Reading and meditation on the Word of God, Friday the 12th week in ordinary time
June 25, 2021
Reading is delivered by Dylan Christian Kosim and meditation delivered by Christian Kosim, from the Church of Santo Yakobus Kelapa Gading in Jakarta, Indonesia
The reading is taken from the holy Gospel according to Matthew
When Jesus came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him.
And then a leper approached, did him homage, and said,
“Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.”
He stretched out his hand, touched him, and said,
“I will do it. Be made clean.”
His leprosy was cleansed immediately.
Then Jesus said to him, “See that you tell no one,
but go show yourself to the priest,
and offer the gift that Moses prescribed;
that will be proof for them.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
Our meditation today has the theme: Necessary Giving. Our relationship with God always occurs in various ways. One of them is through the Lord’s intervention to our problems and difficulties. It often happens that God answers or solves our problems just in time or as the book of Ecclesiastes says, “There is an appointed time for everything.”. We surely admit that God gives us what we really need.
The Word of God in today’s reading gives us an example of a time when human needs are answered by God. Sarai, the wife of Abraham, accepted with joy that God changed her name to Sarah. This change signified a great task from God to her, that in their advanced age, Abraham and Sarah would be blessed with a son from their marriage. The long awaited dream was finally realized.
There was a leper who must had been in a long expectation to recover from his illness. In this long period of sickness, how much he had to bear the burden of being isolated from the society. However, in the deepest of his heart he should also feel that there should be salvation for him. Maybe someone had come to tell him that Jesus was going topass by exactly in where he was. He thought that this moment should not be wasted. So as soon as Jesus passed by and met him, he immediately asked to be healed from his leprosy. His effort and waiting for so long, had now been answered at the very right time.
In reality, we have many different needs, problems or difficulties. Following our desires as human beings who are always in need, we may want that all our problems or difficulties should be resolved by God. That’s why we dream or desire a lot and ask for what is great or even extraordinary. It is possible in this context that we also insist on ourpersonal or group interests to be answered as soon as possible. Because of this intention and obsessed with many priorities, we might end up of missing out the priority for the salvation of our own souls. Perhaps many of us who implore to the Lord the various problems that we have, do not know what exactly we need, and maybe God is made confuse for the many requests from our part that are not our real needs. We simply ask but we do not know what exactly our needs.
God knows what our hearts and minds desire. That means He knows our needs. What happens if in prayer and hope we ask for something other than what we need, even though the Lord already knows everything in us? Therefore, we should always be wise to ask God what we really need, because He already knows what we need.
Let’s pray. In the name of the Father… In Your mercy and goodness, O Lord, grant us what we need today, so that we can fulfill what is useful and in accordance with the interests of our souls and bodies. For You are almighty, we surrender fully to You. Hail Mary full of grace… In the name of the Father…