Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 6, 20-26
After Jesus left the synagogue, he entered the house of Simon.
Simon’s mother-in-law was afflicted with a severe fever,
and they interceded with him about her.
He stood over her, rebuked the fever, and it left her.
She got up immediately and waited on them.
At sunset, all who had people sick with various diseases brought them to him.
He laid his hands on each of them and cured them.
And demons also came out from many, shouting, “You are the Son of God.”
But he rebuked them and did not allow them to speak
because they knew that he was the Christ.
At daybreak, Jesus left and went to a deserted place.
The crowds went looking for him, and when they came to him,
they tried to prevent him from leaving them.
But he said to them, “To the other towns also
I must proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God,
because for this purpose I have been sent.”
And he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea.
Blessed
1. Raising his eyes. Jesus’s gaze is sharp because it involves making a choice and a decision. When you choose someone in your life, it’s a decision for and about your life. Fix your gaze on what is important and don’t let urgent matters throw you off course. Dealing with what’s urgent is not the same as dealing with what’s important. When your focus is always on the urgent, you can lose sight of what truly matters, which leads to distraction and a sense of being absent from what’s important to you.
2. Rejoice. Of course, happiness is a personal decision, but it doesn’t depend entirely on you. It’s not just a voluntary act. You have to remember that happiness is the process of accepting your life and confronting your guilt. Life also means facing the guilt you impose on yourself and even using it to sabotage your own happiness. Therefore, happiness is the achievement of letting go and abandoning yourself to God, trusting him entirely while still fighting for yourself and for what you love. To be happy, you need both discipline and peace in your heart.
3. Speak well of you. One of our biggest temptations is to idealize people and things, and even lifestyles—especially these days on social media, where we see “wow” lifestyles. We idealize love, friendship, and even life itself. Therefore, the path to happiness in God requires you to give up idealizing. There will never be happiness without a little sadness or a little absence. There is no happiness without a little pain and a little loneliness. Here on Earth, happiness has its imperfections, but let’s remember that in eternity, everything will be perfect.
Don’t forget that something good is on the way!
God bless you, be with you and protect you in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
