You Are the Helper

You Are the Helper

Saturday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Woe to those who plan iniquity and work out evil on their couches;
In the morning light, they accomplish it when it lies within their power.
They covet fields, and seize them; houses and they take them; They cheat an owner of his house, a man of his inheritance. Therefore, thus says the LORD: Behold, I am planning against this race an evil from which you shall not withdraw your necks; Nor shall you walk with head high, for it will be a time of evil.  Micah 2:1-3

The Pharisees went out and took counsel against Jesus to put him to death. When Jesus realized this, he withdrew from that place. Many people followed him, and he cured them all, but he warned them not to make him known. This was to fulfill what had been spoken through Isaiah. Matthew 12:14-15

Piety

You do see, for you behold misery and sorrow,
taking them in your hands.
On you the unfortunate man depends;
of the fatherless you are the helper.
R. Do not forget the poor, O Lord! Psalm 10:14

Study

Sometimes, the connection between the first reading and the Good News is a little harder to discern.  Rather than condemn the Pharisees who are acting more like those warned by the prophet Micah, Jesus takes a subtler approach.

The story related by St. Matthew described the withdrawal, the healings, and the command for silence from Jesus to his disciples, students, and followers. To this, he adds a fulfillment citation from the first Servant Song (Isaiah 42:1-4). 

Here is my servant whom I uphold,

my chosen one with whom I am pleased.

Upon him I have put my spirit;

he shall bring forth justice to the nations.

He will not cry out, nor shout,

nor make his voice heard in the street.

A bruised reed he will not break,

and a dimly burning wick he will not quench.

He will faithfully bring forth justice.

He will not grow dim or be bruised

until he establishes justice on the earth;

the coastlands will wait for his teaching.

The prophet Isaiah stresses that “He will not cry out, nor shout, nor make his voice heard in the street.”  After working openly in the temple and in the cities, now Jesus takes the gentle manner of his divine mission away from the plotting Pharisees.  Like others he cured, he warns these not to say anything about his work. Jesus fulfills his role as the helper, the servant.

We have already seen the Pharisees objecting to what Jesus and his disciples were doing. Rather than further arouse them, Jesus keeps working quietly to establish justice on the earth until the time comes for his passion.

Action

Although the Psalmist prayers for the Lord not to forget the poor, it also falls to us to take the poor into our hands and help them. 

What can you do this week to help those “in misery and sorrow?”  You are the helper.