Bl. Michael Rua
Reading 1: Eph 6:10-20 and Gospel: Lk 13:31-35
St. Paul tells the Ephesians to draw their strength from the Lord and from his mighty power. With the armor of God, they can resist the tactics of the devil. The struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the evil spirits. In this way, they can hold their ground. They need to be girded in truth, have righteousness as their breastplate, ready to spread the Gospel of peace, with faith as their shield to ward off the flaming arrows of the Evil one. They need to take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, that is the word of God. They need to pray at every opportunity and be watchful with all perseverance and supplication to courageously speak out the mystery of the Gospel.
Some Pharisees alerted Jesus that Herod wanted to kill him. Jesus boldly told them to tell Herod that he would continue to cast out demons and perform healing, but on the third day, he will rise. He will die in Jerusalem, the place where many prophets were killed. He lamented that Jerusalem did not hearken to his call to change. He warned them that they will not see him until the time comes when they say, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”
Reflection
Both the readings challenge us to a life of faith. Faith in God is a response to a type of life that can be very risky, uncertain, even painful and sometimes unnecessarily worrisome. To have such a faith, a willing disposition to prayer is inevitable. One must surrender himself/herself totally to God. It is God alone who can finally be our refuge. Faith can do things which our human minds can never achieve with perfection. It is good to ask ourselves a question, “How many times in a day, do I really see myself relying on faith?” Jesus lived a life of faith. He performed miracles and exorcised the demons. Yet, he knew that nothing of those momentary appreciations he received from the people will ever be of use to him, because he will be after all killed by them. So, the only thing that sustained him in his onward movement was that he will receive glory from his father through his resurrection, which again had no earthly connections. So, what do we learn from Jesus? Faith is the only reply for all our problems. Without faith, we cannot understand our relationships, our apostolate, our achievements and our failures. St. Paul beautifully describes faith as the shield that can ward off the evil one. Actually, we are building up a solid spiritual foundation the more we allow faith to operate in our lives. Contrarily, the more empirical we are in our approach to life, the more longing we experience, with a very floating foundation. The words of tantum ergo, the hymn to the blessed sacrament, by St. Thomas Aquinas, ring in our hearts – “Senses cannot grasp this marvel, faith must serve to compensate.” Yes, not only the Blessed Sacrament, many things in life, our senses cannot grasp the beauty. We need faith to understand the things that happen to us. Let us be persons of faith.
(By S. Peter)