Monday of the 23rd Week in Ordinary Time
Labor Day (United States)
Luke 6:6-11
I remember when I started my first job, finding myself sitting in an office called ‘Personnel.’ A few years later, on my last day at that job, I sat in that same office. Only now it was called ‘Human Resources.’
Later, a friend cynically remarked, “Yeah, we stopped being personnel a while ago. Now we’re ‘resources.’ At least they still call us human.”
I thought of that when I pictured the scene in today’s Gospel.
Every person in that synagogue could look at the man with the withered hand and see a person. But some chose to see a “resource” — someone who could be used to accomplish their own purposes.
Of course, those who made that choice didn’t realize that Jesus saw them, too. He knew their motives. And he wouldn’t allow it or overlook it.
Standing before them was not a hand to be examined or a man to be used. He was a person to be loved. And so Jesus said to him, “Stretch out your hand.”
It seems especially appropriate on Labor Day to remember that phrase, and all the ways Christ says it to us.
“Stretch out your hands to work.” Whatever work we do, at a job or at home, let us pray that we begin with God’s inspiration and, through Him, reach happy completion. As the psalmist says, “Give success to the work of our hands; give success to the work of our hands” (Psalm 90:17).
“Stretch out your hands to serve.” May we remember that every person we serve is someone loved by God; and, in a very real sense, is Christ himself.
“Stretch out your hands to heal.” Sometimes that means reaching out to make peace, forgive, comfort, mend a broken relationship, or simply set aside time for someone who needs us.
“Stretch out your hands to pray.” May Almighty God give us the humility to receive, perhaps not what we want, but what we truly need.
“Stretch out your hands and be healed.” Let us have the humility to approach our Lord in Confession. He waits for us with open arms.
And above all, here at holy Mass, let us remember Christ, who stretched out his hands in the greatest and most loving work of all.
And, in return, let us stretch out our hands — and our hearts — to receive Jesus as he is most pleased to give himself to us:
in the most holy Eucharist.
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