20260708 THE DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD OF PROSPERITY
08 July 2026, Wednesday, 14th Week in Ordinary Time
First reading |
Hosea 10:1-3,7-8,12 |
Seek integrity and reap a harvest of kindness
Israel was a luxuriant vine
yielding plenty of fruit.
The more his fruit increased,
the more altars he built;
the richer his land became,
the richer he made the sacred stones.
Their heart is a divided heart;
very well, they must pay for it:
the Lord is going to break their altars down
and destroy their sacred stones.
Then they will say,
‘We have no king
because we have not feared the Lord.’
But what can a king do for us?
Samaria has had her day.
Her king is like a straw drifting on the water.
The idolatrous high places shall be destroyed –
that sin of Israel;
thorn and thistle will grow on their altars.
Then they will say to the mountains, ‘Cover us!’
and to the hills, ‘Fall on us!’
Sow integrity for yourselves,
reap a harvest of kindness,
break up your fallow ground:
it is time to go seeking the Lord
until he comes to rain salvation on you.
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 104(105):2-7 |
Constantly seek the face of the Lord.
or
Alleluia!
O sing to the Lord, sing his praise;
tell all his wonderful works!
Be proud of his holy name,
let the hearts that seek the Lord rejoice.
Constantly seek the face of the Lord.
or
Alleluia!
Consider the Lord and his strength;
constantly seek his face.
Remember the wonders he has done,
his miracles, the judgements he spoke.
Constantly seek the face of the Lord.
or
Alleluia!
O children of Abraham, his servant,
O sons of the Jacob he chose.
He, the Lord, is our God:
his judgements prevail in all the earth.
Constantly seek the face of the Lord.
or
Alleluia!
Gospel Acclamation | James1:18 |
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!
Gospel | Matthew 10:1-7 |
'Go to the lost sheep of the House of Israel'
Jesus summoned his twelve disciples, and gave them authority over unclean spirits with power to cast them out and to cure all kinds of diseases and sickness.
These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew; James the son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, the one who was to betray him. These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them as follows:
‘Do not turn your steps to pagan territory, and do not enter any Samaritan town; go rather to the lost sheep of the House of Israel. And as you go, proclaim that the kingdom of heaven is close at hand.’
THE DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD OF PROSPERITY
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [HOS 10:1-3, 7-8, 12; MT 10:1-7]
There is a paradox in seeking prosperity, peace, a loving family, a successful career, and good health. In themselves, it is certainly not wrong or against the Gospel to seek these blessings, because God did not create us to suffer but to share in the blessings of paradise. Yet, the truth is that these blessings can be a double-edged sword. We can use them well by thanking God and asking Him how we should use them to serve and bless others, or we can take them for granted and become arrogant, self-sufficient, and self-serving. Indeed, worldly blessings often tempt us to forget our dependence on God. We can become so comfortable with life that we feel we do not even need Him, leading us to worship Him less and hardly ever pray.
This explains why Ecclesiastes reminds us, “In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider; God has made the one as well as the other, so that mortals may not find out anything that will come after them” (Eccl 7:14). Even better, in times of prosperity, we should remember adversity; and in times of adversity, remember prosperity. In doing so, we will never lose hope during hardships or become too complacent during good times. The truth is that we naturally turn to God and remember Him during hardships, but often only when things are going poorly. When we receive His blessings, we tend to forget Him and trick ourselves into thinking we are in control of our lives and the world.
This was precisely the case for Israel during the reign of Jeroboam II (786-746 BC). The country was prosperous, and the people grew complacent. They were motivated by wealth and profit rather than a desire to hear the teachings of the prophets calling them back to fidelity to the Covenant. They even allowed a mixture of rituals that included pagan fertility cults. Altars and sacred pillars furnished the shrines of the Northern Kingdom, and the people deceived themselves into thinking they were religious because they offered sacrifices to both God and Canaanite deities. Meanwhile, dishonesty, injustice, and the trampling of the poor ran rampant.
It was in this context that Hosea and later Amos confronted the religious and political leaders. Through Hosea, God sought to awaken His people from their complacency and their adulterous affairs with pagan gods. Hosea pronounced that their hearts were false and that God would not be mocked. Consequently, the Lord warned that these shrines would be destroyed by the invading Assyrian armies. Israel had become like a ruined vine; God’s blessings had only caused them to become selfish and arrogant, sinking further into idolatry. Because of this, God would destroy the nation’s idols, its king, and its people, leaving them to be held captive and exiled. By failing to live righteously and obey the Law, they proved unfaithful to God’s enduring love.
