Bible Reflections I 17.09.2021 - Friday I Indraya Manna I

Ordinary Time - Week 24

Readings 

            I - 1Tim. 6: 2-12

           II - Lk. 8: 1-3

                 

WE ARE ALL ONE IN CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD

Jesus came to restore the relationship with God reflected in the establishment of an egalitarian society where, freedom, fraternity, equality and justice reign and this is the Kingdom of God. Jesus taught on the streets and the lanes, preached in the synagogue and on the shores, healed the deformed and the disabled, cured of evil spirits and infirmities as a sign of the blossoming of the Kingdom of God that was so immanent. Jesus gave a giant leap in the composition of his team that consisted of women as well, as we read in the Gospel passage today. The rabbis in Israel, holding on to the law, tradition and practices withdrew themselves from associating with women and valued them as ‘no persons’, secondary citizens and inferior to men. Unlike the Jewish rabbis, Jesus befriended women and had them too to be in the team of followers. He gave them a fitting place in his team and made them the partakers of his mission as well. This is the greatest sign of equality that reign in the Kingdom of God for: “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28).  

There are innumerable groups of activists who protest and fight for gender equality. Men and women are never equals they are complimentary. One gets completed in the other and also one cannot exist without the other. And hence, equality in dignity has to be insisted. We are the loving children of God the Father, created in His own likeness and image and hence there is no distinction in the dignity. Violating the dignity of the other is violating oneself. Trampling the other is tampering oneself. Let us imitate the legendry life of Jesus to restore the respect and human dignity of women keeping in mind that one cannot exist without the other and that one compliments the other, for we are all one in Christ Jesus our Lord.