GOD’S WORD FOR THE DAY (based on Catholic Liturgical Readings)
DATE: 30TH SEPTEMBER 2016
FRIDAY OF THE 26TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
(MEMORIAL OF ST. JEROME, PRIEST, DOCTOR)
1ST READING: Job 38:1, 12-21, 40:3-5
PSALM: Psalm 139:1-3, 7-10, 13-14
GOSPEL: Luke 10:13-16
THEME: MIRACLE
C.S. Lewis is quoted as saying, “A miracle is when God does something that wouldn’t happen if he didn’t do it.”
You are diagnosed of an incurable disease. You go down on your knees in heartfelt prayer. At a later date, you run another test and the ailment is nowhere to be found. That’s a miracle. You are hard up, not knowing where to get money for something very important. You turn to God in prayer and somehow you are able to raise the needed money for the project. That’s a miracle. You are among hundreds of candidates who go for an interview. In your delivery, you were not extraordinary and yet for some reason, you are chosen and appointed. That’s a miracle. A medical test shows that you cannot give birth and yet against all odds, you conceive and give birth. That is a miracle!
Miracles abound because God is not dead. However, the Lord is not a magician. He does not ask for a clap for a miracle done; he asks for a change of mind that would lead to a change in action (repentance).
In our Gospel text, Jesus reproaches certain cities where he had revealed the power of God in miraculous ways. In spite of the deeds of power, many in those cities remained unresponsive to the call to repentance. Jesus thus tells them, “Alas for you, Chorazin! Alas for you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes…And as for you, Capernaum, did you want to be raised high as heaven? You shall be flung down to hell” (Lk. 10:13, 15).
We may not have the same miracles but we have each received a miracle. Count your blessings and you would be surprised by what the Lord has done. Now, in gratitude to God let us offer our lives as a living sacrifice of praise – total surrender to the will of God.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, you offered me the biggest miracle when you gave your all on the cross to save me. Now, here am I to give you my all. Have me completely. Amen.
Andrews Obeng, svd
DIVINE WORD MISSIONARIES
BIBLICAL PASTORAL MINISTRY
(Ghana Province)
“May the darkness of sin and the night of unbelief vanish before the light of the Word and the Spirit of grace. And may the heart of Jesus live in the hearts of all people” (St. Arnold Janssen).