August 7, 2019 Wednesday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time

2019년 8월 7일 연중 제18주간 수요일 

오늘의 복음 : http://info.catholic.or.kr/missa/default.asp

제1독서

 민수기. 13,1-2.25ㅡ14,1.26-30.34-35

그 무렵 주님께서 파란 광야에 있는 1 모세에게 이르셨다.
2 “사람들을 보내어, 내가 이스라엘 자손들에게 주는
가나안 땅을 정찰하게 하여라. 각 지파에서 모두 수장을 한 사람씩 보내야 한다.”

25 그들은 사십 일 만에 그 땅을 정찰하고 돌아왔다.
26 그들은 파란 광야 카데스로 모세와 아론과
이스라엘 자손들의 온 공동체에게 왔다.
그들은 모세와 아론과 온 공동체에게 그 땅의 과일을 보여 주면서 보고하였다.
27 그들은 모세에게 이렇게 이야기하였다.
“우리를 보내신 그 땅으로 가 보았습니다.
과연 젖과 꿀이 흐르는 곳이었습니다. 이것이 그곳 과일입니다.
28 그러나 그 땅에 사는 백성은 힘세고, 성읍들은 거창한 성채로 되어 있습니다.
더군다나 우리는 그곳에서 아낙의 후손들도 보았습니다.
29 아말렉족은 네겝 땅에 살고,
히타이트족과 여부스족과 아모리족은 산악 지방에 살고 있습니다.
그리고 가나안족은 바닷가와 요르단 강 가에 살고 있습니다.”
30 칼렙이 모세 앞에서 백성을 진정시키면서 말하였다.
“어서 올라가 그 땅을 차지합시다. 우리는 반드시 해낼 수 있습니다.”
31 그러나 그와 함께 올라갔다 온 사람들은,
“우리는 그 백성에게로 쳐 올라가지 못합니다.
그들은 우리보다 강합니다.” 하면서,
32 이스라엘 자손들에게 자기들이 정찰한 땅에 대하여 나쁜 소문을 퍼뜨렸다.
“우리가 가로지르며 정찰한 그 땅은 주민들을 삼켜 버리는 땅이다.
그리고 우리가 그 땅에서 본 백성은 모두 키 큰 사람뿐이다.
33 우리는 또 그곳에서 나필족을 보았다.
아낙의 자손들은 바로 이 나필족에서 나온 것이다.
우리 눈에도 우리 자신이 메뚜기 같았지만, 그들의 눈에도 그랬을 것이다.”
14,1 온 공동체가 소리 높여 아우성쳤다. 백성이 밤새도록 통곡하였다.
26 주님께서 모세와 아론에게 이르셨다.
27 “이 악한 공동체가 언제까지 나에게 투덜거릴 것인가?
이스라엘 자손들이 나에게 투덜거리는 소리를 나는 들었다.
28 그들에게 이렇게 말하여라. ‘주님의 말이다. 내가 살아 있는 한,
너희가 내 귀에 대고 한 말에 따라, 내가 반드시 너희에게 그대로 해 주겠다.
29 바로 이 광야에서 너희는 시체가 되어 쓰러질 것이다.
너희 가운데 스무 살 이상이 되어, 있는 대로 모두 사열을 받은 자들,

곧 나에게 투덜댄 자들은 모두,
30 여푼네의 아들 칼렙과 눈의 아들 여호수아만 빼고,
내가 너희에게 주어 살게 하겠다고 손을 들어 맹세한
그 땅으로 들어가지 못할 것이다.
34 너희가 저 땅을 정찰한 사십 일, 그 날수대로, 하루를 일 년으로 쳐서,
너희는 사십 년 동안 그 죗값을 져야 한다.
그제야 너희는 나를 멀리하면 어떻게 되는지 알게 될 것이다.’
35 나 주님이 말한다. 나를 거슬러 모여든 이 악한 공동체 전체에게
나는 기어이 이렇게 하고야 말겠다.
바로 이 광야에서 그들은 최후를 맞을 것이다.
이곳에서 그들은 죽을 것이다.”

