May the Lord bless with peace, grace, and good health in the Holy Spirit.
It is 13th January 2022. We reflect on 1 Sam 4:1-11 and Mark 1:40-45. We celebrate the memorial of St. Hilary of Poitiers, Bishop, and doctor of the church.
“Save us, Lord, in your mercy.” (Ps.44:26b).
We are shocked at times when God does not act as swift as we want at the neck of the moments when the waters of hopelessness have risen above our life.
God is not insurance, the last resort, a final push but an assuring presence every finite moment of our life.
God and faith are not a lucky charm at the time of emergency. God is not an auto-piolet in times of crisis. Faith is not a parachute in a dishonest life.
We make God benumbed in the way we express our faith. God is neither a medicine nor a magical power. God is not a warrior or a warmonger. God never fought a war against anyone or anything so far to remain God. But, even today, in the Name, for the Name, by the Name of God many religious and world leaders fight and divide people.
Rejected life of God cannot eject or inject hope at the odds.
People of Israel who kept God far away from their life swift to shield themselves from the Ark of the Covenant while faced with the imminent war against Philistine. Even though the presence of God was surrounded the Ark, people’s lives were not encircled in it.
God has no second thought in healing us through Jesus. It is our faith that makes it happen. The cry and anguish of the leper are that of ours too, “If You want to, You can heal me.” ‘Deeply moved, Jesus, put out his hand and touched him.’ The answer of Jesus was and is, “I want to. Be healed.” God’s healing hands are extended towards us through Jesus even when we have not bowed enough to receive it.
Are we using the sacramentals as lucky charms and magical objects?
Help us Jesus to receive the healing touch with the gesture and words that bring integral healing in us. God bless you.