Reflection on the Gospel of the Saturday In The Twenty-Fifth Week In Ordinary Time |
Luke 9:43b-45 |
Today’s Gospel passage is followed by the transfiguration of Jesus and the healing of the epileptic boy. After these events disciples and people admired Jesus for his mighty healing power and the great work of God. The praising and admiration of people does not change the mind set of Jesus, as he is aware human admiration can often be fickle and does not last. Jesus was focused on his mission and moved ahead towards Jerusalem to accomplished his mission, in accordance with God’s will. As Jesus was moving ahead he predicts his passion, death and resurrection to his disciples and made them aware that through his passion he will be glorified, but when the 3 disciples saw the glorified Jesus at Mount Tabor, along with prophet Moses and Elijah, they believed Jesus is already glorified through his preaching and healing and they wanted to remain in this glory forever.
Jesus through his transfiguration gave a taste of the awaiting glory, to his disciples. To receive the final glory, one had to under go through the passion, without this passion there is no glorification. Jesus was very clear on this, and moved ahead from crowd approval and focused on the coming passion, in accordance with God’s will. Throughout his missionary journey, Jesus never focused on human approval or recognition, but totally focused on God’s approval and this is the same lesson he taught to disciples, too through his words and deeds.
What we learn from today’s passage is
- Always seek God’s approval rather than human approval.
- Be ready and accept when moved from comfort zone and works towards the challenges in your life
- Focus on goals which God sets for you, rather than be a copy cat of other’s goals.
- Be who you are, and unique as you are and never comprise yourself for others
- Accept positive and negative appraisal from people, collect the wisdom and grace in them and move ahead
