Reading 1
Gn 19:15-29
As dawn was breaking, the angels urged Lot on, saying, “On your way!
Take with you your wife and your two daughters who are here,
or you will be swept away in the punishment of Sodom.”
When he hesitated, the men, by the LORD’s mercy,
seized his hand and the hands of his wife and his two daughters
and led them to safety outside the city.
As soon as they had been brought outside, he was told:
“Flee for your life!
Don’t look back or stop anywhere on the Plain.
Get off to the hills at once, or you will be swept away.”
“Oh, no, my lord!” Lot replied,
“You have already thought enough of your servant
to do me the great kindness of intervening to save my life.
But I cannot flee to the hills to keep the disaster from overtaking me,
and so I shall die.
Look, this town ahead is near enough to escape to.
It’s only a small place.
Let me flee there–it’s a small place, is it not?–
that my life may be saved.”
“Well, then,” he replied,
“I will also grant you the favor you now ask.
I will not overthrow the town you speak of.
Hurry, escape there!
I cannot do anything until you arrive there.”
That is why the town is called Zoar.
The sun was just rising over the earth as Lot arrived in Zoar;
at the same time the LORD rained down sulphurous fire
upon Sodom and Gomorrah
from the LORD out of heaven.
He overthrew those cities and the whole Plain,
together with the inhabitants of the cities
and the produce of the soil.
But Lot’s wife looked back, and she was turned into a pillar of salt.
Early the next morning Abraham went to the place
where he had stood in the LORD’s presence.
As he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah
and the whole region of the Plain,
he saw dense smoke over the land rising like fumes from a furnace.
Thus it came to pass: when God destroyed the Cities of the Plain,
he was mindful of Abraham by sending Lot away from the upheaval
by which God overthrew the cities where Lot had been living.
26:2-3, 9-10, 11-12
Responsorial Psalm R. (3a)
O Lord, your mercy is before my eyes.
Search me, O LORD, and try me;
test my soul and my heart.
For your mercy is before my eyes,
and I walk in your truth.
R. O Lord, your mercy is before my eyes.
Gather not my soul with those of sinners,
nor with men of blood my life.
On their hands are crimes,
and their right hands are full of bribes.
R. O Lord, your mercy is before my eyes.
But I walk in integrity;
redeem me, and have mercy on me.
My foot stands on level ground;
in the assemblies I will bless the LORD.
R. O Lord, your mercy is before my eyes.
Gospel
Mt 8:23-27
As Jesus got into a boat, his disciples followed him.
Suddenly a violent storm came up on the sea,
so that the boat was being swamped by waves;
but he was asleep.
They came and woke him, saying,
“Lord, save us! We are perishing!”
He said to them, “Why are you terrified, O you of little faith?”
Then he got up, rebuked the winds and the sea,
and there was great calm.
The men were amazed and said, “What sort of man is this,
whom even the winds and the sea obey?”
Meditation: Matthew 8:23-27
“Lord, save us!” (Matthew 8:25)
The disciples were astounded: Jesus created calm. “What sort of man is this,” they wondered in awe, “whom even the winds and the sea obey?” (Matthew 8:27)
What sort of man indeed! They hadn’t come to realize yet that Jesus, whom they knew as a man, was also fully God. He was born of woman, but was also “the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation” (Colossians 1:15). He was a man in whom all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell (1:19), who possessed not merely God’s attributes but his divine nature. He was God Incarnate!
What sort of man is he? He is the One through whom all things were created, and for whom all things exist (Colossians 1:16). He is the One whose immeasurably great power is at work in and through us who believe (Ephesians 1:19). He can command healing—of cancer, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and every other disease. He can order fever and infection, rashes and hives to cease. He can bring wholeness to broken bones and to broken hearts.
Jesus is the One who desires wholeness for all whom he created. He can release us from the grip of alcoholism or drug addiction. He can command calm amid the storms of life: divorce, the loss of a job or loved one, calamity of every sort. He can bring peace to raging emotions and imaginations, to relationships fraught with anger, bitterness, and unforgiveness. He can order, “Be still!” to wrath and lust and the desire for revenge. With authority and gentleness, he can tell the worried or anxious heart: “Do not be afraid. It is I!”
Jesus can do all things. That’s who he is. Maybe you’ve never seen an illness or disability healed, a broken relationship restored, or a hopeless situation resolved. But Jesus can do it. Perhaps you long for it with all your heart. Begin today declaring: “I believe you can, Jesus.” Then ask the Holy Spirit to lead you to the place where you can honestly say: “I believe you want to, Jesus.” Then watch to see the wonders he will perform.
“Jesus, I believe you can—and want to—heal. You are Lord and Savior, and I trust in you!”
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