20260627 LAMENTATION ON THE LACK OF FAITH
27 June 2026, Saturday, 12th Week in Ordinary Time
First reading |
Lamentations 2:2,10-14,18-19 |
Cry aloud to the Lord, daughter of Zion
The Lord has pitilessly destroyed
all the homes of Jacob;
in his displeasure he has shattered
the strongholds of the daughter of Judah;
he has thrown to the ground,
he has left accursed the kingdom and its rulers.
Mutely they sit on the ground,
the elders of the daughter of Zion;
they have put dust on their heads,
and wrapped themselves in sackcloth.
The virgins of Jerusalem hang their heads
down to the ground.
My eyes wasted away with weeping,
my entrails shuddered,
my liver spilled on the ground
at the ruin of the daughters of my people,
as children, mere infants, fainted
in the squares of the Citadel.
They kept saying to their mothers,
‘Where is the bread?’
as they fainted like wounded men
in the squares of the City,
as they poured out their souls
on their mothers’ breasts.
How can I describe you, to what compare you,
daughter of Jerusalem?
Who can rescue and comfort you,
virgin daughter of Zion?
For huge as the sea is your affliction;
who can possibly cure you?
The visions your prophets had on your behalf
were delusive, tinsel things,
they never pointed out your sin,
to ward off your exile.
The visions they proffered you were false,
fallacious, misleading.
Cry aloud, then, to the Lord,
groan, daughter of Zion;
let your tears flow like a torrent,
day and night;
give yourself no relief,
grant your eyes no rest.
Up, cry out in the night-time,
in the early hours of darkness;
pour your heart out like water
before the Lord.
Stretch out your hands to him
for the lives of your children
who faint with hunger
at the entrance to every street.
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 73(74):1-7,20-21 |
Do not forget your poor servants for ever.
Why, O God, have you cast us off for ever?
Why blaze with anger at the sheep of your pasture?
Remember your people whom you chose long ago,
the tribe you redeemed to be your own possession,
the mountain of Zion where you made your dwelling.
Do not forget your poor servants for ever.
Turn your steps to these places that are utterly ruined!
The enemy has laid waste the whole of the sanctuary.
Your foes have made uproar in your house of prayer:
they have set up their emblems, their foreign emblems,
high above the entrance to the sanctuary.
Do not forget your poor servants for ever.
Their axes have battered the wood of its doors.
They have struck together with hatchet and pickaxe.
O God, they have set your sanctuary on fire:
they have razed and profaned the place where you dwell.
Do not forget your poor servants for ever.
Remember your covenant; every cave in the land
is a place where violence makes its home.
Do not let the oppressed return disappointed;
let the poor and the needy bless your name.
Do not forget your poor servants for ever.
Gospel Acclamation | cf.2Tim1:10 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Our Saviour Jesus Christ abolished death
and he has proclaimed life through the Good News.
Alleluia!
Gospel | Matthew 8:5-17 |
'I am not worthy to have you under my roof: give the word, and my servant will be healed'
When Jesus went into Capernaum a centurion came up and pleaded with him. ‘Sir,’ he said ‘my servant is lying at home paralysed, and in great pain.’ ‘I will come myself and cure him’ said Jesus. The centurion replied, ‘Sir, I am not worthy to have you under my roof; just give the word and my servant will be cured. For I am under authority myself, and have soldiers under me; and I say to one man: Go, and he goes; to another: Come here, and he comes; to my servant: Do this, and he does it.’ When Jesus heard this he was astonished and said to those following him, ‘I tell you solemnly, nowhere in Israel have I found faith like this. And I tell you that many will come from east and west to take their places with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob at the feast in the kingdom of heaven; but the subjects of the kingdom will be turned out into the dark, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.’ And to the centurion Jesus said, ‘Go back, then; you have believed, so let this be done for you.’ And the servant was cured at that moment.
And going into Peter’s house Jesus found Peter’s mother-in-law in bed with fever. He touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and began to wait on him.
