“Trusting the God Who Saves” by Colleen O’Sullivan
The Lord
said to Moses [in the desert of Paran,] “Send men to reconnoiter the land of Canaan,
which I am giving the children of Israel…
They told Moses: “We went into the land to which you sent us. It does indeed flow with milk and honey, and
here is its fruit. However, the people
who are living in the land are fierce, and the towns are fortified and very strong”
… So, they spread discouraging reports
among the children of Israel about the land they had scouted… At this, the whole community broke out with
loud cries, and even in the night, the people wailed. (Numbers 13:1-2a, 27-28a, 32a, 14:1)
They forgot the God who had saved them, who had
done great deeds in Egypt,
Wondrous deeds in the land of Ham, terrible things at the Red Sea. (Psalm 106:21-22)
Wondrous deeds in the land of Ham, terrible things at the Red Sea. (Psalm 106:21-22)
Then Jesus said to her in reply, "O woman,
great is your faith! Let it be done for
you as you wish." And her daughter
was healed from that hour. (Matthew
15:28)
Piety
O Lord, may I never forget your loving
kindness. May I always trust in
you.
Study
Christ and the Canaanite Woman, Juan de Flandes, c. 1500, Royal Palace of Madrid, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons |
Finally, on the very brink of entering into the Promised Land! In today’s first reading, at God’s direction
Moses sends scouts to forge ahead and check it out. And what happens? They return saying that the land to which God
has led them does, in fact, flow with milk and honey. But it also comes with big towns and
seemingly huge people. Some of the
scouts exaggerate the situation and tell their fellow Israelites that they
would be like little grasshoppers going up against giants. Entering the land would spell certain disaster. So near and yet so far, as the saying
goes. The people break down out of fear
and despair. The night is filled with the
sounds of weeping and wailing.
It’s a story that, with a tweaking of the details, is played out in
every one of our lives. God loves us
into being, names us, and calls us to follow his leading, sometimes through the
wilderness. Along the way, we stumble
and fall. God mercifully picks us up,
dusts us off and sets us back on our feet again. God doesn’t let us down. But sometimes, when
the path grows difficult, we give in to our fears. We forget that God always proves trustworthy. We tell ourselves instead that God has
abandoned us.
Actually, it’s the other way around. We turn our backs on the One who loves us for
all eternity. Like the people of Israel,
we easily forget all the good things God has done for us and given us. We don’t remember all the times God has
picked us up and carried us. We are
short on memory and lacking in faith.
And that doesn’t sit well with God.
On the other hand, as we see in our Gospel reading,
there are those whose trust in Jesus is almost beyond comprehension. Here we see a Canaanite woman begging for
help for her demon-possessed daughter.
The disciples ignore her. Even Jesus at first sees no reason to stop for
her. After all, he says, he was sent to
the house of Israel, and she is an outsider.
In the end, however, her steadfast faith sways him. He relents and says it is her trust in him
that has moved him. She can go home knowing
her daughter is healed.
Action
Trust, and sometimes the
lack of it, is the theme running through our Scriptures readings today. When you are praying, take some time to look
back over your own life and reflect on all the times God has led you through wildernesses
of some sort or otherwise taken care of you. Is your faith unwavering like that of the
Canaanite woman, or do you find yourself sometimes forgetting the God who saves
you?
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