Reflection for February 29, Monday of the Third Week of Lent; Luke 4:24-30

Gospel: Luke 4:24-30

Jesus said to the people in the synagogue at Nazareth: “Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place. Indeed, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the sky was closed for three and a half years and a severe famine spread over the entire land. It was to none of these that Elijah was sent, but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon. Again, there were many lepers in Israel during the time of Elisha the prophet; yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with fury. They rose up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong. But he passed through the midst of them and went away.

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Reflection:

How does God give His blessings?  God gives His blessings to anyone that He pleases and He surely doesn’t play the game of favoritism.

If God has favorites among us because we are prayerful or because we often go to Holy Mass and do noble acts. Our worship for God would now be motivated by our actions focused to get His favor.  Therefore our worship for God is not anymore motivated by our love for Him. It’s now rather motivated by the result that we want from Him.  

In our gospel Jesus shared the story of a Syrian named Naaman who was sick with leprosy. There were also many lepers in Israel around that time but God chose to heal a non Israelite named  Naaman.

Jesus cited the story of Naaman to send a strong message to those who were listening to Him in the synagogue. That they cannot gain God’s favor by means of their selfish acts of piety. Or worship for God that has selfish motivations.

This is a good point of reflection for all of us for we may be doing things for God with selfish motives. Or we do things for God and our fellowmen because we want something in return from God.

For example we would say to God, I will serve you but I request you to bless my family in return. But this is not how it is because our ways is not God’s ways, we cannot force God to do something because we want Him to do it for us.  

When we do acts for God let us make sure that we primarily do it because of our deep love for God. No other motives than our deep love for God. – Marino J. Dasmarinas