Tuesday, September 15, 2009

24th Week, Ordinary Time, Thursday, 17.09.09

1 Tim 4:12-16
Lk 7:36-50

Each person is like a stalk of flower. Just like the rose which is a beautiful flower, every person is beautiful.

Yet with every stalk of rose, there are at least two or three thorns.

Similarly, every person has a few thorns in life.

Thorns of guilt, shame, regrets, hurts and pains.

The thorns are there, but so is the beauty of the rose.

We can choose to look at the beauty of the flower, or we can choose to see how ugly the thorns are.

In the gospel, Simon the Pharisee could only see the ugly thorns of the woman.

Jesus, on the other hand, saw the beauty of the person in the woman.

It is from that beauty that Jesus restored her respect and dignity by granting her forgiveness and healing.

Indeed, the good news is that God wants to forgive our sins and heal us and restore our respect and dignity.

St. Paul also urged Timothy in the first reading, to teach and preach the good news of love and forgiveness.

Timothy may be young, but the message of love and forgiveness is eternal and dynamic.

When we understand and live out this good news of love and forgiveness, we will see the beauty in ourselves as well as in others.

Then we will see this world as a place filled with beautiful flowers