Friday of the First Week in Ordinary Time
Today's gospel describes how everyone wanted to see Jesus and the crowds prohibited someone who was sick to get nearby. So, they tore up the ceiling and lowered the man down. The story always reminds me to stop and check to see what things in my life I’m willing to “tear up the ceiling” to attain. So often we drive ourselves into a dither trying to get something that, upon reflection, really does not merit the effort. The gospel today recalls for us the singular focus of the cripple and his friends, a focus that we see in Ignatius’s First Principle and Foundation: the singular purpose of human life and the proper use of creation.