Against this backdrop, we can appreciate why Jesus’ mission was to proclaim the arrival and establishment of the Kingdom of God.He did not merely proclaim the coming of God’s kingdom; He demonstrated it through miracles over nature and illness, and especially by liberating humanity from the grasp of the evil one. For this same reason, when Jesus sent out the Twelve on their mission, they were explicitly told to “proclaim that the kingdom of heaven is close at hand.” Along with this proclamation, they were instructed to “cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment” (Mt 10:8). The early Church was always conscious that proclaiming the Gospel could not be done merely in words, but through actions that demonstrated the Lordship of Christ. Hence, at the end of Mark’s Gospel, after commanding them to “Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation,” Jesus says, “The one who believes and is baptised will be saved; but the one who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: by using my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes in their hands, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover” (Mk 16:15-18).
In today’s terms, the proclamation of God’s kingdom must go beyond acts of charity and compassion for the poor and suffering.Today, our communities are ravaged by demonic forces advocating secularism, violence, killing, injustice, greed for power and wealth, individualism, and self-greatness. To follow Jesus’ ministry means we must go beyond simply attending church services; we must actively preach about Jesus and minister to the vulnerable. If the Church has no credentials to show that Christ lives and is active within us, then no amount of preaching will change lives. At most, empty preaching deceives people because the living Lord does not seem real in our midst. When the Lord truly lives among us, lives change, and worldly attitudes transform into the Beatitudes in our daily lifestyles.
Where do we begin? We must begin from within. Sometimes, many Catholics focus heavily on evangelising the world — which is good and certainly an important aspect of Christ’s mission. But as the Gospel reminds us, we need to begin internally. For this reason, Jesus told His apostles, “Do not turn your steps to pagan territory, and do not enter any Samaritan town; go rather to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.” This was not because Jesus was unconcerned with the Gentiles and the rest of the world, but because the Gospel had to take root first among the chosen people of God. Similarly, we must begin by focusing on our fellow Catholics. Many are merely nominal or “Sunday Catholics” whose faith has no impact on their daily lives and who lack zeal for evangelisation. Their lifestyle mirrors that of the secular world; it might even be better if they did not profess to be Catholic at all when their lifestyles so deeply contradict the faith, scandalising non-Catholics who watch how we conduct ourselves as believers in Christ.
In his apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel), Pope Francis tells us that we need to make the Gospel attractive. We need to announce the Kerygma — the Good News of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection for us. We need to share the joy of encountering Jesus, His love, and His mercy. Unless we truly encounter His love and mercy, our faith is not real, but merely pent-up emotion. A genuine conversion of heart, soul, and mind inevitably stems from recognising our sins, our shortcomings, and our inner emptiness. There is no way to proclaim the Good News unless we challenge people the way Hosea challenged Israel regarding their empty lives and superficial worship. Unless our consciences are stricken and our hearts are moved to repent of the sins that block us from His joy and life, there can be no real conversion, because there is no way to truly encounter His mercy and love.
Hence, the corollary of announcing the Good News with joy is that we cannot do so without naming the sins and obstacles to true peace and joy. It is a delusion to think it is enough to announce the Good News without telling people what the Gospel demands of us — the kind of life Jesus asks us to live, especially through the Beatitudes, which call for integrity, compassion, service, and spiritual poverty. To tell people they can be Christians without changing their lifestyle to align with the Gospel is to cheat them of the truth of discipleship. An unrepentant people, like the ancient Israelites, will head toward spiritual suicide, even if they continue performing rituals and outward worship. We must repent and believe, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.
We must therefore get rid of our own “sacred pillars” and develop a personal relationship and genuine friendship with the Lord.Instead of trusting in our worldly successes, plans, and endeavours, we must turn to God. Accumulating wealth, securing influential friends, and being named among those with high social and political status will never grant us true joy and peace. Rather, we must seek the face of God, as the Responsorial Psalm invites us to do. The heart that seeks Him rejoices, and the heart that follows Him will receive eternal life. So let us seek the God who seeks us first, and let us be found by Him, so that we, in turn, can be sent out like the Twelve to announce the Good News of the Kingdom to all.
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.
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