Solving Our Impossibilities
Monday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time
My dear encountered couples:
When the man with the withered hand stretched out his hand to Jesus, it was cured; it was restored to its proper form. We must do that with whatever is problematic with us. Our weaknesses, our faulty attitudes, our tendencies to prejudge, rashly judge, and criticize, we should present to Christ.
Tell him we cannot seem to overcome these defects on our own, ask for his help and place our problems in his hands. Realizing we are not perfect and zeroing in on exactly what it is we are not perfect in rather than just a general put-down of ourselves, is a step in the right direction. It reveals humility, a state of soul that evaluates our situation in its true light. We all must have humility if we want unmanageable things in our lives to change to the better.
The man with the withered hand could have hidden it in his pocket, he could have acted like it was no problem, he could have held it back when Jesus said, “Stretch out your hand.” But he knew his situation, he did not try to deny it, he knew he could do nothing to improve it. So, he admitted his helplessness and reached out to Christ. That was a smart move. That was humility. Why aren’t we always that smart and humble?
We all have things we can’t control in our lives. Maybe it’s our drinking, our eating, our smoking, our gambling, our sexuality, our big mouths. We’ve tried to take charge, but they more often take charge of us.
What are we to do? The same as the man with the withered hand. Surrender it to Christ and have faith. He came to solve our impossibilities. So why don’t we let him?
