4Th Week of Lent Tuesday

Today in the Gospel the Jews start persecuting Jesus because he healed and told the man to get up and carry his mat. Which was not permitted on the sabbath.

It seems strange to us that a law would get in the way of Jesus healing a person. Or for a law to get in the way of doing the works of God. But we have them too don’t we? One example that comes to my mind are Insurance companies that refuse to allow certain procedures. This has resulted in lawsuits and large fines when it was proven they should have allowed the treatment.

But we shouldn’t take this reading as a motivation to examine our society for infractions or laws or policies that stop God from doing his works but more importantly we should ask ourself what internal laws or rules or false beliefs do we hold on to that stop us from helping others. Let me give you a few examples of what I mean.

I don’t associate with people who are poor, politically opposite, from different countries, the list goes on…

I would love to help in that ministry here at St Theresa but I don’t have time.

I would give to the homeless but the money would be wasted.

There is no way I can forgive them for that. That’s too much.

Time, resources, forgiveness. We go through life thinking we have some control on these things.

We go through life thinking these are our possessions.

Yet, not one of us can add a single second to our life…it ticks away even now and every one of us from the moment of birth is headed toward death.

Not one of us can take our money with us when we arrive at the end of life.

And not one of us can forgive someone more than Jesus forgives us.

Today is about letting go of preconceived or contrived or old falsehoods that we cling to that get in the way of doing the work of God ourselves. Life is short. We have been given much and much is expected of us.

Today we should realize if we truly believe in Jesus Christ we will carve out time for what will matter later. Like helping in ministry, giving to others, and forgiving anyone and everyone without exception.