Tuesday, August 06, 2019

“Trusting the God Who Saves” by Colleen O’Sullivan


“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)

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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