“Reviewing our lives and being willing to ring in positive transformations!”

(Based on 1 Cor 9:16-19, 22b-27 and Lk 6:39-42 – Friday of the 23rd Week in Ordinary Time, Year 2)

In a particular town, there lived a cobbler, who was unable to make a living by his trade.

Driven to despair by his poverty, he accommodated himself in another far-away town, and began to practise medicine.

He sold a drug which he claimed to be an antidote for all sorts of poisons.

Towards this end, he also created a great popularity campaign through advertisements and boastful proclamations.

Unfortunately, in a short period of time, the cobbler himself happened to fall sick to a serious illness.

The ruler of the town sought this as a nice chance to test his medicine’s capability and the man’s genuineness.

For this, the ruler called for a cup, and filling it with water, pretended to mix poison with the cobbler’s antidote…
… commanding him to drink, with a promise of a handsome reward.

The sick cobbler, overcome with much fear and trembling, confessed that he had no knowledge of medicine!

The ruler then called the people of the town and addressed them:
“Oh how foolish are you!

You have not hesitated to entrust your heads to a man, whom no one could employ to even make shoes for their feet!”

Often times, perhaps, it so happens that we too…
… get fooled in life
… get led by people who are incapable
… get ourselves to be a slave to things which are unbecoming

We become blind… and perhaps, we also lead others to stumble!

Our Blessed Lord in today’s Gospel invites us to deep examination of the quality of our lives and our credibility in being a leader.

Jesus says, “Can a blind person guide a blind person? Will not both fall into a pit?” (Lk 6:39)

This verse is a reference to two sets of people: one, the guide.. second, the one who is led.

We could find ourselves in either of these categories or sometimes even both.

We could be a guide or one who is guided or both – a guide as well as one who is guided.

In any of the cases, one needs to examine one’s quality of life.

Am I shrouded in the darkness of being in ignorance and apathy…

disinterested to learn and be willing to know more…?
causing others to be misled and creating confusions and misunderstandings…?

Am I a person who is sunk into the dark abyss of being prejudiced and unforgiving….

unwilling to be open to the truth and adamant in considering to even review or re-examine my own viewpoints…?
blinded to accept differences and failing to cherish diversity and thus constantly being at loggerheads with others…?

Am I constantly veiled under the dark shades of being unjustly critical and judgemental…

full of pride and being unable to let go of my own selfish interests and self-centred wants…?
enamoured by a pleasure in looking for opportunities and means to put down others or find faults with others…?

Our Blessed Lord invites us to make an honest review of our lives and to be constantly willing to ring in positive transformations.

Let us seek to put into the practise the beautiful saying:
“If you use the head with which you reprove others to reprove yourself, there will be fewer faults;

If you use the heart with which you forgive yourself to forgive others, there will be perfect friendship”

God Bless! Live Jesus!

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📖 Discovering the beauty of the Catholic Church through the Catechism
THE EUCHARIST IN THE ECONOMY OF SALVATION – The movement of the celebration

In the epiclesis, the Church asks the Father to send his Holy Spirit (or the power of his blessing) on the bread and wine, so that by his power they may become the body and blood of Jesus Christ and so that those who take part in the Eucharist may be one body and one spirit (some liturgical traditions put the epiclesis after the anamnesis).

In the institution narrative, the power of the words and the action of Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit, make sacramentally present under the species of bread and wine Christ’s body and blood, His sacrifice offered on the cross once for all (CCC #1353)