Archive for August 11, 2018

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Posted: August 11, 2018 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 11, 2018 by CatholicJules in Personal Thoughts & Reflections
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Praying, fasting and almsgiving are the three pillars of our faith. These lead us into a deeper relationship with the Lord our God. We become effective instruments of His grace only when our hearts are sanctified. When we know that we are mere servants of His grace and it is through His great love and mercy that enables us to touch others according to His will.

Yes indeed if one had faith the size of a mustard seed that is to say, one who sees oneself as little in the eyes of God, who is humble, pure of heart, a servant of the Lord and to their brethren. Great things will be accomplished through such faith in Jesus name, for the Lord dwells in hearts such as these.

Lord Jesus grant me such faith as to humbly serve as an instrument of Your grace. Amen

First reading

Habakkuk 1:12-2:4
If the vision comes slowly, wait: it will come without fail

Are not you, from ancient times the Lord,. my God, my Holy One, who never dies? O Lord, you have made this people an instrument of justice,
set it firm as a rock in order to punish.

Your eyes are too pure to rest on wickedness, you cannot look on at tyranny. Why do you look on while men are treacherous, and stay silent while the evil man swallows a better man than he?

You treat mankind like fishes in the sea,like creeping, masterless things.

A people, these, who catch all on their hook,who draw them with their net,in their dragnet gather them,and so, triumphantly, rejoice.

At this, they offer a sacrifice to their net,
and burn incense to their dragnet,for providing them with luxury and lavish food.

Are they then to empty their net unceasingly,
slaughtering nations without pity?

I will stand on my watchtower,and take up my post on my battlements,
watching to see what he will say to me, what answer he will make to my complaints.

Then the Lord answered and said, ‘Write the vision down, inscribe it on tablets to be easily read,since this vision is for its own time only:
eager for its own fulfilment, it does not deceive;if it comes slowly, wait,for come it will, without fail.

‘See how he flags, he whose soul is not at rights,but the upright man will live by his faithfulness.’

Gospel

Matthew 17:14-20
If your faith were the size of a mustard seed, the mountain would move

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.’