnant?
Put the Jubilee of Mercy into practice by increasing sharing and solidarity.  Direct economic activity in service of people and the common good.  Cooperate to grow an entrepreneurial spirit of subsidiarity, deal with ethical challenges, and create good employment opportunities.  Engage together; it'll bear fruit to the extent that the Gospel is alive in your hearts, minds, and actions.
 Read

  • Rom 11:1-2a, 11-12, 25-29  Has God rejected his people?  No!  Through their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles.  A hardening has come upon Israel in part, until the Gentiles come in; thus all Israel will be saved.  God's gifts and call are irrevocable.
  • Ps 94:12-13a, 14-15, 17-18  "The Lord will not abandon his people."  Blessed those you teach by your law, Lord.  The Lord won't cast off his peoplejudgment shall be with justice, and the upright shall follow it.  Lord, your mercy sustains me.
  • Lk 14:1, 7-11  On a sabbath Jesus dined at a Pharisee's home, and they observed him carefully.  “Don't recline in the place of honor; the host may ask you to yield your spot to a more distinguished guest, and you'd be embarrassed.  No; take the lowest place, so the host will say, ‘Friend, move up higher,’ and you'll enjoy your companions' esteem.  Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Reflect
    • Creighton:  The Chosen People awaited their Messiah's coming, but they weren't all ready when Christ came.  Jesus saw how they did everything for show and judged others, blind to their self-satisfaction and hunger for status.  His suggestion to start humbly upsets the convention.  His suggestion is ironic, unlikely to lead his hearers to change heart.  But if one passes from literal to figurative (humility as starting point for honor in God's Kingdom), the door of transformation opens.  There one finds the meek, the pure, and honor from service.
      Humility...
    • One Bread One Body:  "Trying every possible means":  "God attached so much importance to salvation that he didn't spare his own son.  Nor does he cease to work, trying every means until he's raised us to himself" (St. John Chrysostom).  The Lord uses every means to call us; e.g., through the Jews' "transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles."  Because the Lord wants all saved, he wants to bring us to conversion through everything in our lives.  List 3 significant events of this week. Ask the Spirit to show you how God is using them to lead you to deeper conversion....
    • Passionist:  Today's psalm, "The Lord will not cast off his people" / "Your mercy sustains me," echoes Paul's "Has God rejected his people?  No!" /  "God's call and gifts are irrevocable."  By humbling/emptying yourself, you become more open to God’s call; God has room to fill you!  What do I need to let go of?
    • DailyScripture.net:  "He who exalts himself will be humbled":  Jesus reinforces Proverbs:  "Don't put yourself forward... or stand in the place of the great; for it's better to be told, 'Come up here,' than to be put lower."  Humility isn't feeling bad about yourself, or thinking yourself inferior; it doesn't focus attention on yourself but frees you from preoccupation with yourself.  Humility is truth in self-understanding and action. Viewing ourselves truthfully is seeing ourselves the way God sees us.  Humility frees us to be our true selves without despair or pride; the humble don't have to wear masks and aren't swayed by fame, reputation, success, or failure.  Humility is the foundation of the other virtues because it enables us to view ourselves correctly; it leads to self-knowledge, honesty, realism, strength, and dedication to something greater than ourselves and frees us to love and serve others for their sake, rather than our own....