That evening they brought him many who were possessed by devils. He cast out the spirits with a word and cured all who were sick. This was to fulfil the prophecy of Isaiah:
He took our sicknesses away and carried our diseases for us.
LAMENTATION ON THE LACK OF FAITH
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [La 2:2, 10-14, 18-19; Mt 8:5-17]
The end of the Davidic Kingdom was truly tragic. None of the inhabitants–neither the nobles, the priests, nor the king–expected that the kingdom would finally be destroyed and reduced to ruins. The Temple, the walls of Jerusalem, and the palace were brought down by the Babylonians. The skilled, the strong, and the more talented people were exiled to Babylon lest they reorganise themselves and stage another rebellion. Indeed, the scenes of those last days were horrifying. Jeremiah was perhaps the only prophet who saw the tragic end of the Southern Kingdom, Judah. This catastrophe occurred because the people lacked faith in God and in His prophets.
It is generally believed that the Book of Lamentations was written by Jeremiah as he recalled with sadness what he saw when the kingdom was ransacked and destroyed by their enemies. He wrote, “The Lord has pitilessly destroyed all the homes of Jacob; in his displeasure he has shattered the strongholds of the daughter of Judah; he has thrown to the ground, he has left accursed the kingdom and its rulers. My eyes wasted away with weeping, my entrails shuddered, my liver spilled on the ground at the ruin of the daughters of my people, as children, mere infants, fainted in the squares of the Citadel. They kept saying to their mothers, ‘Where is the bread?'”
Alas, such misfortune could have been prevented. The writing was on the wall. The Northern Kingdom had already suffered its fate under the siege of the Assyrians. Their kingdom fell to Assyria in 721 B.C. The Assyrians took ten tribes into captivity and resettled them in other parts of their empire to prevent them from coming together and becoming a potent force. The people in exile suffered greatly because the Assyrians were known to be brutal in the treatment of their captives, torturing and even executing them. They fell simply because they did not take the call to repentance seriously. Their kings and officials did not observe the Covenant and worshipped foreign gods. They were oppressive toward their own people, especially the common and disadvantaged. Their priests and prophets were not living out their offices faithfully, but were instead using their positions for personal interest.
Now, it was Judah’s turn to fall and lament the state of their country and life. Now they came to realise who the true and false prophets were. “The visions your prophets had on your behalf were delusive, tinsel things; they never pointed out your sin, to ward off your exile. The visions they proffered you were false, fallacious, misleading.” Jeremiah and the prophets God sent to Judah sought to steer them toward the right path, but they were rejected, persecuted, and punished. For their sins, they would have to cry out to God for mercy: “Cry aloud, then, to the Lord, groan, daughter of Zion; let your tears flow like a torrent, day and night; give yourself no relief, grant your eyes no rest. Up, cry out in the night-time, in the early hours of darkness; pour your heart out like water before the Lord. Stretch out your hands to him for the lives of your children who faint with hunger at the entrance to every street.”
God abandoned them for a while to allow them to be purified. They would be exiled for seventy years before God sent His messenger, King Cyrus, to allow them to return to Jerusalem to rebuild their homeland. However, seventy years is a long time–about three generations. While some were still alive when they returned home after the long exile, the third generation would not have known much about their homeland and would have felt less loyalty, as they were most probably born in Babylon. God allowed the first generation to pass away and grieve for their sins so that a new generation could be born. Such are the consequences of sin, just as God warned the people against idols: “You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me.” (Ex 20:5)
In the Gospel, there is another lamentation from our Lord when He spoke of the faith of Israel compared to that of the Gentiles. This took place when a centurion came to implore Jesus to heal his servant, who was at the brink of death. However, there were religious, cultural, and political barriers between the Jews and the Romans. Jesus invites the Jews to be more welcoming of non-Jews and even of their enemies. The real problem of the Jews was dogmatic, because they saw themselves as the only Chosen People of God. All others were seen as outside the love of God. To be saved, one had to be a Jew or at least a proselyte. Because they saw themselves as the chosen people, they believed salvation came simply by association with their race. Those outside the Jewish race were viewed as people they should not associate with, lest they be contaminated ritually. In the time of the Lord, the Jews particularly abhorred the Romans, who were their conquerors and enemies. They resented having to submit to the authority of the Roman Emperor and paying taxes to them.
