For most people, especially during this particular time in our history, life plods on without much excitement. Routine becomes the pace of most days. We find ourselves already at the month of September. We will be entering the last season of the year, autumn, in another three weeks.
Rather than letting this get us down, it is important to remember that this has been the case for almost all of human history. While the pandemic has brought a new dimension to our routine, it has not changed the fact that life simply plods. Life for the people of Jesus’ time was no different in this respect. They engaged in the same daily activities without even thinking about it.
Some might suggest that living at the time of Jesus would have been more exciting. I am sure that the incident that took place in the synagogue of Capernaum which is recorded in today’s Gospel would have brought a little excitement into the lives of its citizens. However, think of the day after that. They probably went right back to their daily routine as Jesus moved on.
At the beginning of the First Letter to the Corinthians and in the opening verses of the Gospel of St. Luke, both Paul and Luke openly admit that neither of them had ever been eyewitnesses to the life of Jesus. Yet these two individuals, Paul and Luke, are responsible for more than half of the Christian Scriptures. Their lives were changed not by knowing Jesus personally, but by knowing Jesus through the gift of the Holy Spirit. The same thing can be said of us.
St. Paul speaks of the difference between the natural person and the spiritual person. The spiritual person has the mind of Christ. So if we come to know Jesus through the spirit, we can make each day exciting by looking at our lives through spiritual eyes.
St. Luke tells of one of the first miracles of Jesus’ ministry in today’s Gospel passage. As a result, people began to spread the news of Jesus everywhere in the surrounding region.
Today may be just like any other day. However, we do have the ability to make it a special day simply by looking at it through the eyes of the spirit and by spreading the news of Jesus.
Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator