REFLECTIONS TODAY
Today’s Gospel brings to focus the healing ministry of Jesus. This time it is the ills of the body and spirit that he confronts. Sickness is part of the human condition. People of all walks of life and all ages have some ailments that need treatment. Jesus is also present in this aspect of our lives. His compassion covers every dimension of our reality, every aspect of our frail and struggling humanity.
One interesting detail in the Gospel is the community spirit that moves the people around Simon’s mother-in-law to request Jesus for her healing. We see here the power of intercession, the necessity of asking the healing power of the Lord in behalf of a friend or a loved one, or in a wider sense, to beg the Lord for the healing of our world.
Indeed, we are all interconnected. The infirmity of one member of the family, community, or country, is the pain of the whole body. The physical and spiritual health of humanity has a bearing on the total well-being of the world. This becomes very central to our time as we emerge from a worldwide pandemic that has shaken the fabric of reality. On your part, do you invoke the Lord only for your own cure, or do you remember to pray for the health needs of others as well?
First Reading • 1 Cor 3:1-9
Brothers and sisters, I could not talk to you as spiritual people, but as fleshly people, as infants in Christ. I fed you milk, not solid food, because you were unable to take it. Indeed, you are still not able, even now, for you are still of the flesh. While there is jealousy and rivalry among you, are you not of the flesh, and walking according to the manner of man? Whenever someone says, “I belong to Paul,” and another, “I belong to Apollos,” are you not merely men?
What is Apollos, after all, and what is Paul? Ministers through whom you became believers, just as the Lord assigned each one. I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused the growth. Therefore, neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who causes the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive wages in proportion to his labor. For we are God’s co-workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.
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.