Following God is seldom easy. We can look to the record of the prophets in the Old Testament and Jesus' closest disciples in the New Testament. Only John seems to have died of old age. Following God's directives, doing what Jesus told them to do, got them killed. It is the same today in many places in the world. Sometimes those who follow Jesus do, or want to do, the wrong thing. When Peter cut off the ear of the servant of one of the men who had come to arrest Jesus, Jesus healed the man's ear. Even in a time of high stress, Jesus showed compassion and offered healing. Another time Jesus had to rebuke James and John. When they had been refused hospitality in a Samaritan village (another case of no room in the inn?), they asked Jesus, "Do you want us to call down fire from heaven to consume them?" (Luke 9:54) Calling down fire from heaven seems like an extreme response to a small rejection, and certainly Jesus tells them they are out of order. But what else does that question indicate to us? That they believed they had the power to call down fire from heaven. For reflection: Jesus never called down fire from heaven, as far as we know. What made James and John think this was possible and appropriate? Is there a time when this might be appropriate? Let us pray. Lord of Justice, Lord of Mercy. You who want all people to be saved and none to be lost, help us to curb our baser instincts and listen to your guiding wisdom. Help us to know how to use the power that you give us to increase your Kingdom on earth.
0 Comments
"What Would Jesus Do?" was a catchphrase a while back. It got a lot of people thinking and, sometimes, a lot of people arguing. They argued because they did not agree on what Jesus would do. In certain moral situations it is often difficult to determine what Jesus would do. And in our brief reflections here we can't go into those morally ambiguous debates. But we can look at what Jesus did. Matthew sums it up nicely when he says, "Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness." (Matthew 9:35) Then Jesus gave his followers the authority to do the same. (Matthew 10, Mark 6, Luke 10) And they did. They did it while he was alive and they did it after he returned to his Father and sent the Holy Spirit. Sometimes they too disagreed over how to go about preaching the kingdom and healing the sick even though they had been with Jesus day after day. I suspect the disagreements among Christians about how to go about things may not end, but what cannot end is our going out to preach the good news and heal the sick. It's what Jesus did. For reflection: Am I doing what Jesus did? Let us pray. Jesus, you set an example it is not always easy to follow. Help me to keep asking myself through the day, "Am I doing what Jesus did?" How many of us wear glasses? Obviously lots of people wear glasses and we are grateful for them. Think what our lives would be like without them. I, for one, wouldn't be able to drive. Using a computer would be difficult. I would miss the expressions on people's faces when they were talking. For millions of people, glasses are a wonderful benefit today. In his day, Jesus healed blind people. Matthew 9:27-31 tells us that two blind men followed Jesus. They even followed him from the street into someone's house. Perhaps, since they were able to follow Jesus, they were not completely blind but had suffered severe vision loss. They had heard of Jesus and the miracles he was doing, but they hadn't seen him. How could they? Yet they had faith that he could and would heal them. And he did. This is one of the occasions when Jesus told the people who were healed not to tell anyone. But you have to wonder, if they had been blind or nearly blind, how could the blind men not go home to their wives and children with a big a smile? How could their family and friends not notice that, all of a sudden, they can see. It's not something you could hide, much less not tell anyone about. So they ignored Jesus' instructions and spread the good news. For reflection: Do I need physical healing of my eyes? Spiritual healing? Who else do I know who needs to have their eyes opened? Let us pray. Jesus, I don't know why so many people lose all or part of their eyesight. But I have faith that you are able and willing to heal all of us. Come, Lord Jesus, and heal our eyes both physically and spiritually. |
AliceI started this website and blog on May 1, 2012. I am a Catholic who has been in ministry for many years. I first developed what I would call a close relationship with Jesus in the early 1970s. Ever since then I have been praying with people for healing and other needs. It is because I have seen so many of these prayers answered that I am so bold as to offer to pray for you individually through this website and phone line. Archives
July 2021
Categories
All
|