20170809
UNDAUNTED FAITH
Readings
at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: Green.
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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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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 105(106):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
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.
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. 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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