    October 30, 2015

    Oct. 30

    October 30, 2015:  Friday, 30th week, Ordinary Time



    • 'Holy Spirit' chain:  My conscience joins with the Spirit in bearing me witness (1st reading)
    • 'Peace sign' tie bar:  He has granted peace in your borders;... (psalm)
    • 'Wheat' pin:  ...with the best of wheat he fills you. (psalm)
    • 'Silverware' tie bar:  Jesus went to dine at a Pharisee's home (gospel)
    • Green shirt:  Ordinary Time season
    Pope Francis to Salvadoran pilgrims
    Archbishop Oscar Romero’s life was taken violently, while he was celebrating the Eucharist, supreme sacrifice of love, sealing with his blood the announcement of the Gospel.  Today the blood of many Christian martyrs is still being shed, but with the certain hope that it will bear fruit in a harvest of holiness, justice, reconciliation, and love for God.  No one is born a martyr; it's a grace the Lord gives.  Archbishop Romero himself said, "We must be willing to die for our faith, even if the Lord does not give us the honor.”
    The martyr isn't an image to adorn our churches and remember with nostalgia, but rather a brother or sister who accompanies us in the communion of saints, and, united to Christ, doesn't ignore our pilgrimage, sufferings, or agonies.  People like Archbishop Romero are a treasure and hope for the Church and society.
    The upcoming Jubilee of Mercy, and the example shown by Romero for his nation is a stimulus for a renewed proclamation of the Gospel.  God's people still face difficult tasks and need the evangelizing announcement of the Gospel to promote justice, peace, and reconciliation.
    Read
    • Rom 9:1-5  I have great sorrow and anguish in my heart.  I wish I were cut off from Christ for the sake of my own people, the children of Israel; theirs the adoption, glory, covenants, giving of the law, worship, promises, and patriarchs, and from them is the Christ.
    • Ps 147:12-15, 19-20  "Praise the Lord, Jerusalem."  He has strengthened your gates, blessed your children, granted you peace, filled you with wheat, and proclaimed his word.
    • Lk 14:1-6  On a sabbath Jesus went to dine at a Pharisee's home where there was a man suffering from dropsy.  Jesus asked, “Is it lawful to cure on the sabbath or not?”  He healed and dismissed the man, then said, “If your son falls into a cistern, who wouldn't pull him out on the sabbath?”  They couldn't answer.
    Reflect
      • Creighton:  "Compassion, mercy, and the law":  The Pharisees in Jesus’s time numbered about 6,000; they saw themselves as religious paragons and were self-appointed guardians of the Law.  At dinner they had Jesus under “hostile observation,” suggesting he was invited in order to be ambushed.  The circumstances are set with a man with 'dropsy' (pulmonary edemafluid in the lungs, making breathing difficult).  Imagine the Lord gazing at him, then asking, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?”, then answering by healing him.  Now the Pharisees are trapped, not Jesus:  If they say yes, they'd seem lax in their interpretation of the law, bad examples of strict observance; if no, they feared being accused of cruelty to the man (vs. Jesus' compassion).  They were frozen in legalism.  Compassion transcends and fulfills the law.  We must pray and work for the suffering; we need to see with the compassionate eye of Jesus and help with his merciful hand.  Today’s gospel doesn’t ask whether something is legal; it urges us to love, care, and show mercy.
      • One Bread One Body:  "Painful love":  Paul suffered greatly, largely due to his own people's hatred, but he loved the Jewish people.  When your enemies try to put you through hell, do you love them, so much that you'd do anything for them?  Jesus, Paul, and Christians have had the grace to love enemies. The Lord commands us to do so and gives us the power.  Be like God:  love those who have hurt you.
      • DailyScripture.net:  "They were watching Jesus":  The Pharisees were convinced Jesus was a Sabbath-breaker.  You'd think the 7 gospel-recorded healings on the Sabbath would garner admiration and gratitude, but they incited hostility.  The Pharisees invited Jesus to dinner on the Sabbath, after he'd broken their Sabbath rules; they were "watching" him, likely hoping to discredit him.  The man with dropsy was likely there because homes were open, people dropped in, it was considered uncharitable to exclude beggars, and rabbis (expected to say a few words) drew crowds wherever they went.  Jesus shows the law of love, good, and healing supersedes the law of rest....
        • St. Marcellus, martyr, proclaimed his Christian identity and refused to worship Roman gods
        • Blessed Martyrs of Winchester
          • Roger Dicconson, “undercover priest
          • John Slade, schoolmaster 
          • Ralph Milner, convert
          • Laurence Humphreys, convert, catechist
          • James Bird

