Daily Reflection – Dec 10, 2018
Monday 10 December 2018
First Reading: IS 35:1-10
Responsorial Psalm:
Our God will come to save us!
PS 85:9AB AND 10, 11-12, 13-14
Gospel Reading: LK 5:17-26
Today’s Note: Monday of the Second Week of Advent
Gospel Reading:
One day as Jesus was teaching,
Pharisees and teachers of the law,
who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem,
were sitting there,
and the power of the Lord was with him for healing.
And some men brought on a stretcher a man who was paralyzed;
they were trying to bring him in and set him in his presence.
But not finding a way to bring him in because of the crowd,
they went up on the roof
and lowered him on the stretcher through the tiles
into the middle in front of Jesus.
When Jesus saw their faith, he said,
“As for you, your sins are forgiven.”
Then the scribes and Pharisees began to ask themselves,
“Who is this who speaks blasphemies?
Who but God alone can forgive sins?”
Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them in reply,
“What are you thinking in your hearts?
Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’
or to say, ‘Rise and walk’?
But that you may know
that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”–
he said to the one who was paralyzed,
“I say to you, rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home.”
He stood up immediately before them,
picked up what he had been lying on,
and went home, glorifying God.
Then astonishment seized them all and they glorified God,
and, struck with awe, they said,
“We have seen incredible things today.”
Reflection:
“And through it will run a highway undefiled which shall be called the Sacred Way.” IS 35:8
Most of us have experience with lengthy road trips. Pot holes, pit stops, detours and flat tyres are staples of traveling highways for many miles.
Today’s reading from Isaiah describes another highway – an unsullied road dubbed the “Sacred Way” that meanders through the deserts of life. As we complete our earthly pilgrimages, our Saviour beckons us to the travel this Sacred Way, this undefiled highway, promising that joy and gladness will travel with them.
In today’s Gospel, Luke tells the famous tale of a paralytic whose buddies lowered him down through a thatched roof to Jesus. After pardoning the man’s sins, our Lord wants him to ‘get up and walk’. But Jesus isn’t talking about physical walking. He wants the man to walk in a certain manner – to conduct his life in a way that will make him happy, healthy and holy. He wants the man to walk the Sacred Way – the road less travelled.
While this highway is undefiled, it can be difficult to traverse. The straight and narrow road includes many exits to temptation, detours from the truth, pit stops for sin and pot holes of frustrations. But, though we may take the scenic route to our Saviour, he has given us an internal GPS – the Holy Spirit- who will lead us back to the Sacred Way, if we but follow his directions.
Loving Saviour, as we travel the Sacred Way this Advent, guide us on the road towards you. Amen.
