{"id":529,"date":"2011-08-03T12:52:53","date_gmt":"2011-08-03T16:52:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=529"},"modified":"2011-08-03T12:52:53","modified_gmt":"2011-08-03T16:52:53","slug":"who-are-we-more-like-in-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/who-are-we-more-like-in-faith\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Are We More Like in Faith?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today’s readings (August 3, 2011)<\/a> show two different responses of faith.\u00a0 In the first reading<\/a>, the Israelites are preparing to enter the promised land.\u00a0 At God’s command, scouts are sent ahead to explore the area.\u00a0 The scouts return with reports that the land does “does indeed flow with milk and honey<\/em>” and has much fruit to offer.\u00a0 But they also report that “However, the people who are living in the land are fierce, and the towns are fortified and very strong.”\u00a0 The scouts fear they could not win against the current inhabitants.\u00a0 Only Caleb believes they could be successful.\u00a0 Generally, we do well to examine a situation before entering but what the people appear to have forgetten is that this is where God has led them.\u00a0 As long as they follow God’s will, they will be successful.\u00a0 For failing to trust God, they must spend 40 years in the desert.<\/p>\n

Turning to today’s Gospel<\/a>, we see a very different faith.\u00a0 Here is a Canaanite women, not even a Jew, who comes to Jesus believing he can drive out the demon in her daughter.\u00a0 At first, Jesus ignores the woman.\u00a0 His disciples would have seen this as appropriate because she is not a Jew.\u00a0 She persists.\u00a0 The disciples ask Jesus to send her away.\u00a0 He says to the woman, \u201cI was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.\u201d\u00a0 She still persists.\u00a0 Jesus tells her he cannot give to dogs what was meant for the children of Israel.\u00a0 This is an insult against her but she still persists, “Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.\u201d\u00a0 She believes, she knows, that anything Jesus has to offer would be enough to heal her daughter.\u00a0 Jesus proclaims her faith to be great and heals her daughter.<\/p>\n

Who are you more like?\u00a0 Are you like the Israelites who seek to enter the promised land but are fearful of the dangers that lay ahead?\u00a0 Or you like the Canaanite woman who believes indeed has the power to heal her daughter even with the scraps from the table?\u00a0<\/p>\n

We might all look for the easy way out.\u00a0 Jesus says “Come to me all you who labor and are burdened …. my yoke is easy, my burden light”\u00a0(Matthew 11:28-30<\/a>).\u00a0 Easy <\/em>and light<\/em> are relative terms.\u00a0 It does not mean there will be no problems but it will be easier to face those problems with Jesus at our side.<\/p>\n

Peace,<\/p>\n

Fr. Jeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today’s readings (August 3, 2011) show two different responses of faith.\u00a0 In the first reading, the Israelites are preparing to enter the promised land.\u00a0 At God’s command, scouts are sent ahead to explore the area.\u00a0 The scouts return with reports that the land does “does indeed flow with milk and honey” and has much fruit …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Who Are We More Like in Faith?’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-8x","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=529"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":532,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529\/revisions\/532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}