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Lectio Divina. Tuesday of the Twenty-Second Week in Ordinary Time.
Lectio Divina

Ordinary Time - Cicle C


Author: Order of Carmlites | Source: www.ocarm.org



1) Opening prayer
Almighty God,
every good thing comes from you.
Fill our hearts with love for you,
increase our faith,
and by your constant care
protect the good you have given us.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
 
2) Gospel Reading - Luke 4,31-37
Jesus went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and taught them on the Sabbath.
And his teaching made a deep impression on them because his word carried authority. In the synagogue there was a man possessed by the spirit of an unclean devil, and he shouted at the top of his voice, ‘Ha! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are: the Holy One of God.’
But Jesus rebuked it, saying, ‘Be quiet! Come out of him!’ And the devil, throwing the man into the middle, went out of him without hurting him at all.
Astonishment seized them and they were all saying to one another, ‘What is it in his words? He gives orders to unclean spirits with authority and power and they come out.’ And the news of him travelled all through the surrounding countryside.

 
3) Reflection
• In today’s Gospel we can see the facts more closely: the admiration of the people because of the way Jesus taught and the cure of a man who was possessed by an unclean spirit. Not all the Evangelists give this account in the same way. For Luke, the first miracle is the peace with which Jesus liberates himself from the threat of death on the part of the people of Nazareth (Lk 4, 29-30) and the cure of the possessed man (Lk 4, 33-35). For Matthew, the first miracle is the cure of the sick and of the possessed (Mt 4, 23) or, more specifically, the cure of a leper (Mt 8, 1-4). For Mark, the miracle was the expulsion of the devil (Mk 1, 23-26). For John, the first miracle was Cana, where Jesus changed the water into wine (Jn 2, 1-11). Thus, in the way of narrating things, each Evangelist, accordingly, indicates which was the greatest concern of Jesus.
• Luke 4, 31: The change of Jesus toward Capernaum: “Jesus descends to Capernaum, a city in Galilee, and on Saturday he taught the people”. Matthew says that Jesus went to live in Capernaum (Mt 4, 13). He changed his residence. Capernaum was a small city on the crossroad between two important streets: the one coming from Asia Minor and was leading to Petra on the south of Transjordan, and the other one coming from the region of the two rivers: the Tigris and the Euphrates, and descended toward Egypt. The change toward Capernaum facilitated the contact with the people and the diffusion of the Good News.
• Luke 4, 32: Admiration of the people at the teaching of Jesus. The first thing that people perceive is that Jesus teaches in a different way. It is not so much the content that strikes them, but rather his way of teaching: “Jesus speaks with authority”. Mark adds that because of his different way of teaching; Jesus created a critical conscience among the people in regard to the religious authority of his time. The people perceived and compared: “He teaches with authority, unlike the Scribes” (Mk 1, 22.27). The Scribes taught quoting authority. Jesus does not quote any authority; rather he speaks starting from his experience of God and of his life.
• Luke 4, 33-35: Jesus fights against the power of evil. The first miracle is the expulsion of the devil. The power of evil took possession of persons, alienating them. Jesus restores the persons to be themselves again, giving them back the consciousness and liberty. He does this thanks to the force of his word: “Be quiet! Come out of him!” And on another occasion he says: “But if it is through the finger of God that I drive devils out, then the Kingdom of God has indeed caught you unawares” (Lk 11, 20). Today, also, many people live alienated from themselves, subjugated by the means of communication, by the propaganda of the government and of business. They live slaves of consumerism, oppressed by debts and threatened by creditors. People think that they do not live well if they do not have everything which the propaganda announces. It is not easy to expel this power which today, alienates many people, and return the persons to be themselves again.
• Luke 4, 36-37: The reaction of the people: he gives orders to the unclean spirits. Jesus not only has a diverse way of teaching the things of God, but another aspect which causes admiration in the people is his power over unclean spirits: “What is it in his words? He gives orders to unclean spirits with authority and power and they come out”. Jesus opens a new path so that the people can place themselves before God to pray and to receive the blessings promised to Abraham. Before, they had to purify themselves. There were many laws and norms which made the life of the people difficult and marginalized many persons who were considered impure. But now, purified by faith in Jesus, persons could once again place themselves before God and pray to him, without the need to have recourse to the complicated norms of purity which were frequently expensive.
 
4) Personal questions
• Jesus causes admiration and astonishment among the people. Does the way of acting of our community cause admiration among the people of the neighbourhood? What type of admiration?
• Jesus drives out the power of evil and restores the persons to be themselves again. Today many persons live alienated from everything and from all. How can we help them to recover and be themselves again?
 
5) Concluding Prayer
Yahweh is tenderness and pity,
slow to anger, full of faithful love.
Yahweh is generous to all,
his tenderness embraces all his creatures. (Ps 145,8-9)








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