For 31 October 2025, Friday of week 30 in Ordinary Time, based on Luke 14:1-6
On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the sabbath, they were watching him closely. Just then, in front of him, there was a man who had dropsy. And Jesus asked the lawyers and Pharisees, ‘Is it lawful to cure people on the sabbath, or not?’ But they were silent. So Jesus took him and healed him, and sent him away. Then he said to them, ‘If one of you has a child or an ox that has fallen into a well, will you not immediately pull it out on a sabbath day?’ And they could not reply to this.
——————
Some time ago I and three other friars visited and elderly friar member of our community who was very sick in hospital. He was well taken care of. But he was all the time lamenting that he was thirsty. There were nurses around his bed, attentive to his needs but none tried to give him even a drop of water. We looked at them trying to understand why they were not responding to his insistent requests. They told us that they couldn’t, any drop of water would mean death for him. He died a couple of hours later. I don’t know the name of this disease but on researching about today’s gospel selection I understood that perhaps his problem was a serious condition like dropsy, or what is now called edema.
The healing of the man with dropsy is only found in Luke’s gospel, although other gospels tell us that Jesus frequently healed people on a Sabbath. Luke was a physician and I am inclined to imagine that he somehow wanted us to focus on the possible implications of this decease, dropsy, as St. Augustine did. When consulting St. Thomas’s Catena Aurea I found this interesting quote from St. Augustine who wrote: “We can rightly compare the dropsical man to a covetous rich man. For as the former the more he increases in unnatural moisture the greater his thirst; so also the other the more abundant his riches, which he does not employ well, the more ardently he desires them”.
With this and other healings on a Sabbath Jesus wants to teach us that he wants us to be merciful, to show compassion, and not to be too legalistic. He does not want blind obedience to the Law.
The sick man appeared in the house of a leader of the Pharisees where Jesus was invited for a meal. Was the sick man invited? Those in the house of the Pharisee were watching him closely to see if Jesus would cure him. So Jesus asked them whether it was permitted by the Law to cure people on a Sabbath. Nobody answered him.
Many a time our modern culture pushes us to compulsively seek out and use things or to engage in a behaviour even when it harms us. It encourages us to seek happiness that we know is not real and does not satisfy us. It does not really make us happy. There are other things like power, drugs, sex, gambling, smoking and so many other conditions that compulsively push us to want more, and we sometimes are not aware that we need to be healed. Jesus did not speak to the sick man. He did not ask him if he wanted to be cured. So Jesus just took him, healed him and sent him away.
It seems to me that Luke, a physician, wanted to show us how Jesus healed the man with dropsy: He said it in a short sentence using only three verbs: “Jesus took him, healed him, and sent him away”. We thank God that today there are support groups to help these who would like to free themselves from these addictions. They can be healed and we should help them through our prayers and encouragement, and a healthy friendship, for recovery is often a long process. Many fully recover and enjoy a healthy and fulfilling life, finding the joy that they were looking for, or things better still…
Scripture passage from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright 1989, 1993, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
About Costantino Mamo, OP
Cost is a friar of the province of Malta and is currently serving as a missionary in Durrës, Albania. More information can be found at his homepage at http://costmamo.blogspot.com/.
31 Oct 2025
0 CommentsJesus Heals the Man with Dropsy
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On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the sabbath, they were watching him closely. Just then, in front of him, there was a man who had dropsy. And Jesus asked the lawyers and Pharisees, ‘Is it lawful to cure people on the sabbath, or not?’ But they were silent. So Jesus took him and healed him, and sent him away. Then he said to them, ‘If one of you has a child or an ox that has fallen into a well, will you not immediately pull it out on a sabbath day?’ And they could not reply to this.
——————
Some time ago I and three other friars visited and elderly friar member of our community who was very sick in hospital. He was well taken care of. But he was all the time lamenting that he was thirsty. There were nurses around his bed, attentive to his needs but none tried to give him even a drop of water. We looked at them trying to understand why they were not responding to his insistent requests. They told us that they couldn’t, any drop of water would mean death for him. He died a couple of hours later. I don’t know the name of this disease but on researching about today’s gospel selection I understood that perhaps his problem was a serious condition like dropsy, or what is now called edema.
The healing of the man with dropsy is only found in Luke’s gospel, although other gospels tell us that Jesus frequently healed people on a Sabbath. Luke was a physician and I am inclined to imagine that he somehow wanted us to focus on the possible implications of this decease, dropsy, as St. Augustine did. When consulting St. Thomas’s Catena Aurea I found this interesting quote from St. Augustine who wrote: “We can rightly compare the dropsical man to a covetous rich man. For as the former the more he increases in unnatural moisture the greater his thirst; so also the other the more abundant his riches, which he does not employ well, the more ardently he desires them”.
With this and other healings on a Sabbath Jesus wants to teach us that he wants us to be merciful, to show compassion, and not to be too legalistic. He does not want blind obedience to the Law.
The sick man appeared in the house of a leader of the Pharisees where Jesus was invited for a meal. Was the sick man invited? Those in the house of the Pharisee were watching him closely to see if Jesus would cure him. So Jesus asked them whether it was permitted by the Law to cure people on a Sabbath. Nobody answered him.
Many a time our modern culture pushes us to compulsively seek out and use things or to engage in a behaviour even when it harms us. It encourages us to seek happiness that we know is not real and does not satisfy us. It does not really make us happy. There are other things like power, drugs, sex, gambling, smoking and so many other conditions that compulsively push us to want more, and we sometimes are not aware that we need to be healed. Jesus did not speak to the sick man. He did not ask him if he wanted to be cured. So Jesus just took him, healed him and sent him away.
It seems to me that Luke, a physician, wanted to show us how Jesus healed the man with dropsy: He said it in a short sentence using only three verbs: “Jesus took him, healed him, and sent him away”. We thank God that today there are support groups to help these who would like to free themselves from these addictions. They can be healed and we should help them through our prayers and encouragement, and a healthy friendship, for recovery is often a long process. Many fully recover and enjoy a healthy and fulfilling life, finding the joy that they were looking for, or things better still…
Scripture passage from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright 1989, 1993, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
About Costantino Mamo, OP
Cost is a friar of the province of Malta and is currently serving as a missionary in Durrës, Albania. More information can be found at his homepage at http://costmamo.blogspot.com/.