Monday – 30th Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel – Luke 13:10-17

A Compassionate Life

My Dad’s Store

My dad began working in this little country store next to our family home at the age of 16.  He retired from that same store over 50 years later.  It was part gas station, post office, part ice cream stand, part deli and liquor store, supermarket and local gathering spot.  During all those 50 some years, he ran the store on his own, hardly ever took a vacation, working roughly from 5 in the morning to 10 at night, at least 6 days a week.  During the school year we basically say him only at dinnertime for about an hour.  And in the last 10 years of the store’s existence, he was also doing double-duty as the postmaster, taking over after my grandmother passed away.

But what I remember most are those many times, after hours or on Sundays, times when the store was closed, but how he would graciously re-open the store for someone in need of a quart of milk or a dozen eggs, a box of diapers or a fill-up of gas, lending an ear to someone in need of counsel, doing taxes for a neighbor, providing groceries to tide someone over til their next paycheck, and taxi-ing back and forth down the road to give people rides to church.  He would never let the time of day or tiredness distract him from simple acts of charity and compassion! 

And that is what we hear in today’s Gospel.  Jesus is reading from the Torah and preaching in the synagogue on the Sabbath.  Important work, necessary work!  And yet when He sees a woman crippled with disease for over 18 years and barely able to stand, He immediately drops what He is doing and cures her!  No question!  No hesitation!

Jesus reminds us today that it is not enough to preach the Word, to spread the faith!  We are called to live out our faith, to put it into practice!  It was only yesterday that He reminded us of the greatest commandment – LOVE!  Today He reminds us!  Love God!  Love your neighbor!  In your words and in your deeds!  In your acts of charity and in your compassion!   Thanks Dad for the life lesson!

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