Category Archives: 4th

One of the reasons why a priest or a religious is rarely sent back to his home parish to serve is because people tend to assume they know much about the priest or religious. Also, some people may think that just because the priest or religious is a local boy or girl, they think they can manipulate or control him or her. Some people may also not have that much respect or acceptance of the priest or religious, especially since they think they know really well his or her family, his or her background, etc. This may make it challenging or difficult for the priest or religious to function properly or effectively at his home parish.

Today’s Gospel also reinforces this matter. Jesus was not accepted among his home-town people as they thought they knew his family and he really well. This made it difficult for Jesus to perform any miracle at his home-town and only managed to cure a few people, especially because of the people’s lack of faith in him.

When we are faced with this kind of situation, let us consider our options. Are we able to function well in our mission at our home-town? Let us not be apprehensive to voice out our concerns to the relevant authority, so that they can decide what is best for our home-town community and what is best for us.

How much do we really trust Jesus? Are there some among us who doubt that God can really help us? Today’s Gospel shows us the amount of trust the haemorrhaging woman had towards Jesus. This woman had suffered from a haemorrhage for twelve years and no doctor could cure her. Nothing in the medicine world could do anything to help her. And yet, this woman had faith that Jesus could cure her. The Gospel tells us that “she came up behind Jesus through the crowd and touched his cloak. And the source of the bleeding dried up instantly, and she felt in herself that she was cured of her complaint.”

Sometimes our modern medicine or modern science may not be able to help us, since there are many things that modern medicine or modern science has still not fully understood or discovered. When this happens, we may be given the impression that there is no hope or all is lost. Some of us may even go for treatment from bomohs, shamans, medicine men, etc, thinking and hoping that these may be able to cure us. However, let us take the example of the haemorrhaging woman and trust that the Lord will care for us and do what is best for us. Are we willing to let God take control and help us?

When we are in trouble and the Lord helps us out of our mess, how would we respond? Some of us may think that we had had a lucky escape. Some may begin to think that it was actually through our own effort that we managed to get out of trouble. However, how many of us would be genuinely grateful to God for His help?

In today’s Gospel, the demoniac begged to be allowed to stay with Jesus. But Jesus would not let him but said to him, ‘Go home to your people and tell them all that the Lord in his mercy has done for you.’ In this way, the demoniac was preaching the Good News by sharing his story with his people, instead of keeping it to himself and clinging on to Jesus. If we are in a similar situation, would we be excited to share the Good News with others? Would we be grateful and thankful of God’s mercy?