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Today's Gospel
Don’t Cloud Your Mind
5 min
Gospel
Lk 4:38-44
And he arose and left the synagogue, and entered Simon’s house. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was ill with a high fever, and they besought him for her. And he stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her; and immediately she rose and served them.
Now when the sun was setting, all those who had any that were sick with various diseases brought them to him; and he laid his hands on every one of them and healed them. And demons also came out of many, crying, “You are the Son of God!” But he rebuked them, and would not allow them to speak, because they knew that he was the Christ.
And when it was day he departed and went into a lonely place. And the people sought him and came to him, and would have kept him from leaving them; but he said to them, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other cities also; for I was sent for this purpose.” And he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea.
Readings are from Dynamic Catholic’s New Testament Bible: RSV Catholic Edition
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Transcript
Don’t Cloud Your Mind
What is it that jumps out at you today? I always find it interesting that Jesus heals Simon's mother-in-law, and then immediately she gets up and she starts serving the guests. I don't know about you, but when I'm sick and when I'm recovering from sick, I'm not really in the mood to be serving anybody. So I always find that interesting. But I think it's demonstrating how fully and how completely she was healed and how grateful she was for being healed. The other thing that strikes me as we make our way through the gospel of Luke is Jesus is encountering these demons, and He is rebuking them and He's casting them out of people, but they know who He is. And I think that's powerful. I think that's very interesting. I think it's interesting how clear Satan is about who Jesus is and the power that He has, and how foggy most human beings are about who Jesus is and the power that He has. And not foggy because we haven't learned enough or been told enough, but because we cloud our minds, we cloud our hearts with so much content that is anti-Christian, with so much content that is antichrist. And that makes our minds foggy, and that makes our hearts foggy and cloudy, and makes it difficult to see what's what. And Jesus wants us to see what's what.
The other thing I find very interesting in the reading is that Jesus goes to leave the next day, and the people try to keep Him. They don't want Him to leave. And I think about our own experience with Jesus, and there's a fervor that these people have. They're wanting to hold on to Jesus. They want to stay close to Jesus. They don't want Him to go away from them. And I think that's a really good image for us to foster in our own hearts throughout the day. Where is Jesus at any moment? Where are we at any moment? Are we close to Jesus? If he's wandering off, we should be following Him. And I think sometimes we do and sometimes we don't. And often we're just not aware of where Jesus is in our day. Let's go out there in the day today and be mindful of where Jesus is. You're sitting in a meeting at work. What would Jesus think of this meeting? What would Jesus' input be? You're talking to your spouse, you're talking to your kids, you're talking to your friends. How would Jesus participate in this conversation? Have a great day. And remember, Be Bold, Be Catholic.