      October 29, 2015

      Oct. 29

      October 29, 2015:  Thursday, 30th week, Ordinary Time

      Do you see 15 connections with today?
      Legend below

      Music for 1st reading

      Pope Francis homily
      God’s love for us is unwavering; no person, power, or thing can separate us from it.  Paul explains Christians are victors because “if God is for us, who can be against us.”  We hold this gift and can almost say, “now we are the champions!”  But we're victors not because we hold it but because “nothing can separate us from God’s love....”
      We're so closely bound to God’s love that no one, nothing can separate us from it.  Paul saw beyond the gift to the Giver of re-creation and regeneration in Christ; he saw God’s inexplicable love.  We can refuse it by preferring vanity, pride, or sin, but God’s gift is always there for us.  We say, "God can do everything!",  but he can't sever himself from us!  The gospel image of Jesus weeping over Jerusalem helps us understand that love.  His weeping is about his inability to not love.
      Jesus’ weeping over those who kill prophets and those who announce salvation is an image of God’s love and tenderness:  “How I've longed to gather your children, but you refused!”  That's why Paul can say, “Neither death, life, angels, principalities, anything in existence or to come, powers, nor created things can come between us and God's love.”  God can't not love us!  This is our safeguard.  I can refuse that love.  The Good Thief did till the end of his life, but the love was waiting for him there.  God loves the most wicked person with a father's tenderness.  All of God’s love is contained in Jesus' weeping over Jerusalem.  God weeps for me when I move away from him.  God weeps for people who do bad things and cause harm.  He's waiting and weeping, not condemning, because he loves us!

        Read

        • Rom 8:31b-39  If God is for us, who can be against us?  If he gave his Son, won't he give us everything else too?  Who will condemn us--God?  Christ?  What will separate us from Christ's love:  distress, peril?  No; we super-conquer through him.  Neither death, life, angels, present or future things, powers, nor creatures can separate us from God's love in Christ.
        • Ps 109:21-22, 26-27, 30-31  "Save me, O Lord, in your mercy."  Lord, deal kindly with me; in your generous mercy rescue me, for I'm wretched and poor, my heart pierced.  I'll thank you who stood at the right hand of the poor to save them.
        • Lk 13:31-35  Pharisees / Jesus:  “Go away, Jesus; Herod wants to kill you.” / “Tell him, ‘I'll accomplish my purpose.  I must continue on my way.’  “Jerusalem, I yearn to gather your children together, but your house will be abandoned.”

        Reflect

        I love the first reading!  I remember it from a college campus ministry retreat, I keep returning to it, I was blessed to take a course in Romans from Fr. Dan Harrington, S.J., and the passage remains a consolation in hard times.   Here's an exegesis of it and homily based on it that I prepared then.
          • Creighton:  Fr. Gregory Boyle, SJ, after burying 50 youths killed from gang warfare, decided to go onto the streets to know the gang-bangers and help them get jobs.  Early on, he said his secret was "showing up and learning names."  Paul writes, “Nothing can separate us from God's love.”  May we help others discover that no matter what, God is not separated from us.
          • Passionist:  We can't be separated from God's love.  We can, however, ignore it and pretend we're not connected with God ("You were unwilling").  If we choose to affirm and accept God’s love, we must reject the divisive nature of our times.  We are one with God and each other.  Negative comments about others, support for violence, absence of compassion, cursory judgments, and bigotry are choices for separation and against unity with God’s love.
          • DailyScripture.net:  "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!"  When King Herod heard thousands were coming to Jesus, he decided it was time he was a threat to be eliminated.  When Pharisees warned Jesus to flee, Jesus warned them they were in more danger if they refused to listen to God and the prophets.  The fox, regarded as sly and destructive, was a symbol of what's worthless,  insignificant, and destructive.  Jesus knew he'd suffer the fate of the prophets for opposing Herod, but he exposed himself to that danger and prayed for his persecutors and for those who rejected the prophets.
          Jesus contrasts his desire for Jerusalem with their lack of desire for him as their Messiah and with a hen gathering her chicks.  ("Under his wings you'll find refuge.")  Jesus set his face toward Jerusalem, knowing he'd meet betrayal, rejection, and death, but his death brought victory and salvation.  Jesus' prophecy pointing to his victory and foretells the destruction of Jerusalem and the consequences for all who reject him....

        • Blessed Martyrs of Douai College


        • St. Colman MacDuagh, abbot, bishop; see Wikipedia.

