LET GO OF THE OLD

“Woman, you are set free of your infirmity.” – Luke 13:12

A middle-aged couple approached me for coaching to overcome their marriage problems.

Mario had a phase of infidelity more than ten years ago. He admitted his mistakes, was sincerely sorry for what he had done, and had changed his ways. Mario has proven his renewed devotion to his wife, Nora, for many years now.

But Nora was “disabled” by her own unforgiveness. She couldn’t let go of the pain from her husband’s past mistake.

I shared this with her, “Your marriage had already ended many years ago. You’ve been trying to bring back your old marriage. Mario is willing to move forward into a new marriage with you, Nora.”

I asked, “Nora, are you willing to let go of your old marriage? Are you willing to come into a new marriage with Mario despite the mistakes he committed in the past?” I led Nora through a coaching process to help her heal from past memories and to look forward to more loving years ahead. With prayers, and by the grace of God, Nora forgave Mario completely that same night.

Many years later, I saw Nora and Mario at The Feast, our weekly prayer gathering. They were like newlyweds on their honeymoon. They said their marriage is better by choice, day by day. Praise God! Edwin S. Soriano (edwin@winningcooaching.net)

Reflect: Search deep within. Is there someone (maybe yourself) that you need to forgive in a deeper way today?

Lord, help me forgive today, so I can live a full life.

St. Alfred the Great, pray for us.

It’s difficult to live a holy and pure life that is guided by the principles of the Scriptures. Paul challenges us to leave behind salacious talk and jokes. The advertising industry would be virtually wiped out if not for the sexual innuendo in its advertisements. Yet, this is God’s call to us. Do we respond to His call or not?

Ephesians 4:32-5:8

32 Brothers and sisters: Be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ. 5:1 Be imitators of God, as beloved children, 2 and live in love, as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us as a sacrificial offering to God for a fragrant aroma. 3 Immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be mentioned among you, as is fitting among holy ones, 4 no obscenity or silly or suggestive talk, which is out of place, but instead, thanksgiving. 5 Be sure of this, that no immoral or impure or greedy person, that is, an idolater, has any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty arguments, for because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the disobedient. 7 So do not be associated with them. 8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light.

Psalm 1:1-2, 3, 4, 6

R: Behave like God as his very dear children.

1 Blessed the man who follows not the counsel of the wicked nor walks in the way of sinners, nor sits in the company of the insolent, 2 but delights in the law of the Lord and meditates on his law day and night. (R) 3 He is like a tree planted near running water, that yields its fruit in due season, and whose leaves never fade. Whatever he does, prospers. (R) 4 Not so the wicked, not so; they are like chaff which the wind drives away. 6 For the Lord watches over the way of the just, but the way of the wicked vanishes. (R)

The synagogue official must have sounded ridiculous when he chastised Jesus for healing a woman who had been sick for eighteen years during the Sabbath. It is common sense that the Sabbath Law does not apply to such a situation. Let us not become beholden to the letter of the law but live in love and mercy as we obey the Law.

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION

Your word, O Lord, is truth; consecrate us in the truth.

Luke 13:10-17

10 Jesus was teaching in a synagogue on the sabbath. 11 And a woman was there who for eighteen years had been crippled by a spirit; she was bent over, completely incapable of standing erect. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called to her and said, “Woman, you are set free of your infirmity.” 13 He laid his hands on her, and she at once stood up straight and glorified God. 14 But the leader of the synagogue, indignant that Jesus had cured on the sabbath, said to the crowd in reply, “There are six days when work should be done. Come on those days to be cured, not on the sabbath day.” 15 The Lord said to him in reply, “Hypocrites! Does not each one of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his ass from the manger and lead it out for watering? 16 This daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound for eighteen years now, ought she not to have been set free on the sabbath day from this bondage?” 17 When he said this, all his adversaries were humiliated; and the whole crowd rejoiced at all the splendid deeds done by him.

Reflect: “Sabbath isn’t about resting perfectly; it’s about resting in the One who is perfect.” – Shelley Miller

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Read the Bible in one year - Isaiah 13-16 

 

 

YOU HAVE BEEN FREED

They say there are a thousand and one ways to skin a cat. There are not that many ways to say something important, but there are so many important and startling realities that cannot be adequately put into words. Sometimes, all we could do is to open our mouths and sigh or gasp, or mutter unintelligible words.

The story about the bent woman was certainly designed to surprise. First, it opens with an expression meant to call the hearers’ attention: idou! (behold!) Look you, here! There is something startling I’d like everyone to know—a woman, bent and curved upon herself for eighteen years, “completely unable to straighten up.”

“He placed his hands on her.” But this is not what was so startling. What was supposed to be more dumbfounding was what the Lord said: “You have been freed!” It was a case of Jesus uttering those words, but it was more of a case of the divine working and manifesting Himself, in and through Jesus.

I do not mean to bore you, dear readers, but biblical scholars refer to this as the “divine passive.” It means that God is actively at work in Jesus Christ, but the Lord couched that reality in human words that are not adequate to fully express that reality—at least as of yet.

The ruler of the synagogue misread the signs. He was “irritated because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath.” He condemned the event and missed the hand of God at such a momentous occasion. He was sore that Jesus did a miracle but he had no human empathy whatsoever to be at least superficially happy for the woman who, all of a sudden, got freed from her lifetime malady.

This is what we are—callous and indifferent most times. We are loved, but we see only hate and cruelty around us. We are saved, but we see only listlessness and lostness in ourselves and in others. We have been freed, but we rant on and on about our unfreedoms. Like the synagogue leader, we see the fault in the act but miss the saving act of God. Fr. Chito Dimaranan, SDB

---------- REFLECTION QUESTION ----------

How do you react when faced with a mighty work of God in your or your loved one’s life?

Your work, Lord, deserves all our praises. Forgive me if sometimes I do not recognize it. Amen.

Today, I pray for: __________________________