Thursday of the Twenty-Fourth Week in Ordinary Time
Please take time to re-read 1 Corinthians 12:31 – 13:13 (yesterday’s first reading at Mass) before reading today’s Gospel from St. Luke.
In his conversations with the Pharisee and with the woman, Jesus demonstrates for us St. Paul’s definition of love. “Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, love is not inflated, it does not seek its own interests, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth.”
Neither the Pharisee nor the woman embodied this sort of love. The Pharisee was concerned only with observable compliance (i.e., “checking the boxes”), which most of us easily do with no problem, unless others do it to us. The woman appears to have engaged in behaviors that felt right at the time, but somehow did not satisfy and eventually left her sad. Jesus is nudging two very different people to a deeper understanding (dare I say, wisdom) of this great virtue.
The abovementioned passage from 1 Corinthians could well serve as a daily morning prayer or as an evening examination of conscience.
Reflection by Br. Jacob Kubajak, OSB
Posted in Articles for Ordinary Time, Daily Reflections