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Many ordinary people were drawn into this evil web of oppression simply because the oppression could be justified by these inhuman decrees masquerading as law. Jesus reminds us that we always have to step back and ask ourselves what God wants.

Friday of the 30th week in Ordinary Time

Phillippians 1:1-11

Ps 111:1-2, 3-4, 5-6

L uke 14:1-6  One Sabbath when he went to dine at the house of a ruler who belonged to the Pharisees, they were watching him. (2) And behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy. (3) And Jesus spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?" (4) But they were silent. Then he took him and healed him, and let him go. (5) And he said to them, "Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well, will not immediately pull him out on a Sabbath day?" (6) And they could not reply to this.

Meditation by Patrick Borchers

R eadings like today’s Gospel are always among my favorites. In Jesus’ time, slavish devotion to the letter of complicated Jewish laws regarding the Sabbath, eating, drinking and a myriad of other activities were markers of the well educated and devout. But like all human laws they were imperfect and subject to God’s higher law.

Jesus cleverly notes this by pointing out that the regulations against working on the Sabbath could not be taken absolutely literally.  Clearly God would not condemn someone for healing another on the Sabbath or, as Jesus points out, pulling a child out of a well on the Sabbath. How absurd it would be to say to someone in that situation: “Sorry, we’ll just have to wait until sundown to pull you out.”

I think Jesus’ overarching message here is that we can’t use human constructs as a way to blind ourselves to God’s higher law and calling. I have visited the Holocaust museum in Washington , D.C., several times. One of the most chilling things to me is reviewing the systematic way in which the Nazi regime used the construct of human law to gradually isolate, dehumanize and then kill many of the Jews, Gypsies and other disfavored groups. The increasingly complicated and restrictive regulations on who could do business with whom, where one could live, who was to be counted as a Jew and so on were demonically clever devices to blind many to the overall reality of what was happening.  Many ordinary people were drawn into this evil web of oppression simply because the oppression could be justified by these inhuman decrees masquerading as law.

Jesus reminds us that we always have to step back and ask ourselves what God wants.

Supplementary Reading

Sudden Breakthroughs

...the Lord has broken through my enemies before me, like the bursting out of great waters... - 2Samuel 5:20

G od wants to give you a breakthrough — a sudden burst of His favor; an explosion of His goodness. He wants to release His power in such a way that it overwhelms you and drives out your enemies!

Maybe you’ve been praying about a relationship for years; and suddenly, things get into place. That’s a breakthrough. Or, you were trying to get a certain job. They said there were no openings; but suddenly, they call you back and you get the job. That’s another breakthrough. Perhaps you’ve struggled with an addiction for a long time; but then something happens, and it’s not a struggle anymore. Those are all breakthroughs.

No matter what you’ve been facing, no matter how impossible things look, know this: the God of the breakthrough wants to visit your house. Get ready! Look for His favor and goodness. Remember, God rewards the people who seek after Him. So keep expecting, keep believing because the God of the breakthrough is ready to overwhelm you with His goodness today!

Father in heaven, today I am expecting Your goodness. I am looking for Your favor. I’m trusting that You, the God of the breakthrough, are working mightily on my behalf. Help me to live a life pleasing to You as I wait for Your hand to move mightily in my life. In Jesus’ Name. Amen. — Joel & Victoria Osteen

GOD BLESS US ALL!

O Theos Na Mas Evlogisi!
PRAY as if everything depended on HIM. ACT as if everything depended on YOU.

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