He said to the man with the withered hand, “Come up here before us.”
Then he said to them, “Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?” But they remained silent.
Looking around at them with anger and grieved at their hardness of heart, he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out and his hand was restored. (Mark 3:3-5 NABRE)
Do we still grieve Jesus because of the hardness of our own hearts? Are we in some ways like the religious leaders who plotted to murder Jesus, or are we like the man with the withered hand who trusted Jesus and was healed? Do we look for ways to discredit, or minimize, or mock Jesus? Or do we seek healing through belief in him?
It seems to me that the influence of what might be called group-think is not always a good influence. Look at the way the group of Pharasees behaved toward Jesus. They had become a misguided group of self-important leaders. And then look at the simple faith of the crippled man.
We should be on guard in our hearts against anything that the culture, any group or individual member of a group tells us which encourages us to try and discredit the authority of Jesus. We should continually check ourselves to root out any hardness in our own hearts that causes us to remain silent as others mock Jesus. Each day, we should lift up in praise the name of Jesus, so that others may see us worship him as part of our ordinary lives.
Today, I will simply seek Jesus asking him to heal me and to shower his divine mercy on us all.
Saint Agnes, virgin and martyr, patron of girls, pray for us.
No comments:
Post a Comment