19 July 2010

19 July 2010,Monday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Reading 1
Mi 6:1-4, 6-8


Hear what the LORD says:
Arise, present your plea before the mountains,
and let the hills hear your voice!
Hear, O mountains, the plea of the LORD,
pay attention, O foundations of the earth!
For the LORD has a plea against his people,
and he enters into trial with Israel.

O my people, what have I done to you,
or how have I wearied you? Answer me!
For I brought you up from the land of Egypt,
from the place of slavery I released you;
and I sent before you Moses,
Aaron, and Miriam.

With what shall I come before the LORD,
and bow before God most high?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams,
with myriad streams of oil?
Shall I give my first-born for my crime,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
You have been told, O man, what is good,
and what the LORD requires of you:
Only to do the right and to love goodness,
and to walk humbly with your God.

Gospel
Mt 12:38-42


Some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Jesus,
"Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you."
He said to them in reply,
"An evil and unfaithful generation seeks a sign,
but no sign will be given it
except the sign of Jonah the prophet.
Just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights,
so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth
three days and three nights.
At the judgment, the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation
and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah;
and there is something greater than Jonah here.
At the judgment the queen of the south will arise with this generation
and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth
to hear the wisdom of Solomon;
and there is something greater than Solomon here."


Meditation: Matthew 12:38-42

“We wish to see a sign from you.” (Matthew 12:38)


We might be tempted to feel a little smug when we think about the scribes and Pharisees who were hounding Jesus. How could they possibly have missed seeing the truth about him? He gave them a greater sign than Jonah. He was greater than the wise King Solomon! Surely we would have been more discerning! Why were their spiritual senses so dull?

What blinded the Pharisees is something that can afflict us even today: familiarity. They had seen “prophets” come and go. They knew Jesus as the son of a small-town tradesman and a wandering preacher from Galilee, and that’s all they could see him as. As a result, they didn’t expect anything more from Jesus. Their assumptions about him were set early, and there was no need to change what they considered to be true about his “type.” Just keep putting pressure on him to prove himself, they thought, and he would eventually back down or be proven false.

How about us? We may have been going to church all our lives. Perhaps we are used to seeing crucifixes at home or at church, and we can recite Bible stories from years of hearing them. We’ve been doing this so long that we think we know how Catholicism “works,” and by extension, how Jesus works. But when was the last time you gave him the chance to surprise you? Or even more to the point, when was the last time you took a chance and stepped out of the boat to join him on top of the lake?

In prayer today, ask Jesus to show you something new about who he is or the life he has called you to. Or try opening your Bible and re-reading a familiar parable, looking for the surprise that was revealed to the people in the story. At Mass, let Jesus take your breath away with the beauty of the eucharistic prayer. Keep your eyes open as you interact with family and friends today: How is Jesus showing himself to you through them? Let Jesus increase your faith. Let him deepen your confidence in those things you cannot see but are still very real.

“Jesus, I don’t want to be blind to you! Give me a glimpse behind the veil. Open my eyes and heart, Lord, to your revelation.”

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