The Gospel for Monday of the 30th week in Ordinary Time is taken from Luke 13. Jesus was teaching in a synagogue on the Sabbath, and a woman was there who for 18 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 from your infirmity. He laid 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 18 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. What really strikes me about this particular passage is the way in which the woman who was burdened by the power of sin was bent over, unable to stand erected. And it’s a beautiful image of the way in which Jesus is trying to describe to all of us that there was a burden on people before Jesus died and rose, a burden of evil that had stronger power over them.

And once Jesus died on the cross, that power was limited, cut way back. And so Jesus is so anxious for people to understand what he’s about to give to them, and so frustrated by those who resist it, who claim it can’t happen. After your reflection, I will close with a prayer. Foreign Father, awaken us to the gifts that you have won for us, especially the power we have over those things that would rob us of life. You died for us. You gave up your life so we might have a fuller life here with you.

Bless us with that awareness. And we ask this in Jesus name, Amen.