August 29
Sunday
22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
1st Reading: Sir 3:17–18, 20, 28–29
My son, conduct your affairs with discretion and you will be loved by those who are acceptable to God.
The greater you are, the more you should humble yourself and thus you will find favor with God.
For great is the power of the Lord and it is the humble who give him glory.
For the sufferings of the proud man there is no remedy, the roots of evil are implanted in him. The wise man reflects on proverbs. What the wise man desires is an attentive ear.
When the woman with the hemorrhage dug her way through the crowd to reach Jesus, she had one goal in mind; to be cured from the illness that has denied her a normal life. Apparently, she had sought a cure that was available to her; she spent a fortune on countless visits to her primary care-giver and specialists; she underwent painful tests, yet a cure was far from near (Mark 5:26). Her insurance probably couldn’t cover all her medical expenses; if she was out of a job because of her illness, then she equally lost any form of insurance coverage. This woman was, as a matter of fact, in the throes of trauma and helplessness, as the illness dug a hole into her life. But she didn’t stop fighting the illness that was fighting her to death. She didn’t give in to hopelessness and despair.
Our reflection from the readings this week is:
