20150805 UNDAUNTED FAITH
Readings at Mass
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First reading
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Numbers
13:1-2,25-14:1,26-29,34-35 ©
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The Lord spoke to
Moses in the wilderness of Paran and said, ‘Send out men, one from each tribe,
to make a reconnaissance of this land of Canaan which I am giving to the sons
of Israel. Send the leader of each tribe.’
At the
end of forty days, they came back from their reconnaissance of the land. They
sought out Moses, Aaron and the whole community of Israel, in the wilderness of
Paran, at Kadesh. They made their report to them, and to the whole community,
and showed them the produce of the country.
They told
them this story, ‘We went into the land to which you sent us. It does indeed
flow with milk and honey; this is its produce. At the same time, its
inhabitants are a powerful people; the towns are fortified and very big; yes,
and we saw the descendants of Anak there. The Amalekite holds the Negeb area,
the Hittite, Amorite and Jebusite the highlands, and the Canaanite the sea
coast and the banks of the Jordan.’
Caleb
harangued the people gathered about Moses: ‘We must march in,’ he said ‘and
conquer this land: we are well able to do it.’ But the men who had gone up with
him answered, ‘We are not able to march against this people; they are stronger
than we are.’ And they began to disparage the country they had reconnoitred to
the sons of Israel, ‘The country we went to reconnoitre is a country that
devours its inhabitants. Every man we saw there was of enormous size. Yes, and
we saw giants there (the sons of Anak, descendants of the Giants). We felt like
grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.’
At this,
the whole community raised their voices and cried aloud, and the people wailed
all that night.
The Lord
spoke to Moses and Aaron. He said:
‘I have
heard the complaints which the sons of Israel make against me. Say to them, “As
I live – it is the Lord who speaks – I will deal with you according
to the very words you have used in my hearing. In this wilderness your dead
bodies will fall, all you men of the census, all you who were numbered from the
age of twenty years and over, you who have complained against me. For forty
days you reconnoitred the land. Each day shall count for a year: for forty
years you shall bear the burden of your sins, and you shall learn what it means
to reject me.” I, the Lord, have spoken: this is how I will deal with this
perverse community that has conspired against me. Here in this wilderness, to
the last man, they shall die.’
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Psalm
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Psalm
105:6-7,13-14,21-23 ©
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O Lord, remember
me out of the love you have for your people.
or
Alleluia!
Our sin is the sin of
our fathers;
we have
done wrong, our deeds have been evil.
Our fathers when they
were in Egypt
paid no
heed to your wonderful deeds.
O Lord, remember
me out of the love you have for your people.
or
Alleluia!
They soon forgot his
deeds
and would
not wait upon his will.
They yielded to their
cravings in the desert
and put
God to the test in the wilderness.
O Lord, remember
me out of the love you have for your people.
or
Alleluia!
They forgot the God
who was their saviour,
who had
done such great things in Egypt,
such portents in the
land of Ham,
such
marvels at the Red Sea.
O Lord, remember
me out of the love you have for your people.
or
Alleluia!
For this he said he
would destroy them,
but
Moses, the man he had chosen,
stood in the breach
before him,
to turn
back his anger from destruction.
O Lord, remember
me out of the love you have for your people.
or
Alleluia!
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Gospel
Acclamation
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James1:18
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Alleluia, alleluia!
By his own choice the
Father made us his children
by the message of the
truth,
so that we should be
a sort of first-fruits
of all that he
created.
Alleluia!
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Or
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Lk7:16
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Alleluia, alleluia!
A great prophet has
appeared among us;
God has visited his
people.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Matthew 15:21-28
©
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Jesus
left Gennesaret and withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. Then out came a
Canaanite woman from that district and started shouting, ‘Sir, Son of David,
take pity on me. My daughter is tormented by a devil.’ But he answered her not
a word. And his disciples went and pleaded with him. ‘Give her what she wants,’
they said ‘because she is shouting after us.’ He said in reply, ‘I was sent
only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.’ But the woman had come up and
was kneeling at his feet. ‘Lord,’ she said ‘help me.’ He replied, ‘It is not
fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the house-dogs.’ She retorted,
‘Ah yes, sir; but even house-dogs can eat the scraps that fall from their
master’s table.’ Then Jesus answered her, ‘Woman, you have great faith. Let
your wish be granted.’ And from that moment her daughter was well again.
UNDAUNTED
FAITH
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SCRIPTURE
READINGS: NUM 13:1-2.
25-14:1. 26-29. 34-35; MT 15:21-28
It is
not difficult to identify with the fear and dismay of the Israelites in the
face of such formidable foes in the land that God had given to them to
occupy. They were inexperienced and untrained soldiers, probably with
very primitive weapons compared to their more established foes. Those who
reconnoitered the land said, “Its inhabitants are a powerful people; the towns
are fortified and very big; yes, and we saw the descendants of Anak
there. Every man we saw there was of enormous size… We felt like
grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”
Indeed,
fear overcame them. Upon hearing this report, the Israelites were
overwhelmed by terror and fright. “The whole community raised their voices and
cried aloud, and the people wailed all that night.” Fear, of course, is
always contagious. When we are alarmed, we tend to influence others and
discourage them as well.
Like
the Israelites, we too, when under threat due to seemingly insurmountable
problems and challenges at home, in the office and in relationships, can be so
crushed that we are tempted to give up hope. We fall into despair and
this is worsened when there are many discouraging voices around us that seem to
confirm our pessimistic prognosis of the situation. This can be even more
daunting if we are leaders in our community or organization. When the leader
loses hope and is diffident about the outlook, he would neither have courage
and strength, nor the conviction to steer and motivate those under him to fight
on.
Perhaps
we can take comfort in our cowardice because, unlike the Israelites, we can at
least give the excuse that we have not seen the great wonders and works that
God performed for His people at the Exodus. The Israelites had no
justification for doubting the divine power of God. For ourselves,
although we might have seen some small wonders of God at work in our lives,
these perhaps may not have been convincing enough to cause us to radically
change our minds about God’s love, mercy and power. Of course, some of us may
have had more significant God-experiences, or seen and heard testimonies of how
God had saved their friends or relatives in a most miraculous way, from their
sickness, relationships or from financial straits.
The
lesson we can learn from the Israelites is that forgetfulness of God’s love,
mercy and power is the cause of fear, distress, discouragement and the loss of
faith. This was the lesson Israel learnt, as expressed by the
psalmist. “We have sinned, we and our fathers; we have committed crimes;
we have done wrong. Our fathers in Egypt considered not your wonders. But soon
they forgot his works; they waited not for his counsel. They gave way to
craving in the desert and tempted God in the wilderness. They forgot the God
who had saved them, who had done great deeds in Egypt, wondrous deeds in the
land of Ham, terrible things at the Red Sea.”
How
then can we remember His love for us? The story of the Canaanite woman is
a story of what faith entails. She had an undaunted faith in the power of
Jesus to heal, and total confidence in that not only could He heal, but that He
would heal. So assured was she of Jesus’ works of mercy that she would
not relent even when Jesus appeared not to take notice of her and even
suggested that His priority was to the House of Israel. But this woman
would not take “no” for an answer and continued pleading on behalf of her
daughter.
This
woman most probably had heard much about Jesus and may even have followed
Him. She saw the miracles He had performed. She heard His teachings
about God’s love, mercy and of His mission of establishing the reign of
God. She remembered His teaching and His miracles. She knew Jesus
so well and therefore had no fear of rejection. She knew she would not
return home empty. So great was her faith in Jesus that she believed that
even if she were to take the mere scraps that fell from the master’s table, it
would be sufficient to heal her daughter and strengthen them. Her great faith,
as Jesus commended her, reminds us also of another pagan, the Centurion, when
he told Jesus, “I am not worthy to have you under my roof, just give the word
and my servant will be cured.” (Mt 8:8).
We,
too, are invited to trust in the Lord in such moments of trial and
hopelessness. We must believe that God will hear our prayers, even when
we do not know how to pray as we ought. All we need to do is to surrender
the little efforts and trust that we have to the Lord, and He will elevate us
further in our faith in Him, a faith that will set us free. We must
recall the good times, the blessings that we have received, the assistance we
received from Him and how He had protected and guided us all this while till
this day. By remembering what He has done for us, we will regain our
trust and confidence in Him.
We must
also learn from the punishment meted out to the Israelites, that when we do not
trust God and surrender our lives, plans and projects to Him, we will cause
more problems for ourselves and those who have been entrusted to our
care. Complaining and moping will not do us any good, just as it did not
help the Israelites. Regretting and wallowing only make us
inward-looking. Staring at our navel instead of looking up to God will
lead us to depression and despondency.
Like
the Canaanite woman, we must press on with all our strength, trusting that God
will do something for us, even beyond our imagination. We must be
proactive and take action. During such trials, instead of grumbling
against God and even becoming resentful of Him, we should take such occasions
to grow in faith, in grace and in holiness. It is said that the same fire
that purifies gold also destroys the straws. We can trust that Jesus will
take the broken pieces of our lives and our wounded hearts and put them
together to make them whole again. Indeed, not only will He repair
our hearts but He will transform them into something more beautiful than
before. As Psalm 30:11
says, “You have changed my sadness into a joyful dance. You have stripped off
my sackcloth and clothed them with joy.”
Finally,
if we find ourselves unable to make that leap of faith like the Canaanite
woman, or to have that humility to continue begging from the Lord, then at
least remember that He is patient with us. He does not want to
punish. The penalty meted out to the unbelieving Israelites must not be
interpreted literally. When God pronounced judgment on them saying: “In
this wilderness your dead bodies will fall … you who have complained against
me. For forty days you reconnoitered the land. Each day shall count for a
year: for forty years you shall bear the burden of your sins … Here in this
wilderness, to the last man, they shall die.” He knew that if they were not
confident in seizing the Promised Land from the inhabitants, the whole
community would be exterminated by their enemies. This explains why although
they were geographically so near to the Promised Land, yet God made them travel
the long way through the desert for forty years before entering it. It
was a way to strengthen their faith and to help them to psychologically come to
terms with themselves. Three generations had to pass before God’s promise to
Abraham was fulfilled.
Psychological
and emotional barriers require time to come to terms with. So let us be
patient with ourselves whilst seeking to imitate the faith of the Canaanite
woman. Let us ask for the grace of faith, which requires the gift of
humility as well. Only then can we surrender our lives to the Lord,
knowing that nothing can overwhelm us as St Paul says, “No, in all these things
we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced
that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the
present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor
anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God
that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom 8:37-39).
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh
Roman
Catholic Archbishop of Singapore
©
All Rights Reserved
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