Archive for August 8, 2015

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Posted: August 8, 2015 by CatholicJules in Sunday Reflections
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Take and Eat:

Scott Hahn Reflects on the Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Readings:

1 Kings 19:4-8 | Psalm 34:2-9 | Ephesians 4:30-5:2 | John 6:41-51

Sometimes we feel like Elijah in today’s First Reading. We want to lie down and die, keenly aware of our failures, that we seem to be getting no better at doing what God wants of us.

We can be tempted to despair, as the prophet was on his forty-day journey in the desert. We can be tempted to “murmur” against God, as the Israelites did during their forty years in the desert (see Exodus 16:2,7,8; 1 Corinthians 10:10).

The Gospel today uses the same word, “murmur,” to describe the crowds, who reenact Israel’s hardheartedness in the desert.

Jesus tells them that prophecies are being fulfilled in Him, that they are being taught by God. But they can’t believe it. They can only see His flesh, that He is the “son” of Joseph and Mary.

Yet if we believe, if we seek Him in our distress, He will deliver us from our fears, as we sing in today’s Psalm.

At the altar in every Eucharist, the angel of the Lord, the Lord himself (see Exodus 3:1-2), touches us. He commands us to take and eat His flesh given for the life of the world (see Matthew 26:26).

This taste of the heavenly gift (see Hebrews 6:4-5) comes to us with a renewed command — to get up and continue on the journey we began in baptism, to the mountain of God, the kingdom of heaven.

He will give us the bread of life, the strength and grace we need — as He fed our spiritual ancestors in the wilderness and Elijah in the desert.

So let us stop grieving the Spirit of God, as Paul says in today’s Epistle, in another reference to Israel in the desert (see Isaiah 63:10).

Let us say to God as Elijah did, “Take my life.” Not in the sense of wanting to die. But in giving ourselves as a sacrificial offering — loving Him as He has loved us, on the cross and in the Eucharist.

On Today’s Gospel

Posted: August 8, 2015 by CatholicJules in Personal Thoughts & Reflections
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If we are to grow in faith then we must let go of our worldly attachments. Leave the lures and temptations that take us away from God behind us. When we love God with everything, we gain everything and we will ever need or want.  God gains nothing by our love and yet in His great love for us He commands that we do love Him, with all our heart, soul and strength. For then we love outside of ourselves and our love is purified and our hearts filled by His divine love.

When we take up our cross to follow Jesus our relationship with Him intensifies.  We become witnesses to His miracles and wonders worked through us and our brethren who do likewise. For we planted the seed of faith the size of the mustard seed when we made our decision to follow Him.  If we remain stedfast in our faith and love for Jesus then together with St Paul we can declare it is no longer I who live but He who lives in me. Amen

First reading
Deuteronomy 6:4-13

Moses said to the people:
  ‘Listen, Israel: the Lord our God is the one Lord. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. Let these words I urge on you today be written on your heart. You shall repeat them to your children and say them over to them whether at rest in your house or walking abroad, at your lying down or at your rising; you shall fasten them on your hand as a sign and on your forehead as a circlet; you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
  ‘When the Lord has brought you into the land which he swore to your fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that he would give you, with great and prosperous cities not of your building, houses full of good things not furnished by you, wells you did not dig, vineyards and olives you did not plant, when you have eaten these and had your fill, then take care you do not forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You must fear the Lord your God, you must serve him, by his name you must swear.’

Gospel
Matthew 17:14-20

A man came up to Jesus and went down on his knees before him. ‘Lord,’ he said ‘take pity on my son: he is a lunatic and in a wretched state; he is always falling into the fire or into the water. I took him to your disciples and they were unable to cure him.’ ‘Faithless and perverse generation!’ Jesus said in reply ‘How much longer must I be with you? How much longer must I put up with you? Bring him here to me.’ And when Jesus rebuked it the devil came out of the boy who was cured from that moment.
  Then the disciples came privately to Jesus. ‘Why were we unable to cast it out? they asked. He answered, ‘Because you have little faith. I tell you solemnly, if your faith were the size of a mustard seed you could say to this mountain, “Move from here to there,” and it would move; nothing would be impossible for you.’