I MUST PREACH…

Colossians 1:1-8

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
2 To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.
3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,
4 because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love which you have for all the saints, 5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel
6 which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing–so among yourselves, from the day you heard and understood the grace of God in truth, 7 as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf 8 and has made known to us your love in the Spirit.

Luke 4:38-44

38 And he arose and left the synagogue, and entered Simon’s house. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was ill with a high fever, and they besought him for her. 39 And he stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her; and immediately she rose and served them.
40 Now when the sun was setting, all those who had any that were sick with various diseases brought them to him; and he laid his hands on every one of them and healed them. 41 And demons also came out of many, crying, “You are the Son of God!” But he rebuked them, and would not allow them to speak, because they knew that he was the Christ.
42 And when it was day he departed and went into a lonely place. And the people sought him and came to him, and would have kept him from leaving them;
43 but he said to them, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other cities also; for I was sent for this purpose.”44 And he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea.  
MEDITATION

St PAULS EPISTLE is penned whilst in prison in Rome and is addressed to Epaphras the local bishop who established the church in Colossae. The essence of Paul’s correspondence is to transmit his praise and thanks for the hope that Epaphras faithfully exercise in transmitting the faith as it has been orally delivered to him. It is also very apparent that this inspiring letter is styled as a homiletic that was to be read to all the churches throughout the region to reinforce Paul’s love and concern for all God’s servants.

St LUKE’S GOSPEL: The three synoptic writers of the gospels record the healing of Peters mother in law, however the timing of the event differs. Mark and Luke situate the event after Jesus’ presentation at the synagogue, whilst Matthew place the visitation after the healing of the servant of the centurion, who knew that Jesus’ time was ‘limited,’  hence he desired that Christ need “only say the word” to effect healing. Despite our Lords breathtaking schedule to proclaim the message of salvation to as “many cities,” He takes time out of His day to personally attend to the mother in law of Peter! Notice that upon her miraculous healing without further ado,the woman served our Lord. 

You and I who are healthy and able are called to be other christs by being in service of the sick and homebound! Praying, reading the sacred text and our participation in the Sacrifice of the Mass is indeed nessesary, however we need to also bear fruit by getting up from our lazy boy chairs and labouring in God’s vineyard which is a form of preaching! To wilfully refuse to be in service of the homebound afflicted is to contradict the word of God!

LET US PRAY:Psalms 52:8-9

8 But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the steadfast love of God for ever and ever.
9 I will thank thee for ever, because thou hast done it. I will proclaim thy name, for it is good, in the presence of the godly.

Author. Henry R SYLVESTER Note: The daily scripture readings are taken from the Roman Missal which the Catholic Church use in the daily Celebration of the Holy Eucharist throughout the world.Some weekly readings may differ because of the celebration of local feast days

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