Reflection on Today’s Gospel - (Lk 8:1-3)
Human history and the history of salvation
The Lord Jesus' journey through towns and villages continues. It goes through the history of mankind and the history of every human being. He wants to be in them, to participate. His passing) makes my story become a history of salvation. All you need is permission on my part, permission for His coming, for His touch, sometimes it is a brush, and other times the point of the ax is applied to the trunk. Always with one goal in mind: that man may be saved.
What a poor means of achieving this goal - teaching and preaching the Gospel of the kingdom of God! Poor? And why is this? After all, the word of God does not force the listener to behave properly. Human language is used, and therefore also (and not primarily and only) the language of command and prohibition. God, when the fullness of time had come, spoke the Word, gave up his only begotten Son. Father does not force anything.
It is a free choice that man faces on his path. He can receive Jesus in his home, and he can slam the door and shut it with the proverbial seven triggers. He can listen to His teachings and he can also listen to others. The freedom of choice also includes the ability to use reason (ponder, reflect). Because when deciding, a man should also do it rationally. And one more limitation, namely the awareness that I am not infinite and all-knowing.
Jesus Companionship
It is worth looking at who accompanies Jesus. Luke writes about two groups: twelve and several women. The first thing the evangelist emphasizes is that these people are with Him. Not only do they follow Him by watching Him from afar. This being-with-Him is the essence of accompanying Jesus. Whoever is not with Him cannot accompany Him. What does it mean to be with someone? Get to know more and more. Love more and more. Imitate (follow the tracks) more firmly and confidently. To be with someone is to share a known way of thinking, a lifestyle. To be with someone is a person's choice.
Someone will say that they had something to follow Jesus. Not for what but for whom. The Lord's disciples do not turn to gifts, but to the Giver, they are not content with a few drops when they have the Source at their fingertips, they do not put their faces to a single ray when they can stand in full sun.
These releases and healings mentioned by Luke are the fruit of meeting the Lord Jesus. They emphasize the condition before and after the meeting. They happened because these women had heard the Good News earlier. The word touched them deeply and they went out to meet the Bridegroom. Having met Jesus and having experienced His loving touch, they want to be-with-Him.
Released and free
The companionship of Jesus is simple, Hebrew anawim, poor in the Lord, who put all their hope in God. The Lord loves them immeasurably, and they experience this love every day. They see His touch in the smallest events of life. Anawim who realize that only Jesus can deliver from evil spirits and from weakness. They are aware of them.
Is it incapacitated? By no means! God always leaves man free. Anyone who starts following Christ does not lose his mind and free will. His food with which one is constantly nourished is to do the will of the Father. He voluntarily accepts it and wants to fulfill it to the iota (Yodh -Smallest Hebrew letter). With love, we gaze at Jesus Christ and follow His example.
“They provided for them out of their resources”. This is what freedom is all about. You do not lose by following Jesus. You become really free because you are in His arms (like a little child). We serve God ("serve God" is one of the goals of human life) with who we are and what we have. According to the measure we measure, it will also be measured for us.
One more reflection
Three of these women are named by the Evangelist, but only Mary Magdalene is known from other Gospels. The name of Joan will be mentioned by St. Luke once again, namely among the women who went to the tomb at dawn with spices. On the other hand, the name of Susanna is nowhere mentioned in the New Testament, except today's Gospel. It is also worth thinking about those hundreds and thousands of other people whom the Lord Jesus converted and changed during his earthly life, whom the Gospels do not mention at all. On the other hand, we will know billions of people saved by Him only on the day of the Last Judgment.
Until Tomorrow
fr. george