Reflection for August 30, Tuesday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time: Luke 4:31-37

Gospel: Luke 4:31-37

Jesus went down to Capernaum, a town of Galilee. He taught them on the sabbath, and they were astonished at his teaching because he spoke with authority. In the synagogue there was a man with the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out in a loud voice, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?  

I know who you are–the Holy One of God!” Jesus rebuked him and said, “Be quiet! Come out of him!” Then the demon threw the man down in front of them and came out of him without doing him any harm. They were all amazed and said to one another, “What is there about his word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out.” And news of him spread everywhere in the surrounding region.

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Reflection:

Do you recognize the authority of Jesus over you? 

When Jesus speaks He speaks with authority and being so we have to listen to Him. For example, His teachings about love, forgiveness and humility. Do we love and forgive the way Jesus loves and forgives? Do we live the virtue of humility? For example if there’s misunderstanding in the family, are we humble enough to extend our hand of forgiveness even if we are not the culprit?  

In our gospel even the demon recognized the power and authority of Jesus. If the demon listens to Jesus we must listen to Jesus as well. However, many of us don’t listen because we prefer to listen to our own ego-driven selves.  

The aspect of forgiveness, sin and humility is where we are usually weak. We usually find it hard to forgive, to avoid sin and we find it very hard to humble ourselves. Why? Because we override the teaching of Jesus with our ego-driven selves.  

We must listen to Jesus if we want peace and quiet in our lives. Otherwise there would always be an absence of peace within us and absence of harmony within our own homes. – Marino J. Dasmarinas