Saturday of the 18th Week in Ordinary Time
Readings of the day: Deuteronomy 6:4-13; Psalm 18:2-3a, 3bc-4, 47, 51; Matthew 17:14-20
How much or what depth of faith does God expect of us? Do we not find Jesus quite harsh in criticizing first the lack of faith of the crowds who bring a demon-possessed man to him and then the lack of faith of his own disciples, who are unable to cast out the demon?
Jesus ends our Gospel reading today, from Matthew, by saying to his disciples that if they “have faith the size of a mustard seed,” this little faith will be enough to move mountains (Faith to move mountains: Another popular English phrase we owe to Scripture!). With even minimal faith “nothing will be impossible for you,” Jesus says to his disciples.
Are Jesus’ words here not incredible? Would his disciples not have had to have some faith? Otherwise they would not have followed him at all. Without any faith, they probably would not even have tried to cast out the demon from the possessed man in today’s Gospel. And so why is Jesus so harsh with them? Why does he rebuke the crowd as a “faithless and perverse generation”? How much faith does Jesus expect of them or of us?
It is almost impossible for us to know exactly why Jesus speaks so harshly toward the crowds and his own disciples in Matthew’s Gospel. But I think our first reading, from Deuteronomy, hints at the depth of faith to which God calls us. The most important commandment of the Jewish faith, so important that observant Jews to this day pray it morning and evening and Jesus made it his own “greatest commandment, is part of our first reading today. “Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone! Therefore, you shall love the LORD, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength.” This commandment; this prayer, Moses says in Deuteronomy, is to be taken “to heart” by the people; drilled “into [their] children”; spoken whether “at home or abroad,” when the people are “busy or at rest.” And the people are literally to wear this commandment on their sleeve (another English phrase we owe to Scripture); on their foreheads; on their “doorposts” and “gates.”
All this was to ensure one thing: That the people would never forget God. Deuteronomy goes on to say, “Take care not to forget the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery.” This, I think, is also central to the faith Jesus asks of us: Remember God at all times. Give thanks to God in times of joy or prosperity. Complain to God and even express our anger at God in times of despair; of poverty; of illness; of loss. But “take care not to forget the LORD.”
We show by being here to worship that we remember God. We also show that we remember God by acting in kindness, justice, and patience, or by stopping our tongue short of destructive criticism, cursing, or gossip; by praying at least daily.
Had Jesus’ disciples or the “perverse and faithless” crowds in our Gospel forgotten God? This is difficult to say. But God calls us through Moses: “Take care not to forget the LORD.” Remember God: This is at the heart of our faith.
How much or what depth of faith does God expect of us? Do we not find Jesus quite harsh in criticizing first the lack of faith of the crowds who bring a demon-possessed man to him and then the lack of faith of his own disciples, who are unable to cast out the demon?
Jesus ends our Gospel reading today, from Matthew, by saying to his disciples that if they “have faith the size of a mustard seed,” this little faith will be enough to move mountains (Faith to move mountains: Another popular English phrase we owe to Scripture!). With even minimal faith “nothing will be impossible for you,” Jesus says to his disciples.
Are Jesus’ words here not incredible? Would his disciples not have had to have some faith? Otherwise they would not have followed him at all. Without any faith, they probably would not even have tried to cast out the demon from the possessed man in today’s Gospel. And so why is Jesus so harsh with them? Why does he rebuke the crowd as a “faithless and perverse generation”? How much faith does Jesus expect of them or of us?
It is almost impossible for us to know exactly why Jesus speaks so harshly toward the crowds and his own disciples in Matthew’s Gospel. But I think our first reading, from Deuteronomy, hints at the depth of faith to which God calls us. The most important commandment of the Jewish faith, so important that observant Jews to this day pray it morning and evening and Jesus made it his own “greatest commandment, is part of our first reading today. “Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone! Therefore, you shall love the LORD, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength.” This commandment; this prayer, Moses says in Deuteronomy, is to be taken “to heart” by the people; drilled “into [their] children”; spoken whether “at home or abroad,” when the people are “busy or at rest.” And the people are literally to wear this commandment on their sleeve (another English phrase we owe to Scripture); on their foreheads; on their “doorposts” and “gates.”
All this was to ensure one thing: That the people would never forget God. Deuteronomy goes on to say, “Take care not to forget the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery.” This, I think, is also central to the faith Jesus asks of us: Remember God at all times. Give thanks to God in times of joy or prosperity. Complain to God and even express our anger at God in times of despair; of poverty; of illness; of loss. But “take care not to forget the LORD.”
We show by being here to worship that we remember God. We also show that we remember God by acting in kindness, justice, and patience, or by stopping our tongue short of destructive criticism, cursing, or gossip; by praying at least daily.
Had Jesus’ disciples or the “perverse and faithless” crowds in our Gospel forgotten God? This is difficult to say. But God calls us through Moses: “Take care not to forget the LORD.” Remember God: This is at the heart of our faith.
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