        • Dress legend
          • 'Ram' tie pin:  Reference to Akedah (1st reading)
          • 'Scales of justice' pin:  courtroom metaphor of Rom 8:31-34 (1st reading)
          • 'Hand' tie pin:  Christ is at God's right hand (1st reading); let them know this is your hand; he stood at the poor man's right hand (psalm)
          • 'Sword' tie pin:  Will the sword separate us from Christ's love? (1st reading)
          • 'Sheep' tie bar:  "We're looked on as sheep to be slaughtered" (1st reading)
          • 'Angel' pin:  Angels [spiritual beings not necessarily heavenly] can't separate us from God's love in Christ (1st reading)
          • 'Pierced hearts' suspenders:  My heart is pierced within me (psalm)
          • 'Stone' tie pin:  “Jerusalem, you who stone those sent to you..." (gospel)
          • 'Chicken' pin: "...I've yearned to gather you as a hen her brood" (gospel)
          • 'Musical notes with skulls as note heads' tie:  singing thanks (end of psalm), saints en route to eternal reward (Hallowe'en)
          • 'OneLife LA' button:  It's Respect Life week
          • Green shirt:  Ordinary Time season

          October 28, 2015

          Simon and Jude

          October 28, 2015:  Simon and Jude, Apostles


          • 'Stone' tie pin: You're members of God's household, built on Christ as capstone (1st reading)
          • 'Holy Spirit' chain:  You're being built into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit (1st reading)
          • 'Airplane' tie pin, 'Earth' tie:  "Their message goes out through all the earth." (psalm)
          • 'Phone' tie bar:  Jesus 'called' his disciples (gospel)
          • Red in shirt and tie:  Color of apostles' feast

          Listen

          • Eph 2:19-22  You're no longer strangers and sojourners but fellow citizens, members of God's household, with Christ as capstone.  Through him the structure grows into a temple; in him you're being built into a dwelling place of God.
          • Ps 19:2-5  "Their message goes out through all the earth."  The heavens declare God's glory.
          • Lk 6:12-16  Jesus spent the night in prayer, then called his 12 'Apostles':  Simon whom he named Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James, Simon (called a Zealot), Judas, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
          Reflect
            • Creighton:  Jesus prayed for guidance as he chose the Apostles.  Do I get impatient with prayer and discernment before decisions?  Am I biased, or not invested, or stuck?  Lord, give me faith in the process of making good decisions, patience with discerning your will, and detachment from whatever pulls me farther from you. 
            • One Bread One Body:  "A foundational teaching":  Jesus never offered the "Me 'n' God" option (e.g. without Church/community).  Jesus laid the Church's foundation on the apostles, and "no one can lay a foundation other than the one that has been laid, namely Jesus Christ."  We need to make our home solid, built on the Rock.  We're "living stones" on this foundation to form the Church, which endures because of its foundation, not because of faulty stones.  Build your life on the Rock, Jesus, and the foundation he laid.
            • Passionist:  Simon and Jude were disciples of Jesus who shared a missionary journey to—and martyrdom in–Persia, where faith in Christ remains a risk and martyrs are a contemporary witness.  As fellow citizens and members of God's household, we're called to emulate Simon and Jude and all the saints.  The danger of our martyrdom may be low, but we're asked to endure other sufferings for the gospel such as ridicule and disdain.  We're called to be the face of Jesus in a world injustice, violence, and suffering are pervasive.  We're asked to live as a follower of Christ in a culture often counter to the gospel.  Jesus gives us an example of how to combat the sins of indifference in society and even our churches:  in preparing to name the apostles, he stops to pray.  We don't always give God what he deserves....
            • DailyScripture.net:  "Jesus chose twelve apostles":  Jesus chose twelve ordinary people to be his friends and apostles.  Jesus wanted people who could take an assignment and do it well.   When the Lord calls us to serve, we must not shrink because we don't think we have enough to offer.  The Lord uses what we have for greatness in his kingdom.  Jesus offers freedom to all who seek him with faith. Do I respond to Jesus with faith and trust?
              • Jude (Thaddeus), apostle, at the Last Supper asked Jesus why he showed himself only to the disciples; patron saint of lost and desperate causes.  See Wikipedia.

