Jeremiah 31: 1-7 / Matthew 15: 21-28
God comforts his people: “Once again I will rebuild you.”
A woman dropped a beautiful orange vase, and it splintered into dozens of tiny pieces. She swept them up and threw them away. An hour later the woman discovered that her little daughter had retrieved the pieces from the wastebasket and pasted them on a piece of white cardboard. Then, taking some crayons, the little girl drew stems, leaves, and flowers, converting the pieces into a bouquet. The woman was moved to tears. Her daughter had made something beautiful out of something that was broken and useless.
God did something similar to his people. He retrieved them
from the wastebasket of history and shaped them into something beautiful.
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How firmly do we believe that God can take the broken pieces
of our lives and make something beautiful out of them? “You have changed my
sadness into a joyful dance.” Psalm 30:11
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The prophet Jeremiah was known for his cut-and-dry prophesies, most of which foretell disaster and doom to a people who had turned away from God. Yet in today's 1st reading, comes a statement from the same prophet about how much God loves His people. From his mouth came these words of the Lord: "I have loved you with an everlasting love". It is a verse is that often quoted to express the eternity of God's love.But what is the reality of this love in our lives? Have we ever experienced God's love even in the temporary?
It might be difficult for us to understand this love of God until we have had the experience of being forgiven for committing a grave wrongdoing. We may not understand this love of God until we had the experience of being saved from a great danger. God's love for us is not only eternal, it is also a stubborn and persistent love that probes us in order to make us respond to His love. God's eternal love empowers us to live in love here on earth so that we will have the foretaste and the experience of what it means to live in love eternally.
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MERE CRUMBS?
Introduction To a people that has almost as a whole
deserted God, Jeremiah gives the assurance that God will never be unfaithful to
them. There will be a remnant that responds to God’s love. The clue to this is
as simple and tremendous as this: God loves his people, the one from the past
and that of the present. And so he loves us also. He loves us with a love that
does not wear out. His affection remains constant.
There are some obvious problems with the story of the
Canaanite woman. The words of Jesus sound harsh and discriminating against
non-Jews. Some exegetes see in it an exchange of wits between the woman and
Jesus, reflecting the prejudices of their time and yet fundamentally revealing
that salvation is for all without discrimination and prejudice wherever faith
is found. The way this story is told reflects the problem of the primitive
Church whether to accept non-Jewish converts. Everyone who believes may eat
from the Lord’s table and is fed more than crumbs.
Opening Prayer
Father of all, long ago you chose the people of Israel to
make your name known to all the nations. Your Son Jesus Christ made it clear that
forgiveness and the fullness of life are the share of all who believe in him. Make
your Church truly a place of encounter for all those who grope for you, that
all obstacles and barriers may be removed and that the riches of all nations
and cultures may reveal the thousand faces of the love you have shown us in
Jesus Christ our Lord.
Commentary
Jeremiah excels in poetic imagery, especially in those
sections that speak of Israel’s restoration. The country would one day stand
out among the nations as the favored of God, a love that was there from the
beginning. The faithful remnant of a faithless people would ultimately triumph.
In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus has come primarily for the people of Israel. But
even in that Gospel the non-Jew is not forgotten. The account of the Canaanite
woman is a case in point. One stands in amazement at her determination. She had
undoubtedly heard of Jesus and had decided to approach him at all costs. She
enters the land of the Jews, a foreign woman in an alien culture. She was not
only a woman; she was a nonbeliever in a world that did not look with favor on
Gentile people. In the interests of her daughter, she is not about to be
dissuaded. When Jesus first refuses her request in proverbial form, she
responds to him in a similar fashion. The Canaanite woman was a person of
uncommon faith. The narrative is very clear on that point. And it is that faith
that brings Jesus to accede to her request. Much of the Western world today
champions reason over faith. Governments consider faith obsolete. Religious
practice, prayer, and observance are dismissed as medieval holdovers. Those who
do believe must not waver in their conviction. Every time that faith has been
challenged in history, it returns with greater vigour.
Points to Ponder
The Lord’s forgiveness of Israel
The persistence of the Canaanite woman
Faith the cornerstone of our life
Intercessions
– That there may be room in the universal Church for the
cultural riches of various peoples and for manifesting one and the same faith
in a variety of languages and forms of expression, we pray: – That we may have
open hearts and homes for people who are hard to accommodate: strangers and
refugees, the jobless and the poor, victims of discrimination and oppression;
that we may do all we can to integrate them into the human and Christians
community, we pray:
-That all of us here may be concerned about those who are
not here because they are estranged from the Church, that our lives may reveal
Christ to them, we pray:
Prayer over the Gifts
Lord God, Father of all, you set the table of your Son for
all who are willing to come: for saints and for sinners, for the poor and the
rich. Give us your Son Jesus Christ. May we learn from him to give to all those
who ask for food or love not meager crumbs or leftovers but the food of
ourselves, as Jesus does here for us, he who is our Lord for ever.
Prayer after Communion
God our Father, in this Eucharist we have all been one in
Jesus Christ your Son. He died and rose to life for all; his likeness is
reflected in the face of every human being: let it become visible in all. Let
his face not be marred or divided by our prejudices and fears. Do not allow our
love to be less than universal, and unite us more in him who is our common way
to you and to one another, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Blessing
Music from one instrument can be beautiful, but the most
beautiful form is found in the harmony of many different instruments together
in one symphony, or many human voices blending in one chorus. May God give us
the symphony and chorus of many cultures and peoples together, with the
blessing of almighty God, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.