and the people there were observing him carefully
Jesus doesn't change his behavior just because others are watching him. He has the integrity to act in the same way whether or not anyone is watching. We on the other hand are not always like this. Without people watching we sometimes slip into actions of which we are not proud, or entertain thoughts which we would be embarrassed to hear out loud. These aren't always grave sins, but they are often ways of catering to our egocentric worldview, of seeking to pamper ourselves with comfort and coddling beyond what is actually helpful, things which retain power over us to the degree that they are hidden.
“Is it lawful to cure on the sabbath or not?”
The lack of one-to-one consistency between our inner life and our outer life also means that we are often afraid to speak up for and act on the truths we believe in our hearts. We recognize the afflictions from which others suffer but hold back from offering help because society insists that it is not the right time or place or means by which to help them. We see the world swelled with the discomfort of sin just as surely as Jesus saw this man with dropsy in front of him. But the world insists that sin is not sin and that for us to say otherwise is a sleight to the one who is suffering. We want to reach out in compassion but the world tries to prevent us, saying that no remedy is necessary.
For it becomes us, when a great good is the result, not to care if fools take offence.
- Saint Cyril of Alexandria
We are called give no heed to what our opposition thinks when there is a great possibility for good at stake. We ourselves must be willing to have our own darkness brought into the light enough to be healed. And in turn we must be willing to offer our own light to the darkness of others. We are called to become like Jesus who has nothing to hide and nothing to prove, who can therefore help anyone who will receive him.
Our own lives are marked by a process of growth by which the inner seed of the new life displaces the habits of the old life. The new life we are given effects a transformation in our hearts where we become less and less willing to hold unto hidden sin and selfish. As this happens we have less and less to hide. As we grow we become more able to act as we should, no matter what pressures we face.
I am confident of this,
that the one who began a good work in you
will continue to complete it
until the day of Christ Jesus.
At the beginning of our Christian walk we would probably have difficulty being partners with Paul in his imprisonment. We would be too busy with ourselves, too worried about being exposed as frauds if we tried. Paul, certainly, could bear the burden of imprisonment well. But what if helping him had consequences for us? Would we be unmasked as Christians in name only? But as grace changes us we become more and more confident, not in ourselves, but in the one who is at work within us. In order to help others we do not first demand of ourselves perfection, but rather the simply willingness to cooperate with grace.
And this is my prayer:
that your love may increase ever more and more
in knowledge and every kind of perception,
to discern what is of value,
Our love can increase, our knowledge can grow, and our discernment can become more and more accurate, because the one who began the good work in us is the one who will himself complete it.
He has made known to his people the power of his works,
giving them the inheritance of the nations.
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