Thoughts on Today’s Scripture Readings
Isa 56: 1, 6-7 Ps 66(67) Rom 11: 13-15, 29-32 Mt 15:21-28
Third Isaiah was writing after 515 BC, when the Jews had returned from exile in Babylon and had rebuilt the Temple. But there is idolatry and injustice. Isaiah looks forward to a time when all peoples will be able to worship in the Temple, both foreigners and individuals with imperfect bodies. All that matters is justice and keeping the covenant.
Paul kept hoping his people would accept Jesus as the Christ. In his letter to the Jewish Christians in Rome he insists that God has not rejected his people: the Gentiles are a branch grafted onto the tree of Israel. In today’s reading he sees the Gentile mission as trying to make Jews envious and so also come to accept God’s mercy, as he has. But the Gentile branch can be broken off if they lose their faith.
In Matthew’s Gospel Jesus has criticised the Jewish leaders for insisting on external purity while disobeying God’s commandments. Nothing entering one’s mouth defiles, only what comes out. In Phoenicia, the only scene outside Israel in this gospel, Jesus heals the Canaanite child. But first he utters the memorable insult that “it is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs”.
Psalm Response: Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you.
MY HEART TO YOUR HEART
Fr. Bernardino Andrade
Never Give Up!
Many years ago in Illinois (USA), a young man with six months schooling to his credit ran for an office in the legislature. As might have been expected, he was beaten. Next he entered business and failed in that too, and spent the next seventeen years paying the debts of his worthless partner.
He fell in love with a charming lady, they became engaged – and she died. He had a nervous breakdown. He ran for congress and was defeated. He then tried to obtain an appointment to the US Land Office but didn’t succeed. He became a candidate for the Vice-Presidency and lost. Two years later he was defeated in a race for the Senate.
He ran for President and finally was elected. That man was Abraham Lincoln.
Success doesn’t happen by accident. “Failure is never final”
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