Sunday - August 20, 2017
“Hope has two beautiful daughters: their names are anger and courage. Anger that things are the way they are. Courage to make them the way they ought to be.”
~~ St. Augustine
TODAY'S READINGS
August 20, 2017
Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 118
Reading 1IS 56:1, 6-7
Thus says the LORD:Observe what is right, do what is just;
for my salvation is about to come,
my justice, about to be revealed.
The foreigners who join themselves to the LORD,
ministering to him,
loving the name of the LORD,
and becoming his servants—
all who keep the sabbath free from profanation
and hold to my covenant,
them I will bring to my holy mountain
and make joyful in my house of prayer;
their burnt offerings and sacrifices
will be acceptable on my altar,
for my house shall be called
a house of prayer for all peoples.
Responsorial PsalmPS 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8
R. (4) O God, let all the nations praise you!May God have pity on us and bless us;
may he let his face shine upon us.
So may your way be known upon earth;
among all nations, your salvation.
R. O God, let all the nations praise you!
May the nations be glad and exult
because you rule the peoples in equity;
the nations on the earth you guide.
R. O God, let all the nations praise you!
May the peoples praise you, O God;
may all the peoples praise you!
May God bless us,
and may all the ends of the earth fear him!
R. O God, let all the nations praise you!
Reading 2ROM 11:13-15, 29-32
Brothers and sisters:I am speaking to you Gentiles.
Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles,
I glory in my ministry in order to make my race jealous
and thus save some of them.
For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world,
what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?
For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable.
Just as you once disobeyed God
but have now received mercy because of their disobedience,
so they have now disobeyed in order that,
by virtue of the mercy shown to you,
they too may now receive mercy.
For God delivered all to disobedience,
that he might have mercy upon all.
AlleluiaCF. MT 4:23
R. Alleluia, alleluia.Jesus proclaimed the Gospel of the kingdom
and cured every disease among the people.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
GospelMT 15:21-28
At that time, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon.And behold, a Canaanite woman of that district came and called out,
"Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David!
My daughter is tormented by a demon."
But Jesus did not say a word in answer to her.
Jesus' disciples came and asked him,
"Send her away, for she keeps calling out after us."
He said in reply,
"I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."
But the woman came and did Jesus homage, saying, "Lord, help me."
He said in reply,
"It is not right to take the food of the children
and throw it to the dogs."
She said, "Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps
that fall from the table of their masters."
Then Jesus said to her in reply,
"O woman, great is your faith!
Let it be done for you as you wish."
And the woman's daughter was healed from that hour.
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The Gospel reading for this Sunday challenges us to examine our tendency to judge others. The Canaanite woman had two reasons why the disciples might have judged her as unworthy of Jesus' attention: her gender and nationality.
Of course, Jesus was there as Savior for the whole world, but the disciples didn't know it yet. To stretch their minds (and ours), Jesus waited for the Canaanite woman's faith to become so obvious that it would overshadow every limitation that had been imposed upon her.
For Jesus, the only outsider is someone who refuses to come into the kingdom of God. But we don't readily think like this. Our Church is full of people who have been misjudged. Many feel outcast. We easily jump to wrong conclusions about each other.
For example, how readily do you greet the people near you in the pew if you don't know them? How comfortable are you about engaging in friendly conversation after Mass someone who looks unhappy? Does your parish make it easy for single parents to come to extra activities at church by providing free babysitters?
If you're divorced, do you assume that others are deliberately excluding you? That too is usually a misjudgment.
Why do homosexuals feel outcast even though Church teachings have been issued that compassionatelyinvite them to a holy lifestyle?
Why are there lay people who feel blocked from being collaborators in ministry with their priests?
Judging our fellow Christians causes them to suffer. It also allows unmet needs to continue in the Church, because the giftedness of the judged is being rejected. But if we remain conscious of our own tendencies to react to others with assumptions and judgments, we have the power to choose to be Christ for them and to receive Christ from them.
Have you ever felt like an outsider? Even in the presence of Christ? How have you been pushed aside and neglected? What kind of damage did it do? Are you willing to try to again to get more involved? Whom are we most likely to judge? What is your parish doing -- or what have you personally done -- to heal some of the damage that was caused when others were misjudged? What else needs to be done?
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God Bless You.....
The mother of Jesus promised St. Dominic that, “one day through the rosary & the scapular I shall save the world!”
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