Even if you pray the Rosary, and the Luminous Mysteries occasionally, there are 5 compelling reasons why you shouldn't skip Thursday!
3. Ministering To Our Nation Means Ministering Fully:
The Third Luminous Mystery is the Proclaiming of the Kingdom.
3They came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men.4Unable to get near Jesus because of the crowd, they opened up the roof above him. After they had broken through, they let down the mat on which the paralytic was lying.5* When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Child, your sins are forgiven.”
The Proclaiming of the Kingdom is associated with many passages, because it is easily the broadest mystery in terms of all twenty: Every public miracle or discourse given by Jesus up until Passover were signs of His authority, His ministry proclaimed His Kingship. But I chose this passage for it's aptness, I think, in filling in the blanks left by the rest of the Rosary.6* Now some of the scribes were sitting there asking themselves,7 “Why does this man speak that way?* He is blaspheming. Who but God alone can forgive sins?”b8Jesus immediately knew in his mind what they were thinking to themselves, so he said, “Why are you thinking such things in your hearts?9 Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, pick up your mat and walk’?10* But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth”—11he said to the paralytic, “I say to you, rise, pick up your mat, and go home.”(Mark 2:3-11)
Where so many people crowded to Jesus for His knowledge, these men broke roofs out of love and desperation for another. This is it is not enough to evangelize, we must heal, we must set to rights, we must form a kingdom founded on love worthy of Christ's lordship. This means allowing our Good News to be good. The kingdom of Jesus Christ is a kingdom of wholeness and healing.
The men in this crowd were scandalized at Christ's pronouncement of absolution. His moral authority was sought and listened to, not through trust in it's validity, but in a sense of seeking the novel. So when he acted upon it, forgiving this man his sins before the multitude, they were outraged.
We seek to offer the same vision of Christ. We proclaim a need for repentance, and offer a place to find forgiveness. How many in our own culture wrinkle their noses, asking "who are you to tell me what sin is? Who are you to tell me where happiness lies?" Our credentials before the world as ambassadors of the Good News, as prophets proclaiming the Kingdom holds no water without love, without mercy. God is love, His Son is His Mercy poured out. This needs to be seen through us.
Offering a Hail Mary for Charity at the beginning of the Rosary isn't enough.The miracle of physical healing offers a greater truth, that Christ it the divine physician that so many broken ones have been waiting for. He looked on this man Physical healing can be found in him, but there is spiritual health and healing, hope for new life-- and life abundance-- that is being offered here! His kingdom is proclaimed by love. It is in praying and meditating on His public acts of love that we will be solidified in both charity and truth.
Reason No. 4 NEXT THURSDAY
The men in this crowd were scandalized at Christ's pronouncement of absolution. His moral authority was sought and listened to, not through trust in it's validity, but in a sense of seeking the novel. So when he acted upon it, forgiving this man his sins before the multitude, they were outraged.
We seek to offer the same vision of Christ. We proclaim a need for repentance, and offer a place to find forgiveness. How many in our own culture wrinkle their noses, asking "who are you to tell me what sin is? Who are you to tell me where happiness lies?" Our credentials before the world as ambassadors of the Good News, as prophets proclaiming the Kingdom holds no water without love, without mercy. God is love, His Son is His Mercy poured out. This needs to be seen through us.
Offering a Hail Mary for Charity at the beginning of the Rosary isn't enough.The miracle of physical healing offers a greater truth, that Christ it the divine physician that so many broken ones have been waiting for. He looked on this man Physical healing can be found in him, but there is spiritual health and healing, hope for new life-- and life abundance-- that is being offered here! His kingdom is proclaimed by love. It is in praying and meditating on His public acts of love that we will be solidified in both charity and truth.
Reason No. 4 NEXT THURSDAY
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