HOMILY FOR MONDAY OF THE 30TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME OF YEAR II.
THEME: Was it not right to untie her bonds on the sabbath day?’
BY: Fr. Diotacious Chikontwe SMA.
HOMILY FOR MONDAY OCTOBER 24 2022.
*READINGS OF THE DAY*
Ephesians 4:32-5:8
Psalm 1:1-4,6
Luke 13:10-17
*LITURGICAL COLOUR*
GREEN
*FROM THE FIRST READING*
The first reading calls on us to be friends with one another, to be kind, forgiving each other as God has forgiven us in Christ, loving one another as Christ has loved us. In this way we share in the Lord’s life-giving and liberating work. Such work is always timely; there is never a wrong time for it.
*FROM THE GOSPEL READING*
In the gospel reading we hear the synagogue official insisting that no work be done on the Sabbath. In reply Jesus insists that God’s work can be done on any day of the week. Jesus was doing God’s work by releasing a woman from a condition that prevented her from standing upright. He untied her bonds; he set her free from what was holding her back. Jesus insists that such life-giving work was always timely. There was no day, no time, when it could not be.
*CONCLUSION*
Jesus wants all of us to share in some way in his work of releasing people from what holds them back. The first reading calls on us to be friends with one another, to be kind, forgiving each other as God has forgiven us in Christ, loving one another as Christ has loved us. In this way we share in the Lord’s life-giving and liberating work. Such work is always timely; there is never a wrong time for it. Jesus’ work on behalf of the woman led her to glorify God rather than Jesus. We are told that when ‘she straightened up… she glorified God’. That is always the goal of our sharing in the Lord’s work too. We do the Lord’s work, not in order that we are glorified but so that God is glorified.
Happy Independence day fellow Zambians. God bless our Country Zambia.