Wednesday, August 31, 2022

 

Wednesday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time

(I Corinthians 3:1-9; Luke 4:38-44)

“If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him.”  This saying sounds sacrilegious and violent.  Actually, it is wise and meant to preserve people from having false hopes or, one can say, “false messiahs.”  “Meeting the Buddha” refers to a spiritual experience of enlightenment.  If one can see the Buddha, he or she is having a physical experience, which is ipso facto false.  In today’s gospel Jesus likewise removes false ideas about who he is.

Jesus has begun his ministry of taking back the world from Satan.  He has cast out demons and cured Peter’s mother-in-law.  When the demons leave the possessed, they shout out that he is “the Holy One of God” or “the Son of God.”  What do they mean by these titles?  Because everyone will have her or his own idea, Jesus chastises the demons not to say anymore.  In due time the people will see that being the Son of God means full and faithful love.

We should not be inhibited to call on the name of Jesus.  He is present not to heal us of every woe but to save us from the claws of sin and death.  For the time being, our encounters with him are largely spiritual, but that does not mean inconsequential.  Indeed, calling on Jesus will bring us to a full meeting with him.

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