We cannot tolerate sin amongst us for it corrupts and if allowed to fester will eventually affect the whole community. Yes indeed we love the sinner, but he/she must be remorseful and seek to repent. There is no such thing as private sin, between the sinner and the Lord God Himself! Take for example a man in an adulterous relationship with another. Can He say it a private matter between Himself and God? Can we as community remain silent? See how his sin will affect and is already affecting his relationship with his spouse, his children, his community, his friends!
There is no such thing as a good time to love neighbour, brethren or family. We must love them in the present and do what we must now so that they can be healed, renewed and set free. For Jesus Himself shows us in today’s Gospel that love must come first above all else, law, due process and so on. He chose to heal the sufferers immediately out of love for him.
Saint Teresa of Kolkata Pray for us…
First reading
1 Corinthians 5:1-8 ·
Get rid of the old yeast of evil and wickedness
I have been told as an undoubted fact that one of you is living with his father’s wife. This is a case of sexual immorality among you that must be unparalleled even among pagans. How can you be so proud of yourselves? You should be in mourning. A man who does a thing like that ought to have been expelled from the community. Though I am far away in body, I am with you in spirit, and have already condemned the man who did this thing as if I were actually present. When you are assembled together in the name of the Lord Jesus, and I am spiritually present with you, then with the power of our Lord Jesus he is to be handed over to Satan so that his sensual body may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord.
The pride that you take in yourselves is hardly to your credit. You must know how even a small amount of yeast is enough to leaven all the dough, so get rid of all the old yeast, and make yourselves into a completely new batch of bread, unleavened as you are meant to be. Christ, our passover, has been sacrificed; let us celebrate the feast, then, by getting rid of all the old yeast of evil and wickedness, having only the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Gospel
Luke 6:6-11
Is it against the law on the sabbath to save life?
On the sabbath Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach, and a man was there whose right hand was withered. The scribes and the Pharisees were watching him to see if he would cure a man on the sabbath, hoping to find something to use against him. But he knew their thoughts; and he said to the man with the withered hand, ‘Stand up! Come out into the middle.’ And he came out and stood there. Then Jesus said to them, ‘I put it to you: is it against the law on the sabbath to do good, or to do evil; to save life, or to destroy it?’ Then he looked round at them all and said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ He did so, and his hand was better. But they were furious, and began to discuss the best way of dealing with Jesus.
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