복음

마태오. 15,21-28

그때에 21 예수님께서 티로와 시돈 지방으로 물러가셨다.
22 그런데 그 고장에서 어떤 가나안 부인이 나와,
“다윗의 자손이신 주님, 저에게 자비를 베풀어 주십시오.
제 딸이 호되게 마귀가 들렸습니다.” 하고 소리 질렀다.
23 예수님께서는 한마디도 대답하지 않으셨다.
제자들이 다가와 말하였다.
“저 여자를 돌려보내십시오. 우리 뒤에서 소리 지르고 있습니다.”
24 그제야 예수님께서 “나는 오직 이스라엘 집안의 길 잃은 양들에게
파견되었을 뿐이다.” 하고 대답하셨다.
25 그러나 그 여자는 예수님께 와 엎드려 절하며,
“주님, 저를 도와주십시오.” 하고 청하였다.
26 예수님께서는 “자녀들의 빵을 집어
강아지들에게 던져 주는 것은 좋지 않다.” 하고 말씀하셨다.
27 그러자 그 여자가 “주님, 그렇습니다. 그러나 강아지들도
주인의 상에서 떨어지는 부스러기는 먹습니다.” 하고 말하였다.
28 그때에 예수님께서 그 여자에게 말씀하셨다.
“아, 여인아! 네 믿음이 참으로 크구나. 네가 바라는 대로 될 것이다.”
바로 그 시간에 그 여자의 딸이 나았다.

August 7, 2019

Wednesday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Daily Readings — Audio

Daily Reflections — Video

http://www.usccb.org/bible/

Daily Mass : http://www.catholictv.com/shows/daily-mass

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.

 

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.

http://evangeli.net/gospel/tomorrow

 «Woman, how great is your faith!»

Fr. Jordi CASTELLET i Sala
(Sant Hipòlit de Voltregà, Barcelona, Spain)

Today, we often hear the ｅxpression “faith has been lost”, and the same people who ask our communities the baptism of their children or the catechesis for their infants or the sacrament of marriage, say it. These words depict the world in a negative way while trying to convince us bygone times were better and that we are now at the end of an stage where there is nothing left for us to say or to do. Evidently, these are basically young people who, in its majority, watch rather sadly how the world has changed from their parents' times, who used to live perhaps a more popular faith, which they have not known how to adapt to. This experience leaves them unsatisfied and without any capacity of reaction when, in fact, they might find themselves at the gates of a new stage they could very well take advantage of.

This passage of the Gospel draws the attention to that Canaanite mother that demands grace for her daughter by recognizing in Jesus the Son of David: «Lord, Son of David, have pity on me! My daughter is tormented by a demon» (Mt 15:22). The Master is surprised: «Woman, how great is your faith!” and He can do nothing but to act in favour of those persons: «Let it be as you wish» (Mt 15:28), although this does not seem to fall within his schedule. However, God's grace is manifested in human realities.

Faith is not a privilege of a few, nor is it the property of those who thing they are so good or of those who have ever been good, and have this social or ecclesial label. God's action precedes any Church's action and the Holy Spirit is already acting upon persons we would have never suspected could bring us a message from God, a request in favour of the needy. St. Leo says: «My beloved, the virtue and wisdom of Christian faith are our love of God and of our neighbour: it does not miss any obligation to any pious works procuring to render God worship due to him and to help our brethren».

http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html

 

“Be careful.”  “Don’t say too much.”  “You had better let me do the talking.” “Are you sure they are ready to hear that?”  Throughout my life I have been given these messages and many like them.  As a straightforward person who values open and honest communication, I have experienced a range of responses to these statements from puzzlement to anger.  I wonder if these warnings are meant to protect me, protect others or are an attempt to control anticipated chaos.

one of my heroines from scripture is the Canaanite women in the today’s gospel from Matthew.  She advocates for her tormented daughter by calling out to Jesus for help.  Jesus ignores her and his disciples try to quiet her by asking Jesus to send her away because she keeps shouting at them.  But yet the woman stays firm in her advocacy.  And she holds her own in a debate with Jesus about the value of giving scraps to dogs.  She wins Jesus over with her strength, clarity and faith.  And she achieves her heartfelt goal of having her daughter healed and at peace.

This exchange inspires me to explore how my faith informs my responses to being ignored, rejected or contradicted.  I feel a call to move from my head to my heart and let what I hold near and dear inform my response.  It can be so easy to be distracted into debating facts and figures, putting forth a powerful argument.  But the Canaanite woman shows that by staying steadfast and grounded much can be accomplished.