The Lord wants His fellow Jews to recognise that God’s love goes beyond race. While it is true that the Jews were the chosen people of God, it did not mean that their salvation was guaranteed unless they, too, had faith in God and lived according to the Covenantal Law. Most of all, it called for faith in Him as the personal representative of God. However, His fellow Jews, especially the religious leaders, rejected His authority. They had little faith in Him. In contrast, the centurion in the Gospel showed complete trust in Jesus. He fully believed that Jesus had the authority of God and the power to do what God wanted. He based this conclusion on the framework of his own authority, which he had received from the Roman Emperor. When the centurion exercised his authority, he did so on behalf of the Emperor because that power had been delegated to him. In the same way, he concluded that because Jesus was the personal presence of God, He possessed that same divine authority.
This faith in Jesus’ authority is underscored by the fact that the centurion believed Jesus could heal from afar. When Jesus said, “I will come myself and cure him,” the centurion replied, “Sir, I am not worthy to have you under my roof; just give the word and my servant will be cured. For I am under authority myself, and I have soldiers under me; and I say to one man: Go, and he goes; to another: Come here, and he comes; to my servant: Do this, and he does it.” He was humble, sensitive, and considerate by not wanting Jesus to enter a Gentile’s home, which was forbidden by Jewish custom. More importantly, he showed a deeper faith than the Jews, most of whom expected miracle healers to be physically present to perform a healing. The fact that Jesus could heal from afar testified to His great power–something very few miracle healers could do, as it truly requires the power of God.
We are then told about Jesus’ reaction to the centurion’s response: “I tell you solemnly, nowhere in Israel have I found faith like this. And I tell you that many will come from east and west to take their places with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob at the feast in the kingdom of heaven; but the subjects of the kingdom will be turned out into the dark, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.” Truly, the centurion demonstrated to the Jews that Gentiles were readier to welcome the Lord into their lives than they were. The Gentiles possessed greater faith and were more docile before the Lord, unlike the Jews, who carried heavy theological, religious, cultural, and political baggage. Indeed, incidents like these, where Jesus ministered to the Gentiles in His restrained manner, gave direction to the early Church regarding how they could spread the Gospel beyond Palestine.
It was through this inspiration from the Lord that the Gospel was brought to the whole world, as their fellow Jews generally were not receptive to the message. The prophecy of Jesus was fulfilled: today, the Gospel is accepted and lived out by billions of non-Jewish Christians across the globe. They have received the eternal life given by the Lord, accepting the Gospel with gratitude. We see the impact of the message giving life to all nations as those who believe in Christ become one big family of love. We are all brothers and sisters in the Lord, living out the commandment of love not just toward our fellow Christians, but also toward the suffering, the marginalised, and the poor–regardless of race, language, religion, or enmity. Indeed, Christians take their place in the Kingdom of God!
Best Practices for Using the Daily Scripture Reflections
- Encounter God through the spirit of prayer and the scripture by reflecting and praying the Word of God daily. The purpose is to bring you to prayer and to a deeper union with the Lord on the level of the heart.
- Daily reflections when archived will lead many to accumulate all the reflections of the week and pray in one sitting. This will compromise your capacity to enter deeply into the Word of God, as the tendency is to read for knowledge rather than a prayerful reading of the Word for the purpose of developing a personal and affective relationship with the Lord.
- It is more important to pray deeply, not read widely. The current reflections of the day would be more than sufficient for anyone who wants to pray deeply and be led into an intimacy with the Lord.
Note: You may share this reflection with someone. However, please note that reflections are not archived online nor will they be available via email request.
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
