HOMILY FOR MONDAY OF THE 23RD WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME CYCLE II
THEME: Then Jesus said to them, ‘I put it to you: is it against the law on the sabbath to do good, or to do evil; to save life, or to destroy it?
BY: Fr. Diotacious Chikontwe SMA
HOMILY FOR MONDAY SEPTEMBER 5 2022
*READINGS OF THE DAY*
1 Corinthians 5:1-8
Psalm 5:5-7,12
Luke 6:6-11
*LITURGICAL COLOUR*
GREEN
*FROM THE FIEST READING*
In our first reading of today, St. Paul is speaking to us regarding the matter of the attitudes of the faithful people of God, which ought to be free from the evil ways and sins, and how Christians everywhere are called to be holy just as the Lord is holy.
This is because today we live in a world that is full of temptations and pressures to respond to the worldly matters and ways just as it was during the time of the Lord and His Apostles.
*FROM THE GOSPEL READING*
In this morning’s gospel reading we are told that when Jesus went into the synagogue on the Sabbath the Pharisees were watching him to see if he would cure a partly paralyzed man, hoping to find something to use against Jesus. In other words, even though Jesus was clearly doing good, the Pharisees were on the lookout for the negative in him; they were suspicious of him. Because they were predisposed to seeing the negative, they couldn’t see the good that God was doing through Jesus on that particular Sabbath day in the synagogue.
*CONCLUSION*
Dear friends, sometimes how we see someone or some situation determines what we see. If we look at people through suspicious lens, negative lens, we will see the negative and miss the good. We always have to be cleaning our lens, as it were, so that we can see clearly, so that we can see not just the problems, which may be there, but the much greater good, which is often there as well. On this occasion, the problem for the Pharisees of the Sabbath law being broken should have been far outweighed by the greater good of a broken man being healed. The gospels are always calling us to see the good work that God is doing even when things are not happening quite as we might expect or want them to happen.
I wish you a Blessed New Week.