Gospel: September 4, 2024
22nd Week in Ordinary Time
Psalter: Week 2 / (Green)
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 33: 12-13, 14-15, 20-21
Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
1st Reading: 1 Corinthians 3: 1-9
I could not, friends, speak to you as spiritual persons but as fleshly people, for you are still infants in Christ. I gave you milk, and not solid food, for you were not ready for it, and, up to now, you cannot receive it, for you are still of the flesh. As long as there is jealousy and strife, what can I say, but that you are at the level of the flesh, and behave like ordinary people.
While one says: “I follow Paul,” and the other: “I follow Apollos,” what are you, but people still at a human level?
For what is Apollos? What is Paul? They are ministers; and through them, you believed, as it was given by the Lord, to each of them. I planted, Apollos watered the plant, but God made it grow. So, neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God, who makes the plant grow.
The one who plants and the one who waters work to the same end, and the Lord will pay each, according to their work. We are fellow workers with God, but you are God’s field and building.
Gospel: Luke 4: 38-44
Leaving the synagogue, Jesus went to the house of Simon. His mother-in-law was suffering from high fever and they asked him to do something for her. Bending over her, he rebuked the fever, and it left her. Immediately she got up and waited on them.
At sunset, people suffering from many kinds of sickness were brought to Jesus. Laying his hands on each one, he healed them. Demons were driven out, howling as they departed from their victims, “You are the Son of God!” He rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, for they knew he was the Messiah.
Jesus left at daybreak and looked for a solitary place. People went out in search of him and, finding him, they tried to dissuade him from leaving. But he said, “I have to go to other towns to announce the good news of the kingdom of God. That is what I was sent to do.” And Jesus continued to preach in the synagogues of the Galilee.
Reflection
“Announcing the Good News”
In touch with his inner authority, Jesus gave himself totally to mission. And despite the demands of the mission he needed to accomplish, he was always full of energy. He did not experience being burned out. Why? He was in constant communication with God the Father. He remained connected to his Father by setting time to pray. Today’s Gospel depicts what a day in Jesus’ life would have looked like. Jesus gave himself wholeheartedly in his healing ministry, and then moved to other towns the next day in order to preach the good news of God’s kingdom.
In between, the Gospel passage narrates that he would withdraw to a deserted place at daybreak. Withdrawing meant that Jesus was setting a time for himself to communicate with his Father. As Jesus’ followers, we are called to live up to the demands of a mission-driven life. In our faith journey, we are always challenged to give ourselves totally to the mission God has entrusted to us. There could be times when the demands of a mission-driven life are too tasking. All the more then that we need to set a time to pray.
