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Manila Bulletin devider Opinion devider You yourselves do not lift one finger

You yourselves do not lift one finger

Published Oct 16, 2024 12:21 am

REFLECTIONS TODAY

Gird your loins

Once a fellow priest took me to buy groceries. While passing through a moving conveyor belt, we passed by a stranger, a woman struggling to push her cartload of stuff bought from the stores. As if by instinct, my companion helped her push the cart, and immediately the ice was broken. She smiled and thanked him profusely for the little help. 
Interestingly, for the Jews, the Law is referred to as a burden. 


The problem with scholars of the Law is that they complicate its interpretation, resulting in a heavier burden for people to carry. 


What if in our approach to following God’s commandments we adopt a helping attitude? For example, instead of complaining how others do not do what they ought, we give them “a little push” to make them do it? 


Instead of condemning, can we not adopt an attitude of encouragement? Would it not be wonderful to live in a world full of helping hands?

 

First Reading • Galatians 5:18-25 
 

Brothers and sisters: If you are guided by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are obvious: immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, rivalry, jealousy, outbursts of fury, acts of selfishness, dissensions, factions, occasions of envy, drinking bouts, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God. 


In contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified their flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also follow the Spirit.

 

Gospel • Luke 11:42-46 
 

The Lord said: “Woe to you Pharisees! You pay tithes of mint and of rue and of every garden herb, but you pay no attention to judgment and to love for God. 


These you should have done, without overlooking the others. Woe to you Pharisees! You love the seat of honor in synagogues and greetings in marketplaces. Woe to you! You are like unseen graves over which people unknowingly walk.” 


Then one of the scholars of the law said to him in reply, “Teacher, by saying this you are insulting us too.” And he said, “Woe also to you scholars of the law! You impose on people burdens hard to carry, but you yourselves do not lift one finger to touch them.”

 

Source: “366 Days with the Lord 2024,” St. Paul’s, 7708 St. Paul Rd., SAV, Makati City (Phils.); Tel.: 632-895-9701; E-mail: [email protected]; Website: http://www.stpauls.ph.

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