Gospel Reflection for Monday, February 24, 2025

«Nowadays, many people see someone like the person Jesus helped not as possessed by a demon, but as someone with epilepsy. We’ve come a long way in science, thanks to the gifts God gave us, and we now know it’s not evil spirits, but a medical condition that can be treated or managed. That’s another way of freeing people from what holds them back. Ultimately, that’s what matters. Jesus sets people free, and we use our God-given talents to help others grow and be free too.

Today, we keep up that work of liberation. It’s a huge job, especially when you think about all the suffering in the world, the pain of individuals. There was this awful dictator, whose name we shouldn’t even remember, who said one death is a tragedy, but a million deaths are just a statistic. He really believed it, too, because he caused millions of deaths and didn’t care at all.

We Christians, followers of Jesus, are especially good at listening to and caring for the pain of our brothers and sisters. We feel compassion and we act on it. We don’t see people as numbers; their pain is our pain. We’re here to be close, to listen, to feel with them. We don’t care about their skin color, their background, their gender, their religion, or their politics. No one is left out of our compassion. And if we can use anything we have to ease their pain, to help them handle what seems impossible, we will. Because their pain is our pain, and we believe in a God who sets us free, a God who is close, compassionate, and merciful. That’s what we believe.»