            October 27, 2015

            Oct. 27

            October 27, 2015:  Tuesday, 30th week, Ordinary Time



            • 'Holy Spirit' chain:  We have the first fruits of the Spirit (1st reading)

            • 'Tree' pin:  Mustard bush (gospel)
            • 'Birds' tie:  The birds dwelt in the bush's branches (gospel)


            • Green shirt:  Ordinary Time season
            Listen

            • Rom 8:18-25  Today's sufferings are nothing compared with glory to be revealed.  Creation eagerly awaits the freedom of God's children.  We groan as we wait in hope for adoption, redemption.  If we hope, we wait with endurance.
            • Ps 126:1b-6  "The Lord has done marvels for us."  Sow in tears; reap rejoicing.  Go forth weeping; come back rejoicing.
            • Lk 13:18-21  God's Kingdom is like a mustard seed that became a large bush birds dwelt in; it's like yeast mixed with flour till all the dough was leavened.


            Reflect
              • Creighton:  Today’s readings focus on hope and faith.  I can’t imagine a day without relying on God who provides my hope and faith.  Paul reminds us that this world's sufferings pale in comparison to future glory.  What we endure will seem so small in the light of the reward.  We await creation's being set free to share in the freedom of God's children.  Hope is looking forward with belief and conviction; it's closely connected with trust.  Christian hope is rooted in faith in salvation in Christ.  The psalm echoes this hope and trust.  Every seed is planted in the hope it'll grow.  Jesus offers two analogies for the Kingdom: yeast and mustard seed.  As yeast leavens bread and increases its size, the Kingdom will expand us beyond what we can imagine.  The mustard seed is small, but its bush is impressively large.  "Hope is the ability to hear the music of the future.  Faith is the courage to dance to it today" (Kuzmic).
                Mustard bush
              • Passionist:   Fr. Pennington's centering prayer workshop transformed my prayer and changed my life.  I came to realize the goal of prayer wasn’t gleaning insights, realigning my moral attitude, or attaining a peaceful state; it was just being with God.  We can avoid prayer simply because of a faulty notion of what prayer is supposed to be.  Paul tells us that our groaning, disillusionment, fuzzy thinking, tears, and frustrated hopes can all be prayer.  How liberating to realize I don’t have to have answers.  If I'm confident of God’s presence, I can leave my prayer open-ended, and the Spirit helps in my weakness.
              • DailyScripture.net:  "What God's kingdom is like":  The mustard seed grows to a tree that attracts birds because they love its seeds.  Similarly, God's kingdom starts small in receptive hearts, works unseen, and transforms.  As leaven (with heat) transforms dough to wholesome bread, staple of life, God's kingdom transforms those who receive new life in Christ.  When we yield, the Spirit transforms us.

              October 26, 2015

              Oct. 26

              October 26, 2015:  Monday, 30th week, Ordinary Time


              • 'Holy Spirit' chain:  Those led by the Spirit of God are God's children (1st reading)
              • "I ♥ my dad" tie:  We received a spirit of adoption and cry “Abba, Father!” (1st reading)
              • 'Bear' tie bar:  Blessed be the Lord who 'bears' our burdens (psalm)
              • 'Hand' tie pin:  Jesus laid his hands on, healed the demon-crippled woman (gospel)
              • DISC t-shirt (under dress shirt):  I'm in Atlanta helping to plan DISC 2016
              • Green shirt:  Ordinary Time season
              Listen


