evangeli.net

A team of 200 priests comment on daily Gospel

200 priests comment on daily Gospel

Master·evangeli.net

Today's Gospel + short theological explanation

Monday 30th in Ordinary Time

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Gospel text (Lk 13,10-17): Jesus was teaching in a synagogue on the Sabbath and a crippled woman was there. An evil spirit had kept her (…). On seeing her, Jesus called her and said, «Woman, you are freed from your infirmity». Then He laid his hands upon her and immediately she was made straight and praised God.

But the ruler of the synagogue was indignant because Jesus had performed this healing on the Sabbath day (…). But the Lord replied, «You hypocrites! Everyone of you unties his ox or his donkey on the Sabbath and leads it out of the barn to give it water. And here you have a daughter of Abraham whom Satan had bound for eighteen years. Should she not be freed from her bonds on the Sabbath?» (…).

The creation is oriented to the "Sabbath"

EDITORIAL TEAM evangeli.net (based on texts by Benedict XVI) (Città del Vaticano, Vatican)

Today, the Pharisees appear —once more— lost in the ritualistic casuistry of the "Sabbath rest", without capturing its wonderful background: the "Bible" —the Old Testament— should be read in a new way. God created the universe to enter into a story of love with mankind. The creation is intended as a sign for the Covenant.

Not surprisingly, therefore, the creation is oriented to the "Sabbath", towards the day when man and the whole creation share in God’s freedom. in His rest and in His peace. The Sabbath is a vision of freedom: slave and master are the same on that day, because all relationships of subordination must "rest". On that day God and man are situated in the same level and they speak “thy” to “thy”.

—-O my Lord, every week I look forward to the rest day to celebrate our Covenant, remembering God "giving Himself away" to man and renewing the "answering" of man to God.