Fr Paul reads from Luke’s Gospel (6: 6-11) in which Jesus heals a man with the withered hand on the Sabbath.

This is the second story about the Sabbath that Fr Paul referred on Saturday and concerns healing on the Sabbath. It is a recognised principle of the Sabbath Law that to save an endangered live almost any law can be broken so the question naturally is, is a withered hand life threatening?

Jesus, here, goes beyond the processes of the law and he heals out of sheer love for the sufferer. The healing that Jesus brings to the world is more important than any ritual law.  It is this act of love that leaves his opponents confused and hostile.  They are so bound up by the letter of the law that to break it out of love is completely and utterly beyond their comprehension.

Jesus today heals out of sheer love for the sufferer.

For our reflection today, Fr Paul prays that we, too, may experience this sheer love of Jesus in our lives now