              Pope Francis
              Synod closing address:  The Synod wasn't about settling the issues, but rather seeing them in the light of the Gospel and Church tradition and history, bringing hope, seeing family difficulties in the light of the Faith, confronting them, urging appreciation of marriage and family, listening, showing the Church's vitality in lively discussions, interpreting realities through God's eyes, kindling faith, enlightening hearts, bearing witness to the living Gospel, baring closed hearts that may even hide behind Church teaching and judge, showing the Church as of the poor in spirit and redeemed sinners, and opening horizons to defend and spread true freedom.
              The opinions expressed led to lively dialogue and showed a Church that draws living waters to refresh hearts.  We've seen that what seems normal for one bishop may be considered almost scandalous for a one from another place; what's considered a rights violation in one society is an inviolable rule elsewhere. Each general principle needs to be inculturated to be respected and applied.  Inculturation transforms values through their integration in Christianity and helps Christianity take root in human cultures; it doesn't weaken values but demonstrates their strength and authenticity.
              Our challenge is to proclaim the Gospel to the people of today, and to defend the family.  We sought to embrace God's goodness and mercy.  True defenders of doctrine uphold its spirit, people; and God's love and forgiveness.  God treats us according to his boundless Mercy.  Laws and commandments were made for people, not vice versa.  Repentance, works, and efforts are a response to the One who loved and saved us.  We must proclaim God’s mercy and call to conversion, and lead everyone to salvation.
              "Each of our sins kindles in him more intense love, a desire to bring us back… God shows himself to be infinitely good, in himself and for us.  He loves, seeks, knows, touches, and waits for us.  He'll be delighted when we return and ask forgiveness.”  “The Church lives an authentic life when she proclaims mercy… and brings people close to the Savior’s mercy.”  “Mercy is indeed the nucleus of the Gospel… May all we say and do manifest God's mercy.”
              “Family” has a new resonance, evoking the richness of the family’s vocation.  To conclude the Synod is to return to “journeying together,” to bring the light of the Gospel, the Church's embrace, and God's mercy to everyone everywhere!
              Read
              • Rom 8:12-17  We're not debtors to the flesh; if you live according to the flesh, you die, but if you put deeds of the body to death by the spirit, you live.  Those led by the Spirit of God are God's children.  You received a spirit of adoption, through which we cry, “Papa!”  The Spirit bears witness that we're heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ, if we suffer with and are glorified with him.
              • Ps 68:2, 4, 6-7ab, 20-21  "Our God is the God of salvation."  God arises; his enemies are scattered, but the just rejoice.  God, father of orphans and defender of widows, gives the forsaken a home.  The Lord, our salvation, bears our burdens and controls death's passageways.
              • Lk 13:10-17  On the sabbath a crippled woman was bent over.  Jesus called to her:  “You're set free of your infirmity.”  He laid hands on her, and she stood and glorified God.  Synagogue leader to crowd“Don't come on the sabbath to be cured.”  Jesus:  “Hypocrites!  Don't you untie your ox on the sabbath?  Shouldn't this daughter of Abraham, bound for 18 years, have been set free on the sabbath?”  His adversaries were humiliated; and the crowd rejoiced at the splendid deeds he did.
              Reflect
                • Creighton:  "How do you keep score?"  Ignatius of Loyola's twice daily examen may be one of the most tried and true ways to let the Spirit guide our lives, finding time to be silent and take stock of our acts or omissions, to address times we lived by the flesh and take pride in times we “lived by the Spirit....
                • One Bread One Body:  "With the suffering Jesus":  Jesus is with us and we with Him; we're co-heirs "if only we suffer with him."  Jesus wants to remove many, but not all, sufferings from our lives.  He frees people who have been in bondage, drained of strength, and badly stooped.  His heart is moved with pity for us.  Be healed of many sufferings, and also choose to suffer in the pattern of Jesus' death.  Choose persecution and rejection for the Gospel, and other sacrifices; you're not alone....
                • Passionist:  The Law and rules–like what's permitted on the sabbath–give structure to this synagogue leader, but Jesus disrupts his world view.  I too get upset when others don't play by the rules, when people scam the system for their benefit.  The danger is that I begin to think the world is made in my image and that others should conform to my world view.  I too need Jesus to upturn my life to remind me that I'm made in God's likeness.
                • DailyScripture.net:  "Freedom from bondage for 18 years":  What keeps me bound up?  Jesus demonstrates God's power and authority in releasing people oppressed by sickness, weakness, sin, or harassment.  The leaders were indignant that Jesus would cure on the Sabbath; they were so caught up in their observance that they lost sight of God's mercy.  God never rests from showing mercy and love....
                  • Chad, abbot, bishop, holy and humble, dedicated to preaching the Gospel.
                  • Cedd, Chad's brother, monastery founder, bishop