Monday of Week 30 – Rom 8:12-17; Psalm 67:2,4,6-7,20-21; Luke 13:10-17
“There’s no hell, is there? Isn’t it all the same how a person lives, since God is good and forgives everything?” You can shrug at that if you don’t believe. But if you do believe, you know it’s not like that.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus sees a woman bent over for eighteen years. He doesn’t shrug at what cripples her; He frees her and sets her straight. That’s what He wants to do with us. Mercy isn’t a polite nod to sin; it’s power that heals and changes us. Yes, hell is real. And yes, God’s mercy is real too – not a free pass to carry on as if nothing matters, but grace that lifts us to live differently.
Saint Paul puts it plainly: “For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (see Romans 8:13). This isn’t only about sexual purity. “Unspiritual” means living on merely human terms – choosing as if God isn’t God, as if eternity isn’t real. “By the Spirit” means choosing in the light of our true calling: we’re made for heaven. As future citizens of heaven, we can’t live small, harsh, or self-centred lives. The dignity of being redeemed by Jesus actually commits us to a new way of being.
So, when sin ties me down and bends my soul, I don’t make excuses- I go to the One who can straighten me.
Jesus, thank you for being here. When I get tangled in the unspiritual, please set me straight. Teach me to choose with your Spirit today, and to live like someone You’ve redeemed. Amen.