READINGS FOR FEBRUARY, 2003

Sun 4th. of Ord. Time. Mk 1, 21-28. The Presentation. Lk 2, 22-40.

Jesus¡¦ word is powerful to heal and liberate people because is the Word of God received by Him, as by His Mother, Mary, with a completely open heart. // ¡§The Child kept growing and getting stronger, and advanced in knowledge; and the favor of God accompanied him.¡¨ Yes, therefore we cannot say: ¡¥Oh, He is God. So we cannot live like Him.¡¨

Sun 5th. of Ordinary Time. Mk 1, 29-39.

¡§Let us go to another place¡Kfor this purpose I have come¡K¡¨ The Community Jesus began (the Church) is also called and sent to follow Jesus, not necessarily neither only in a local sense, but always in the sense of moving to from one mentality to another, from one culture to another, from one theology to another, from one liturgy to another and so forth.

Sun 6th. of Ordinary Time. Mk 1, 40-45.

Jesus, out of mercy towards the leper touched him and became ¡¥illegal¡¦ and ¡¥out-cast¡¦. That leper also symbolizes humanity, you and I. What do you feel about this? 

Sun 7th. of Ordinary Time. Mk 2, 1-12.

Jesus faced those who opposed him with the truth about events and about his works. There is no stronger force than the one provided by reality around us, as long as we want to discover and accept it.

¡§¡Kand you will name him Jesus

because he is going to save his people...¡¨

            This year, while celebrating the Feast of the Name of Jesus, I felt specially the meaning of this Name, that is, ¡¥savior¡¦ or ¡¥liberator¡¦. Then I thought that we, who know Jesus, and try to help other people know him, could pay more attention to, not only present this aspect of Jesus¡Xsavior and liberator, but rather to use all our words and deeds to make people free in every aspect of human life. Actually, was not this what Jesus did when he was on earth?

            In the gospel we can see Jesus liberating people by means of three different activities: ¡§teaching, healing and casting devils¡¨. But we have to take this triple activity in its whole depth and width. We can say that ¡§teaching¡¨ means to help men and women to know thoroughly about created things, about humanity and about God. ¡§Healing¡¨ is to make men and women free from all kinds of sickness and wounds so that we can wholeheartedly participate in all aspects of community life. Since the work of the devil is to tempt people by deceiving them, ¡§casting devils¡¨ should be to give people the knowledge and wisdom needed in order not to be deceived by the devil.

            And I think that we should not confine these activities to the religious realm. On the contrary, any kind of human activity should be able to be given this liberating purpose and orientation. Part of the human activity is dedicated to investigate all created things and to transform them so that they can serve men and women to live together in this world as brothers and sisters and as children of God. Another part of human activity is directly dedicated to investigate the human person and the human community. No human activity is excluded. From all kinds of scientific research to all kinds of engineering, to the arts and philosophy, to education, religious investigation and activity, all this activities can become liberating.

            And not only human work, but also all the other activities and leisure of daily life can be given a liberating purpose. Any word and gesture can have a liberating and healing effect on the people we meet everyday: a sincere greeting, an encouraging and consoling word, an honest and simple congratulation, a few words explaining confusing and disturbing expressions, a welcoming gesture, an invitation to go deeper into some question¡K The list can be endless. In daily contact with Jesus, through the reading of the gospel, we can observe how Jesus deed this all the time, and we can be influenced by Him so that our whole lives become a healing and liberating event. 

Fr Valenciano

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