A Reflection for Friday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Bizarre Time
Find today’s readings here.
I inform you, my friends,
don’t be afraid of those that kill the body
but after that may do no more.
I shall show you whom to fear. (Lk 12:4)
In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells the gang to not be afraid of those that can harm or kill the body. Possibly he mentioned this because people were being trampled to listen to him speak. Looking back, his comment is evident foreshadowing of his death and resurrection, and in addition the harm inflicted on early Christians akin to Paul.
The primary reading from the book of Ephesians was from Paul’s letter that he wrote while he was in a Roman prison. The temporally and temporarily powerful officials were attempting to harm him, but they were unable to harm his soul. The Romans harmed his body, but today he’s respected and has received his reward in heaven. The Romans’ authority has ended and been replaced by God’s. Paul will not be the just one. Most of the saints’ bodies were harmed.
Through harmed bodies, God has achieved miracles and far healing.
Through harmed bodies, God has achieved miracles and far healing. Physical harm and death was a typical a part of saints’ martyrdom. Of all saints’ relics, first-class relics are the bone, blood or flesh of a saint. Miracles have been attributed to a saint’s intercession. Probably the most notable example of God using a harmed body is in fact Jesus’ scourged, flogged and crucified body within the Eucharist. Moreover, his wounds helped St. Thomas imagine in his resurrection.
The damage to the body is of temporary importance because we hope our souls ascend to heaven. Today’s first reading also speaks to our hope and trust to go to heaven. The readings together (together with the responsorial psalm) concentrate on the inheritance that’s in heaven.
You don’t want to have an ideal body to evangelise the Gospel. What you would like is to have hope in heaven, just as Paul, the saints and Jesus did.
