Monday – 30th Week in Ordinary Time – A

In today's readings for mass God is asking us to ponder how true holy True holiness is revealed through compassion. Now first of all, what is holiness? To be holy means that we are set apart for God consecrated to him and serving him in a very special and beautiful, and specific way through love and compassion. When we say a cup, is holy, is consecrated, is set apart. We call that cup a chalice. When we say a table is holy, it's blessed, it's consecrated to God, it's set apart for his service. We call that table an altar. And so we are holy, we are set apart because of our compassion.

Now how about an atheist an atheist can an atheist be compassionate? Of course, even an atheist who has no belief in god can show mercy can show compassion to god's creatures to other people. So where is the compassion of a christian of a catholic different? It's different because it's rooted it finds its identity in the love and compassion of God. That is why Saint Paul in today's first reading, in writing to the Ephesians he encourages them through these words he says, “be imitators of God as beloved children and live in love as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us” (Ephesians 5:1–2). The great difference between the compassion of an atheist and the compassion of a christian is that God The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have no place in the compassion of the atheist, whereas it is God who shapes the compassion and the love that is shown by the Christian.

And one might say, well, compassion is compassion and love is love. No, there is always a context. There's always so many other things that will become a part of this discussion, a part of this reflection, like the motives for which we love. the source of love, the ends for which we love, the means by which we love. So many things will shape that compassion and love and if God is not part of the equation then we're talking about something different. Saint Paul is giving us the essential measure of Christian holiness to become like God. by loving the way Christ loved. And so holiness is not merely avoiding sin or observing religious obligations It's about allowing God's mercy to transform our behavior especially in the way we forgive, speak to, and treat others.

In today's gospel, Jesus heals a woman who was suffering for 18 years and instead of praise and gratitude from the onlookers, this he healing provokes criticism because he acted and he healed on the Sabbath. Now to put that into content into context for you. The Sabbath was a day of rest. It began from Friday evening and went all the way through Saturday. And the Jewish people radicalizing what rest means, took it to indicate all forms of exertion, anything that would be deemed as work, would be outlawed, so cooking, and a doctor performing his expertise on the Saturday would be considered working, so healing too on the Sabbath was considered a sin. Imagine that imagine how twisted and distorted the commandment of God had become, and so Jesus was trying to show them that in following the letter of the law one risked bypassing or missing altogether the spirit of the law which animates it. And so he exposed the hypocrisy of those who defended religious regulations while neglecting human suffering.

The key verse in today's gospel is “this daughter of Abraham whom satan has bound for 18 years now ought she not to have been set free on the sabbath day from this bondage?” (Luke 13:16) in other words, if the Sabbath is about rest, trying to find a moment, a place wherein we can retreat from the burdens of life, then does not healing somebody who is struggling fall under that obligation? Jesus sees a suffering daughter of Abraham where the synagogue leader sees a violation of regulation, My brothers and sisters, we can never forget the intrinsic dignity of every human person notwithstanding rules and regulations. because the rule that God is asking us to live by always is love and compassion again rooted in his own love and compassion.