SAINT QUOTE OF THE DAY : Wednesday - August 04, 2021

Wednesday - August 04, 2021

What has a person to fear 

who lives in the arms and 

bosom of God? 

-- St. Paul of the Cross

August 4, 2021

Memorial of Saint John Vianney, Priest
Lectionary: 409

 

Reading 1                                                     Nm 13:1-2, 25–14:1, 26a-29a, 34-35

The LORD said to Moses [in the desert of Paran,]

“Send men to reconnoiter the land of Canaan,

which I am giving the children of Israel.

You shall send one man from each ancestral tribe,

all of them princes.”

 

After reconnoitering the land for forty days they returned,

met Moses and Aaron and the whole congregation of the children of Israel

in the desert of Paran at Kadesh,

made a report to them all,

and showed the fruit of the country

to the whole congregation.

They told Moses:  “We went into the land to which you sent us.

It does indeed flow with milk and honey, and here is its fruit.

However, the people who are living in the land are fierce,

and the towns are fortified and very strong.

Besides, we saw descendants of the Anakim there.

Amalekites live in the region of the Negeb;

Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites dwell in the highlands,

and Canaanites along the seacoast and the banks of the Jordan.”

 

Caleb, however, to quiet the people toward Moses, said,

“We ought to go up and seize the land, for we can certainly do so.”

But the men who had gone up with him said,

“We cannot attack these people; they are too strong for us.”

So they spread discouraging reports among the children of Israel

about the land they had scouted, saying,

“The land that we explored is a country that consumes its inhabitants.

And all the people we saw there are huge, veritable giants

(the Anakim were a race of giants);

we felt like mere grasshoppers, and so we must have seemed to them.”

 

At this, the whole community broke out with loud cries,

and even in the night the people wailed.

 

The LORD said to Moses and Aaron:

“How long will this wicked assembly grumble against me?

I have heard the grumblings of the children of Israel against me.

Tell them: By my life, says the LORD,

I will do to you just what I have heard you say.

Here in the desert shall your dead bodies fall.

Forty days you spent in scouting the land;

forty years shall you suffer for your crimes:

one year for each day.

Thus you will realize what it means to oppose me.

I, the LORD, have sworn to do this

to all this wicked assembly that conspired against me:

here in the desert they shall die to the last man.”

 

Responsorial Psalm                                              106:6-7ab, 13-14, 21-22, 23

 

R.    (4a)  Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your people.

 

We have sinned, we and our fathers;

    we have committed crimes; we have done wrong.

Our fathers in Egypt

    considered not your wonders.

R.    Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your people.

But soon they forgot his works;

    they waited not for his counsel.

They gave way to craving in the desert

    and tempted God in the wilderness.

R.    Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your people.

They forgot the God who had saved them,

    who had done great deeds in Egypt,

Wondrous deeds in the land of Ham,

    terrible things at the Red Sea.

R.    Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your people.

Then he spoke of exterminating them,

    but Moses, his chosen one,

Withstood him in the breach

    to turn back his destructive wrath.

R.    Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your people.

 

Alleluia                                                                      Lk 7:16

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

A great prophet has arisen in our midst

and God has visited his people.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

 

Gospel                                                                       Mt 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 he did not say a word in answer to her.

His 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 him 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 her daughter was healed from that hour.

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Going beyond the box

In the Gospel reading today, Jesus deals with a request that came from outside the parameters of his mission. When the Canaanite woman asks him to heal her daughter he replies, "No. My mission is only to the Israelites." However, he gives her what she asked for when her persistence proves that her desire comes from true faith in Christ and his mission. Jesus is not one to say "no" when our faith is real and our request allows him to fulfill his mission.

 

Parameters are always getting in our way. It's called, "thinking inside the box." We neatly box up our understanding of the world, of God, of the Faith, of others, and even who we are and what our potential is. This is a trap. There is much more to Christian life than what's inside familiar parameters. We need to dare to think outside the box.

 

What are the limitations that trap you inside your box? Once we identify our limitations, we can grow beyond them.

 

In what ways are you trapping God inside your box? Let God exceed your limits!

 

Here's a spiritual exercise: When you enter church and dip your fingers into the holy water to make the sign of the cross, do it with your left hand. (I wonder, which hand do lefties use?) Does it seem somehow sacrilegious to cross yourself with the "wrong" hand? Why would it be? Get out of the box!

 

One day, a woman came up to me in church asking if I had change for $20, because she didn't have any singles to pay for the votive candle that she wanted to light for a prayer request. I didn't have the cash, so I said, "God doesn't mind if you light a candle without paying for it. It's the prayer he's interested in." (If she really wanted to help the church, she could increase her donation in the Sunday collection.) But my comment shook her up. It didn't sound "proper".

 

These are examples of little ways that we stay trapped inside our boxes. There are much larger ways, parameters that impact our lives and others' lives so much that we're actually sinning when we choose to stay inside the box. To grow in holiness, we must pay attention to how often we hold fast to what is simply habitual or expected or prescheduled or "this is how everyone else does it".

 

We need to dare to follow Jesus beyond our boxes. We also need to have faith like that of the Canaanite woman to knock down the walls of pre-set parameters. This is important, because out there, in the great beyond, is where we discover that God is bigger than we've imagined him to be. We're so used to staying inside our little boxes that our trust in God is based upon an unconscious assumption that he's as limited as we are.

 

The truth is: When God seems to fail us, it only seems so because we've boxed him into our perceptions of all the humans who have failed us. To discover that God has not failed us at all, we have to break free of our preconceived expectations.

 

Today's Prayer

 

Lord, Give me a bold faith when You seem silent. Give me strength to believe firmly that You always listen and that You'll respond to me with wonders. Amen.

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God Bless You.....

The Rosary Family

The mother of Jesus promised St. Dominic that, “one day through the rosary & the scapular I shall save the world!”