20190807
THE
POWER OF FAITH
07 AUGUST, 2019,
Wednesday, 18th Week, Ordinary Time
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 spies return from Canaan
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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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The Canaanite woman debates with Jesus
and saves her daughter
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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.
THE POWER OF
FAITH
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ NUM 13:1-2, 25-14:1, 26-29, 34-35; PS 106:6-7,13-14,21-23; MT 15:21-28 ]
Great things can only be
achieved by those who have faith. But this faith is not simply faith in
oneself but primarily faith in God. This is the theme of today’s scripture
readings. Without faith in God and relying only on ourselves, we become unsure
of ourselves in the face of challenges and uncertainties. Using our
human logic alone is not sufficient to undertake great tasks for God and for
humanity. Only God can give us the strength and power if only we have
faith in Him.
In the first reading, Moses sent
out the 12 leaders of the tribes of Israel to make a reconnaissance of the land
of Canaan which the Lord intended to give to them. After spending
forty days they returned and confirmed that the land was truly flowing with
“milk and honey.” The soil was fertile and they could grow crops
there. However, there was a great obstacle because “its inhabitants are a
powerful people; the towns are fortified and very big.” And so the people
were afraid of the might of the inhabitants. In their fear, they
exaggerated the strength of the people there. “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.” Indeed, when we allow fear to drive us, we begin to imagine all
kinds of things that are against us. When we focus on ourselves, we
become defeated by our limitations. So it was natural for them to be
intimidated by the inhabitants of the land.
But more unfortunate was
that the people, driven by fear, were unable to hear the voice of God expressed
by the minority group who felt they should simply enter the land and capture
it. 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 majority voice silenced the
voice of faith. Instead of responding in faith they acted according to
their limited mind. We only consider the difficulties whenever we face
challenges, but we do not rely on the power of God. The voice of
the men of faith was not heard by the majority who lacked faith. This is
often the case even in our times. This is the situation of the world
today. The Word of God is falling on deaf ears. The world cannot see the
consequences of their so-called pragmatic actions. The reality of the
world today is that the majority rules the day. With social media and
mass media, whoever speaks the loudest are often heard, and the minority voice
is drowned. Indeed, the so-called democracy of the world has its
downside. Truth is no longer decided by whether something is objectively
true or not but whether it is the popular thing. Hence, the world
legislates laws that are unjust and even immoral, simply because it is what the
people want. When man goes against the laws of God, which is based
on truth, humanity will ultimately destroy itself when we promote same-sex
union, abortion, euthanasia, IVF, etc.
We read that God was
disappointed with the Israelites for their lack of faith. In spite of what the Lord had done
for them, they had forgotten the power of God and His fidelity to them.
So easily and quickly, they forgot how God delivered them from the hands of
their enemies using His mighty hand and brought them across the Red Sea.
After showing them what He could do for the people in helping them to flee from
the mighty Egyptian army, they still did not have faith in God that He would
lead them into the Promised Land. Indeed, the psalmist says, “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.
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. 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.”
Without faith, they were
not ready to enter the Promised Land. As a consequence, the Lord punished the people
saying, “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.” If the people
of Israel had to wander in the desert for forty years, it was because God felt
that it was necessary to strengthen the faith of the Israelites before they
settled in Canaan as they would be facing many enemies in the future; not just
physical enemies but their faith would be adulterated because of the influence
of the pagan religions and cultures.
In contrast, we have the
faith of the Canaanite woman.
She came to the Lord crying out aloud, “Sir, Son of David, take pity on me.
My daughter is tormented by a devil.” Right from the outset, she
confessed her faith in Jesus as the Son of David. She professed her faith
in the Lord. Her faith was unshakeable even when the Lord ignored her, so
much so His disciples who felt embarrassed “went and pleaded with him.
‘Give her what she wants,’ they said ‘because she is shouting after us.'”
In truth, the Lord wanted to stretch her faith and set her as an example to His
own people the kind of faith that is required for miracles to happen.
Her faith enabled even
the Lord to go beyond the narrow confines in His mission to reach out just to
the Jews. So the Lord
said to her, “‘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.'” Indeed,
only those who have faith can go beyond their narrow understanding of
life. There is always a danger that many of us put God in a little box
and expect Him to work only according to the rules we have set for Him.
The truth is that God can work outside our presumed expectations of Him.
Indeed, it was her
humility that ultimately won the heart of Jesus. She was not angry to be called a
house-dog. She not only accepted that she was not among the “children of
God”, as the Jews were, but went further to consider the Jews her ‘master’ by
suggesting that even the house dogs belonged to the master. By so doing,
she was claiming to be a child of God. Through her, the Lord came to
understand that although they were not the Chosen Race, yet they still belonged
to the one God. It was her persistence that demonstrated to the Lord her
faith.
Hence, the Lord said to
her, “‘Woman, you have great faith. Let your wish be granted.’ And from that moment her daughter was well
again.” It was her perseverance in prayer that got her prayer
answered. This is in contrast to the disciples of Jesus who lacked faith
in Him. Indeed, when He went back to His hometown, His folks also
rejected Him and lacked faith in His healing power. It is ironical
that often, non-Catholics have greater faith in our God and our Lord than us
Catholics. If we have as deep a faith, we would obtain what the Lord
promises us. The Lord looks for faith.
If the lady could bear
the insults and rejection of our Lord, it was not just her humility alone but
rather her great love for her daughter. For the love of someone, we are ready to humble
ourselves and ask for help even if it means sacrificing our pride and
dignity. We can understand and appreciate the love of this mother for her
daughter. The torment of her daughter caused her to spare no effort in
asking the Lord to heal her. She put herself in the shoes of her
daughter. Her misery and pain became her own. That is why, at the
end of the day, great faith and humility must be spurred on by a great love for
others and for God. If we love someone and if that person is sick or
needs divine help, we, too, will pray fervently for that person, knowing that
only God can heal and help him or her at the end of the day.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All
Rights Reserved
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