Reading 1 EPH 4:32–5:8
Be kind to one another, compassionate,
forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ.
Be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love,
as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us
as a sacrificial offering to God for a fragrant aroma.
Immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be mentioned among you,
as is fitting among holy ones,
no obscenity or silly or suggestive talk, which is out of place,
but instead, thanksgiving.
Be sure of this, that no immoral or impure or greedy person,
that is, an idolater,
has any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God.
Let no one deceive you with empty arguments,
for because of these things
the wrath of God is coming upon the disobedient.
So do not be associated with them.
For you were once darkness,
but now you are light in the Lord.
Live as children of light.
Responsorial Psalm PS 1:1-2, 3, 4 AND 6
Blessed the man who follows not
the counsel of the wicked
Nor walks in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the company of the insolent,
But delights in the law of the LORD
and meditates on his law day and night.
R. Behave like God as his very dear children.
He is like a tree
planted near running water,
That yields its fruit in due season,
and whose leaves never fade.
Whatever he does, prospers.
R. Behave like God as his very dear children.
Not so the wicked, not so;
they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
For the LORD watches over the way of the just,
but the way of the wicked vanishes.
R. Behave like God as his very dear children.
Alleluia JN 17:17B, 17A
Your word, O Lord, is truth;
consecrate us in the truth.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel LK 13:10-17
Jesus was teaching in a synagogue on the sabbath.And a woman was there who for eighteen years
had been crippled by a spirit;
she was bent over, completely incapable of standing erect.
When Jesus saw her, he called to her and said,
“Woman, you are set free of your infirmity.”
He laid his hands on her,
and she at once stood up straight and glorified God.
But the leader of the synagogue,
indignant that Jesus had cured on the sabbath,
said to the crowd in reply,
“There are six days when work should be done.
Come on those days to be cured, not on the sabbath day.”
The Lord said to him in reply, “Hypocrites!
Does not each one of you on the sabbath
untie his ox or his ass from the manger
and lead it out for watering?
This daughter of Abraham,
whom Satan has bound for eighteen years now,
ought she not to have been set free on the sabbath day
from this bondage?”
When he said this, all his adversaries were humiliated;
and the whole crowd rejoiced at all the splendid deeds done by him.
THE SLIDE RULES?
"Make no mistake about this: no fornicator, no unclean or lustful person – in effect an idolater – has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God." –Ephesians 5:5
One Bread, One Body - Reflection for October 24, 2016
Years ago before there were electronic calculators, there were slide rules by which certain types of computations could be easily made. Today, possibly more than ever, we have a different kind of slide rule. Many people have let rules, laws, standards, convictions, and commandments slide. For example, Jesus told us to gouge out our eyes if we were tempted to look lustfully (Mt 5:28-29). The Lord made clear that "lewd conduct or promiscuousness or lust of any sort" should be not mentioned (Eph 5:3). "Nor should there be any obscene, silly, or suggestive talk" (Eph 5:4).
Many people are slipping and sliding regarding these rules and commands from Jesus. Many in our culture used to think that lust was wrong. Then lust without fornication became acceptable to many. Next, fornication without adultery was OK in the sliding scale of values. Then sexual promiscuity with contraception and without pregnancy and abortion was OK. As sexual morality slid ever downward, heterosexual relations, including abortion, was OK as long as it wasn't a late-term abortion. Sodomy and sado-masochistic sex were once looked down on. Now almost any perversion is flaunted except sexually abusing children. What's next? Rape, demonic sexual rituals, bestiality, orgies, etc. When we let the truth slide, we find out how deep the pits of perversion are. Turn to Jesus, the Truth Who never changes.
| PRAYER: | Father, by the truth free me from the slavery caused by permissiveness. |
| PROMISE: | "He laid His hand on her, and immediately she stood up straight and began thanking God." –Lk 13:13 |
| PRAISE: | St. Anthony opposed godlessness in both Spain and Cuba. He continued to preach Christ in the face of several assassination attempts. |
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