Doing cartwheels on our way to a freedom from bondage

Father Perry D. Leiker, pastor.

A reflection on the daily readings, for Monday of the 30th Week in Ordinary Time, by Father Perry.

Father Perry D. Leiker, pastor

+ “Set free!” — what a remarkable gift.

To have been in bondage and then to be free, Paul speaks of it in terms of our bondage or slavery to sin and to the flesh.

And the flesh he sees as actual sins of the body, but also all things that are not of the Spirit.

And he generously and profoundly describes the power and saving reality of the Spirit of God that has adopted us, so we are now called “children of God … and so also can call God Abba, Father.”

And it just keeps getting better.

We are “heirs of God”, and joint heirs with Christ, and can and will share in the sufferings of Christ so as to also “be glorified with him.”

Paul has come to know, believe, and profess all of this with total conviction, because he had come to Christ with such clarity.

+ Jesus also sees reality in a remarkable way; his healing power just keeps on flowing to those in need of it — even on the sabbath.

Yes! Jesus sees a woman in bondage so crippled by a spirit that for 18 years she was bent over, incapable of standing erect.

Bound for 18 years, in an instant and at his word, she was set free.

What a remarkable gift to her and to all who witnessed Jesus’ saving power.

But to a set of some eyes — the leader of the synagogue — Jesus received criticism and judgment for healing on the sabbath.

Where one saw the breaking of the law, another, namely Jesus, saw freedom from bondage, a new hope, love, and the power of God at work.

No doubt the woman walked home — no, danced! — all the way home.

Perhaps she even did a few cartwheels.

At any rate, everyone was left dumbfounded, and a few totally humiliated.

Some would choose to remain in bondage, or set themselves in bondage, while a woman and many observers were clearly set free.

Are we?

Father Perry Dean Leiker is the 13th pastor of St. Bernard Catholic Church. Reach him at (323) 255-6142. Email Father Perry at pleiker@stbernard-church.com.