First Reading – Romans 8:12-17
Brothers and sisters,
we are not debtors to the flesh,
to live according to the flesh.
For if you live according to the flesh, you will die,
but if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body,
you will live.
For those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear,
but you received a spirit of adoption,
through which we cry, “Abba, Father!”
The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit
that we are children of God,
and if children, then heirs,
heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ,
if only we suffer with him
so that we may also be glorified with him.
Responsorial Psalm – Psalms 68:2 and 4, 6-7AB, 20-21
God arises; his enemies are scattered,
and those who hate him flee before him.
But the just rejoice and exult before God;
they are glad and rejoice.
R. Our God is the God of salvation.
The father of orphans and the defender of widows
is God in his holy dwelling.
God gives a home to the forsaken;
he leads forth prisoners to prosperity.
R. Our God is the God of salvation.
Blessed day by day be the Lord,
who bears our burdens; God, who is our salvation.
God is a saving God for us;
the LORD, my Lord, controls the passageways of death.
R. Our God is the God of salvation.
Alleluia – John 17:17B, 17A
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Your word, O Lord, is truth;
consecrate us in the truth.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel – Luke 13:10-17
Jesus was teaching in a synagogue on the sabbath.
And a woman was there who for eighteen 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 of your infirmity.”
He laid his 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 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.
Continue reading:
Why the Rosary is the “Weapon”: My Reflection on Our Lady of the Rosary and the Battle of Lepanto
If you tell the godless and atheists of this world how Europe triumphed over the evils of the Islamic fleet through a small Catholic alliance, they’d chalk it up to strategy or luck. They can’t fathom how prayer, much less the Rosary, had anything to do with the victory. They dismiss it all as superstition.
But as Catholics, we don’t need God to appear before us and recount the miracle of Lepanto just to believe. What the godless and the atheists call “laughable” was exactly what won the Battle of Lepanto.
My Reflection Mustard See Faith: The Unprofitable Servant
Despite being faithful, we get disheartened. We ask why God allows all this evil. We grow tired of it all and long to hear comforting and assuring words from God — words that say He’s in control, that despite all the evil, He’s on our side, that He loves us, and that He will save us from all the darkness we endure.
Even the apostles, who walked with Jesus and saw Him face-to-face, asked Him to increase their faith.
And now, the question arises: how can we say that we are His family and children — when God calls us unprofitable servants? Isn’t that confusing?
I don’t know about non-Catholics—meaning members of Christian sects, followers of non-Christian religions, and even atheists—but one thing I’ve consistently noticed about the Catholics I have known, including me, particularly those who attend Mass and practice devotions, or are considered practicing Catholics, is that they seem to be spared from utter destruction, downfall, or ruin. Most of us Catholics are never completely overcome by misfortune.
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