Monday of the 2nd week of Advent year B
Isaiah 35: 1-10 Luke 5: 17-26
Theme: True friendship
In the gospel reading of today, we see the extent to which the friends of the paralyzed man were willing to go, just to ensure that their friend gets healing from Jesus. They took it upon themselves to go through the roof, to bring their sick friend before Jesus. Ordinarily, some of us would have given up when they realized that because of the crowd they cannot get to where Jesus is, to take their friend to him. Their attitude greatly impressed Jesus, and he willingly healed the sick man because of the faith that was exhibited by his friends. This is what we get from sincere friendship, and anyone who finds such a friend has found a great treasure. We all long to have friends that are trusted and loyal, but the truth is that they are difficult to find.
However, one thing that is very important on a day like this is for you to ask yourself that important question, are you a loyal friend to your friends, before you begin to seek loyal friends. If you are loyal to your friends, you may be lucky to also find one or two loyal friends. Like I said earlier on, let us be loyal friends to those around us, and God will equally bless us with friends that will be loyal to us too. We all need such friends in our lives, but we must begin by being loyal to our friends and leave the rest to God, who knows the heart of all of us. It is interesting how we operate as humans sometimes. One would have expected that the people will be impressed by the extent the paralyzed man had to go to see Jesus, but no, the rather preferred to question the action and statement of Jesus as he cured the sick man.
As children of God and Christians, we must be humane in our judgement of issues. The wellbeing of a human person should always be very important to us at all times, whether the person is known to us or not. That is not the time to begin to ask questions that will bring in confusion and disagreement amongst the people. Any other issue about the situation can be discussed after the situation is put under control. That will be a good time for discussion, when everyone is relaxed and ready to listen to what anyone has to say, and not immediately when the thing happens, this will take care of any form of disagreement and problem that nay emanate because of what has happened. Let us continue to appreciate the gifts that we are to each other, whether we are friends or not. May the Lord bless his words in our hearts, in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, Amen. Peace be with you.