We all share a desire to be heard and to be seen for who we are.  I pray to be available to people who might appear to be “shouting” at me.  I ask God to remind me that they feel strongly about their position and fear what might happen in the future.  With God’s guidance I can develop a stance of compassion and invite the open and honest communication that I deeply value.  This is good way to “be careful.”

 http://www.presentationministries.com/obob/obob.asp

FAITH-CRIMES

"Forty years shall you suffer for your crimes." �Numbers 14:34

Today's Eucharistic readings strongly show that faith makes the difference between life and death. A mother's "great faith" in Jesus (Mt 15:28) saved her daughter. The complete lack of faith of the Israelites, who had recently walked through the Red Sea on dry land, meant that they would die in the desert (Nm 14:29). Did you know that the Lord considers it a crime (Nm 14:34) to lack faith in Him and discourage (Nm 13:32) others from having faith in Him? Faith is not an add-on for the Christian life; rather, "all depends on faith" (Rm 4:16). The Israelites couldn't stop fixating on the height, weight, and walls of the Canaanite people (Nm 13:32-33). They completely forgot the recent sight of the stationary walls of water through which they walked at the Red Sea. We will never have faith until we stop looking at what visibly surrounds us and start looking at the unseen God Who surrounds us (see Mt 28:20). We who believe in Jesus must constantly "walk by faith, not by sight" (2 Cor 5:7). "Faith is...conviction about things we do not see" (Heb 11:1). Repent of any faith-crimes you might have committed. It's a matter of life and death. Have faith in the Lord Jesus and you shall be saved (Rm 10:9). But the one who commits the "crime" of not having faith in Him shall die in condemnation (see Jn 3:18; Mk 16:16). Repent! "Live by faith" (Heb 10:38).

Prayer: Lord, increase my faith (Lk 17:5).

Promise: "Jesus then said in reply, 'Woman, you have great faith! Your wish will come to pass.' " —Mt 15:28

Praise: Pope St. Sixtus II was arrested and beheaded for celebrating the Eucharist. He received the glorious crown of martyrdom.

 http://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/readings/

 "Great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire"

Do you ever feel "put-off" or ignored by the Lord?
This passage (Matthew 15:21) describes the only occasion in which Jesus ministered outside of Jewish territory. (Tyre and Sidon were fifty miles north of Israel and still exist today in modern Lebanon.) A Gentile woman, a foreigner who was not a member of the Jewish people, puts Jesus on the spot by pleading for his help. At first Jesus seemed to pay no attention to her, and this made his disciples feel embarrassed. Jesus does this to test the woman to awaken faith in her.

Jesus first tests the woman's faith
What did Jesus mean by the ｅxpression "throwing bread to the dogs"? The Jews often spoke of the Gentiles with arrogance and insolence as "unclean dogs" since the Gentiles did not follow God's law and were excluded from God's covenant and favor with the people of Israel. For the Greeks the "dog" was a symbol of dishonor and was used to describe a shameless and audacious woman. There is another reference to "dogs" in Matthew's Gospel where Jesus says to his disciples, "Do not give to dogs what is holy" (Matthew 7:6).  Jesus tests this woman's faith to see if she is earnest in receiving holy things from the hand of a holy God. Jesus, no doubt, spoke with a smile rather than with an insult because this woman immediately responds with wit and faith - "even the dogs eat the crumbs".

Seek the Lord Jesus with expectant faith
Jesus praises a Gentile woman for her faith and for her love. She made the misery of her child her own and she was willing to suffer rebuff in order to obtain healing for her loved one. She also had indomitable persistence. Her faith grew in contact with the person of Jesus. She began with a request and she ended on her knees in worshipful prayer to the living God. No one who ever sought Jesus with earnest faith - whether Jew or Gentile - was refused his help. Do you seek the Lord Jesus with expectant faith?

"Lord Jesus, your love and mercy knows no bounds. May I trust you always and pursue you with indomitable persistence as this woman did. Increase my faith in your saving power and deliver me from all evil and harm."

Psalm 67:1-7

1 May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, [Selah]
2 that your way may be known upon earth, your saving power among all nations.
3 Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you!
4 Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth. [Selah]
5 Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you!
6 The earth has yielded its increase; God, our God, has blessed us.
7 God has blessed us; let all the ends of the earth fear him!

Daily Quote from the early church fathers: The Mother of the Gentiles, by Epiphanius the Latin (late 5th century)

"After our Lord departed from the Jews, he came into the regions of Tyre and Sidon. He left the Jews behind and came to the Gentiles. Those whom he had left behind remained in ruin; those to whom he came obtained salvation in their alienation. And a woman came out of that territory and cried, saying to him, 'Have pity on me, O Lord, Son of David!' O great mystery! The Lord came out from the Jews, and the woman came out from her Gentile territory. He left the Jews behind, and the woman left behind idolatry and an impious lifestyle. What they had lost, she found. The one whom they had denied in the law, she professed through her faith. This woman is the mother of the Gentiles, and she knew Christ through faith. Thus on behalf of her daughter (the Gentile people) she entreated the Lord. The daughter had been led astray by idolatry and sin and was severely possessed by a demon." (excerpt from  INTERPRETATION OF THE GOSPELS 58)

  

More Homilies

 August 9, 2017 Wednesday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time