Woman, you are set free of your infirmity

27 OCTOBER (Lk 13,10-17)

The observance of the Law of the Lord, of every precept, statute and rule, is given by God himself in a perennial way to the wisdom and knowledge of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God is the truth of the divine will. Without him we make of Scripture, of the Law, of the Gospel itself, an instrument of torture, oppression and spiritual violence. It is He who gives lightness and deep spirituality to everything. That is how St Paul repeatedly sings this rule of true love of God toward man and of every man to his neighbour. His is a perennial song. It never sets and never passes.

One is not a Jew outwardly. True circumcision is not outward, in the flesh. Rather, one is a Jew inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart, in the spirit, not the letter; his praise is not from human beings but from God (Cfr. Rm 2,25-29).

My brothers, you also were put to death to the law through the body of Christ, so that you might belong to another, to the one who was raised from the dead in order that we might bear fruit for God. For when we were in the flesh, our sinful passions, awakened by the law, worked in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, dead to what held us captive, so that we may serve in the newness of the spirit and not under the obsolete letter (Rm 7,1-6).

Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you or from you? You are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by all, shown to be a letter of Christ administered by us, written not in ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets that are hearts of flesh. Such confidence we have through Christ toward God. Not that of ourselves we are qualified to take credit for anything as coming from us; rather, our qualification comes from God, who has indeed qualified us as ministers of a new covenant, not of letter but of spirit; for the letter brings death, but the Spirit gives life (2Cor 3,1-6).

But if you are guided by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are obvious: immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, rivalry, jealousy, outbursts of fury, acts of selfishness, dissensions, factions, occasions of envy, drinking bouts, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. In contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ (Jesus) have crucified their flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also follow the Spirit. Let us not be conceited, provoking one another, envious of one another (Cf. Gal 5,1-25).

Jesus is the true Master according to the Spirit of the Lord. He always moved by him gives to the Law the fullness of the truth of his love, mercy, compassion, loyalty, justice and great updating. Without the Spirit of God even the Law becomes sin. It gets transformed into a tool for evil and no longer for good.

He was teaching in a synagogue on the Sabbath. And a woman was there who for eighteen years had been crippled by a spirit; she was bent over, completely incapable of standing erect. When Jesus saw her, he called to her and said, “Woman, you are set free of your infirmity.” He laid his hands on her, and she at once stood up straight and glorified God. But the leader of the synagogue, indignant that Jesus had cured on the Sabbath, said to the crowd in reply, “There are six days when work should be done. Come on those days to be cured, not on the Sabbath day.” The Lord said to him in reply, “Hypocrites! Does not each one of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his ass from the manger and lead it out for watering? This daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound for eighteen years now, ought she not to have been set free on the Sabbath day from this bondage?” When he said this, all his adversaries were humiliated; and the whole crowd rejoiced at all the splendid deeds done by him.

The Spirit of the Lord must always live in whoever is put in charge for teaching the Law of the Lord. It is He, only He, the truth of the Law and the Gospel. He and no one else.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints give us the Holy Spirit.