January 23, 2021 – Saturday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time

Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/012321.cfm)

Jesus is out of his mind. Surely, he must be. It will be very difficult to understand him, the way he thinks and the way he does things for others. Only a man like him, who never thinks like us, can only do those scandalous actions by forgiving the sinners, touching the lepers, eating and drinking with sinners and unlovable, and siding with the poor, with women and children, healing the sick and giving freedom to those slaved by the devil.

This was what the relatives of Jesus believed that he has gone crazy. Jesus’ schedule became very hectic because people were drawn towards him. They even found it difficult to eat because of the people’s demand of him. Jesus would always welcome them and accommodate them. That is why, his relatives even thought of locking him up because “he was out of his mind.”

At that time, they never understood Jesus’ actions and his ministry to the sick and in preaching the Kingdom of God. What they saw in Jesus was that he was merely a son, a nephew, a cousin to them. They failed to see and recognize at that time that there was more in Jesus, that his actions and his words were signs of God’s presence in them.

However, the generosity of the person of Jesus, expressed through concrete actions of loving was madness in the minds of others. True enough, God has gone mad to love us. St. Alphonsus even said, “God is crazy for love.” God has come in the form of a baby, became human like us, suffered like us and died with us to show concretely to us the divine love that frees and gives life.

May this madness in God to love us remind us always of that power of loving to heal, to forgive and to give life. Let that madness in God to love us make us in return madly in love with God too, to be madly in love with our commitments in life, to be madly in love with our passion to help others, to inspire and motivate others, to teach and nurture others. Hinaut pa.