Daily Mass Gospel Reflection - The Healing Sabbath

Word on Fire Ministry ^ | 10-25-2021 | Aux. Bishop R. Barron

[MurphsLaw]

THIRTIETH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

LUKE 13:10-17

Friends, today’s Gospel gives us a wonderful story of Jesus performing a miracle, something he still does today. I want to draw your attention to an extraordinary book by Protestant scholar Craig Keener titled Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts. The most surprising section of the book contains his reports of some of the millions of miracles that come, even today, from all over the world.

I’ll relay to you just one case from Keener’s book. Ed Wilkinson’s eight-year-old son was found to have two holes in his heart. Surgery was scheduled and, while he was waiting, Ed prayed, but he was struggling with doubts. When his son asked whether he was going to die, his father was honest with him.

Ed’s pastor decided to hold a prayer service for the boy, during which hundreds gathered to pray for his recovery. The day of the surgery arrived, and Ed was told the surgery would take four to six hours. After about a half hour, the surgeon entered the waiting area, and Ed feared for the worst. Instead, the doctor had inexplicable news: there were no holes in the boy’s heart. They had simply closed up.

[MurphsLaw]

+++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.
+++

[ebb tide]

I want to draw your attention to an extraordinary book by Protestant scholar Craig Keener titled Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts.

Bobby Barron sure spends a lot of time reading protestant texts.

[deks]

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