15-Aug-2017 Dear Friend, While most of us pick and choose whom we want to relate to and who will be our friends, God is open to all, he has no favourites, and all are welcome. Jesus says “My house shall be a house of prayer for all the people.” This is a tremendous statement. There are so many closed shops, so many exclusive clubs in the world. But God’s house is different, it is meant to be open for all. Enjoy free entry in His house! Everyone is welcome! Be open like him. -Fr. Jude Sunday Ref: XX Sunday “My house will be a house of prayer for all peoples!” 20-Aug-2017Readings: Isaiah 56: 1, 6-7; Rom.11: 13-15, 29-32; Matt. 15: 21-28;
The first reading reflects a time during the period of restoration after the return from Babylon. Since the returned exiles constituted a small group, they tended to be inward-looking. The prophet encourages them to be open to foreigners because God intends his house to be a ‘house of prayer’ for all the peoples’ God is a God of all and excludes none. One of the darker sides of our humanity is our tendency to be exclusive. We build our own little world and God helps those who disturb it! We tend to join exclusive groups. New members are grudgingly accommodated. Thank God for being exactly opposite! God is totally and forever inclusive. Gentlemen and Gentile WomanA gentleman was boasting about the superiority of Catholicism and the holiness of his priests to a Hindu and Muslim friend. Debating at the crossroads they spied a sadhu going into a brothel. “Saw that?” sneered the Catholic. “Our priests won’t be seen there!” Minutes later, a Mullah covered his face with his shawl and entered the brothel too. The Catholic remarked, “Ah, ha, Mullahs are no better than sadhus!” Just then the parish priest also slyly entered the brothel. The Catholic sighed sanctimoniously, “I wonder which of those girls is sick and in need of sacraments!” Strangely, ‘we’ are always holier than ‘they’ just as Pharisees in Jesus’ time claimed superiority over gentiles.Francis Gonsalves in ‘Sunday Seeds for Daily Deeds’ In today’s gospel Jesus speaks openly to a pagan woman, who asks him to cure her daughter. At first Jesus seems to refuse, saying, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But the woman persists noting that even dogs feed on the crumbs from the master’s table. The woman in the story teaches us a few truths about our faith and prayer. The first thing she teaches us is persistence. Her persistence is recognized by Jesus. This is an important lesson when all of us struggle. Are we persistent? The woman in the gospel reminds us that sometimes the sheer persistence can be the prayer, the good work and the spiritual discipline. The second thing we can learn from this woman is the need for clear focus. When Jesus spoke to her in language that demeaned her people, she did not lose her cool but kept her eyes on the goal of her mission, which was to show that even non-Jews are entitled to God’s blessings in Christ. The third thing we learn from this woman is courage. Being a foreigner and as a woman, it took great courage on her part to approach the all-Jewish and all-male company of Jesus and his disciples. She was unafraid to challenge prejudice and falsity even in religious places. Jesus recognizing her deep faith and humility says, “Let it be done to you as you wish.” Sometimes you hear people say “Ah, it’s easy for you; you have great faith.” Faith doesn’t always make things easier. The opposite is sometimes the case. Faith impels us to persevere, to struggle on, with no guarantee of a happy ending. Faith calls for humility, courage, perseverance and above all love. The nameless Gentile woman is an example of that tough faith we all need at times. But she is also a great example of love. Jesus could just as well say to her: “Woman, you have great love. Be it done for you as you desire.” Run for your lifeThere is an Aesop fable which tells the story of a rabbit and a hunting dog. One day when the dog was out hunting he flushed a rabbit from the thicket and gave chase. The frightened rabbit ran its heart out and eventually escaped. As the dog headed home it passed a farmer who taunted him saying, “You are a fine hunter. Aren’t you ashamed to let a rabbit one-tenth of your size outrun you and get away?” The dog answered, “Ah, but sir, I was only running for my supper, the rabbit was running for his love!” This rabbit was running faster than the fastest man in the world! In today’s gospel we hear a dialogue between Jesus and a Canaanite woman. The woman’s single-mindedness for her daughter’s healing is rewarded. It reminds us of the words of Dwight Eisenhower: “What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight – it is the size of the fight in the dog.” Run for your life and you will win the race.John Pichappilly in ‘The Table of the Word’ Let go and …As he lay on his hospital bed in Melbourne, an Australian Marist Brother told his gathered friends the story of his spirituality. It came from watching trapeze artists performing in a circus a few years ago. Trapeze artists are those who perform in a circus with swings. It is an air borne performance. While talking to one of the artist, he explained, “As a flyer I must have complete trust in my catcher, he explained. He has to be there for me with split–second precision and grab me out of the air as I come to him in the long jump.” The artist explained that the flyer does nothing and the catcher does everything. When the artist flies, he has simply to stretch out his arms and hands and wait for him to catch him and pull him safely over the apron behind the catcher. The flyer should actually do nothing. The worse the flyer can do is to catch the catcher. The flyer is not supposed to catch the catcher. If the flyer grabbed the catcher’s wrists, he might break them, or the catcher might break the flyer’s wrists, and that would be the end of them both. A flyer has to fly and the catcher has to catch, and the flyer has to trust with outstretched arms, that his catcher will be there for him.” This is the trust we should have in Jesus and the woman in today’s story demonstrated such a faith.Augustine K. in ‘The Sunday Liturgy’ No giving upOnce during a particularly severe winter in the Arctic, all but two people in a certain camp died of starvation. The two survivors were an Eskimo woman and her baby. The woman began a desperate search for some means of obtaining food. Eventually she found a small fishhook. It was a simple matter to rig a line, but she had no bait, and no hope of getting bait. Without a moment’s hesitation she took a knife and cut a piece of flesh from her thigh. Using this as bait she caught a fish. She fed her child and herself, saving the fish gut for bait. She lived on fish until spring when she walked out of the camp and found some other people. It was no coincidence that the only adult to survive in that camp was a mother. What kept that mother alive was her concern for her child. There seems to be no limit to what a mother will go through for the sake of her child. A mother does not give up easily.Flor McCarthy in ‘New Sunday and Holy Day Homilies’ The look of acceptanceWhen I see a beggar in the street or in the Metro, I tend to put my hand into my pocket and give him the first coin –big or small –that I find there. As I give it to him, I look into his eyes and say a few words to him. As our eyes meet, there seems to be a moment of communion and mutual understanding between us that brings me peace. This simple look can give him back a little confidence in himself. Maybe it can give me confidence in myself too. “Every man who loses confidence in himself, who has fallen into the world of alcohol or drugs, who has failed in family life or relationships or work, needs someone who looks at him as a human being with tenderness and trust. And it is this moment of communion that enables him, little by little, to rebuild his confidence”Jean Vanier, Founder of L’Arche Community May our persevering faith make us more open to God and others! Fr. Jude Botelho [email protected] PS. The stories, incidents and anecdotes used in the reflections have been collected over the years from books as well as from sources over the net and from e-mails received. Every effort is made to acknowledge authors whenever possible. If you send in stories or illustrations I would be grateful if you could quote the source as well so that they can be acknowledged if used in these reflections. These reflections are also available on my Web site www.NetForLife.net Thank you.
