“Relying solely on the Word of the only One who is truly sighted – God Himself – and allowing His Word to give us the direction we need in life!”
(Based on Gen 4:1-15, 25 and Mk 8:11-13 – Monday of the 6th Week in Ordinary Time, Year 1)
A television program preceding the 1988 Winter Olympics featured blind skiers being trained for slalom skiing…
… impossible as that sounds.
(Slalom Skiing is a snow-mountain skiing between poles or gates.
The poles used here, are spaced more closely than those in other types of skiing
… and therefore requires quicker and shorter turns.)
Paired with sighted skiers, the blind skiers were taught first, how to make right and left turns.
When that was mastered, they were taken to the slalom slope, where their sighted partners skied beside them shouting, “Left” and “Right”
As they obeyed the commands, they were able to negotiate the course and cross the finish line, depending solely on the sighted skiers’ word.
It was either complete trust or catastrophe!
This is a vivid picture of the Christian life!
In this world, we must rely solely on the Word of the only One who is truly sighted–God Himself.
His Word gives us the direction we need to finish the course.
This requires immense faith
This requires hopeful belief
However, if we become resistant and stubborn…
… faith and belief fails to be lived in life!
The Gospel of the Day, presents to us a group a people who remained stubborn and resistant…
… to the ways of the Lord
… to the workings of the Lord
The Gospel passage begins with the statement: “The Pharisees came and began to argue with him, asking him for a sign from heaven, to test him.” (Mk 8:11)
This single statement presents to us the repulsive attitude of the Pharisees towards Jesus and His ministry.
The statement tells us…
- Their method of dealing with Jesus: “to argue with Him”
They sought to pick up and interpret the deeds of the Lord only from a negative dimension
They tended to destructively magnify, minute peripheral “apparent changes” that the Lord introduced
- Their demand with Jesus: “asking him for a sign from heaven”
They failed to see the glorious signs that were offered by the Lord in healing and touching the lives of many people
They rejected the magnanimous sign that was presented by Jesus, in the multiplication of the loaves for thousands of people
- Their purpose to check with Jesus: “to test Him”
They showed a great lack of “sincerity to learn” and put forth interrogations without any intent of openness to the truth
They remained totally closed to the Lord and came up with questions only to condemn and find faults with the Lord!
Resistance and lack of docility to the Will of God, along with stubbornness to their own way of thinking, made them not to experience the Transformative and Wonderful Presence of the Lord
And this is so true in our lives…
So often we miss the providential signs of the Lord
So often we fail to perceive the miracles that God works in our lives
So often we remain unenthusiastic in life because we don’t see His hand at work in us
… all this because, we fail to be open to the Will of God and remain stuck with our mentalities.
The Gospel of the Day makes a challenge to us: Begin to rely solely on the Lord…
… though not easy, it can bring forth much fruits in our lives!
Yes, our Christian life requires us to rely solely on the Word of the only One who is truly sighted–God Himself.
His Word gives us the direction we need to finish the course.
This requires immense faith
This requires hopeful belief
Let us be open and docile to Him!
God Bless! Live Jesus!
Discovering the beauty of the Catholic Church through the Catechism:
INSPIRATION AND TRUTH OF SACRED SCRIPTURE
God inspired the human authors of the Sacred Books.
To compose the sacred books, God chose certain people, who, all the while he employed them in this task…
… made full use of their own faculties and powers so that, though He acted in them and by them, it was as true authors that they consigned to writing whatever He wanted written, and no more.
The inspired books teach the truth – the books of Scripture firmly, faithfully, and without error teach that truth which God, for the sake of our salvation, wished to see confided to the Sacred Scriptures.
Still, the Christian faith is not a “religion of the book”. Christianity is the religion of the “Word” of God, “not a written and mute word, but incarnate and living”
If the Scriptures are not to remain a dead letter, Christ, the eternal Word of the living God, must, through the Holy Spirit, “open (our) minds to understand the Scriptures.” (CCC 106-108)
Reflection Capsules 