It is you and I who must open ourselves to the salvation - Lk 13: 10-17
The evangelical woman, who for years was bent to the ground and could not stand upright in any way, is amazingly adequate portrayal of our so-called modern civilization. This tilt to the ground, this incapable of standing erect so that they reach the sky and the supernatural, is, after all, a characteristic feature of our civilization. Moreover, this is not so much due to evil will as to some internal weakness of our civilization. Lord God, the ultimate truth, the eternal destinies of man have become distant and absent for those who have learned to measure the meaning of human life with earthly success, the intensity of sensations or experimentation, how far one can deviate from moral principles.
Only one Jesus Christ can heal this woman bent to the ground and unable to look up to heaven. For we read in today's Gospel that this woman's illness comes from the fact that she has succumbed to Satan, that Satan keeps her captive. And we will not free ourselves from this bondage on our own, here the power of the Savior is necessary. The word Satan means "enemy/adversary", someone who is unkind to us and wants our evil. The word devil means " divider/separator", one who separates what should not be separated. The most terrible work of the divisive devil is to separate people from God.
Therefore, in today's Gospel, let us hear the good news that Christ the Savior can easily deal with this enemy of ours, who managed to bend us down to the ground and close us only to the temporal horizon.
Let us remember, however, that Christ the Lord accomplishes the salvation of nations and civilization through the salvation of individual people. It is you and I who must open ourselves to the salvation that comes from Christ. It is you and me that Christ the Lord wants to straighten us so that we may be able to look up to heaven.
Until Tomorrow
fr. george