Posted by The WORD in other words (2022) by Fr Flor Lagura SVD – Christ the King Mission Seminary, Quezon City
Friday 1st Week in Ordinary Time
One particular country’s journals, whose name I prefer not to mention, recorded that wave after wave of missionary-religious brothers, priests and nuns went to that country and soon died.
A good number in their late 20’s or early 30s succumbed to the dreaded malaria or the equally dangerous “black-water disease” contracted when ingesting too much quinine, erroneously thinking that the more quinine taken, the faster the recovery from malaria would be.
Other missionaries, the journals reported, went to the jungles or the hinterlands but never returned, a “nice” way of saying that they ended up in some huge pot or kettle.
Asked whether these reports were accurate, the descendants merely but frankly replied, “Yes, that’s true, but our forefathers got tired of eating so much of missionary meat, they finally decided to be baptized!”
Despite the rapid death rate, despite the dangers they would face, missionaries still kept on coming, following the example of the Lord to be “bold and daring.”
The friends of the paralytic were bold and daring in carrying their paralyzed friend in a hammock, tearing up part of the house’s roof to lower down their friend and put him just in front of Jesus where he was teaching.
The Lord admired their courage and initiative. Also, the Lord displayed an attitude of being bold and daring when he, in front of the unbelieving scribes and Pharisees, first forgave the paralyzed man’s sins—something which only God can do—then made him walk. This proved that he, a true man [but also true God], can forgive and heal.
Can we, like Jesus, also be bold and daring?
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