Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Texts:
Is. 56:1, 6-7
Rom. 11:13-15, 29-32
Mt. 15:21-28

You are welcome to the celebration of the Holy Eucharist, my dear sisters, and brothers in the Lord. Today is the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

The Readings:

In the first reading, Isaiah presented the enormous gift of God for all people. Isaiah said that the temple of God would become the house of prayer for all people and nations. Israel would become a missionary of the good news of salvation. The reading reminds us about the gift of salvation that God offers to all people. The gift of salvation must inspire us to worship God in spirit and in truth.

In the second reading, Paul stressed that God shows His mercy to both the Israelites and the Gentiles. Paul emphasized that the death of Jesus means reconciliation to all people who believed in God. The reading reminds us that as baptized Christians, we become beneficiaries of the mercy of God for all people. We must manifest the divine mercy of God in the way we relate and forgive each other.

In the gospel, Matthew presented the universality of the gift of salvation that God has offered for all people. Matthew stressed that although Israel was the priority of the mission of Jesus, yet he also demonstrated that it was also extended to the Gentiles. This was affirmed by the faith of the Canaanite woman and the healing of her daughter. The healing was neither based on race or nationality but on faith. Jesus, in the gospel, recognized the unrelenting faith of the woman. For Matthew, the prayer of the woman is an example of a persistent prayer. He inspired the community to emulate the steadfast faith of the woman and to call Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

The Reflection:

The woman in the gospel is an embodiment of Christian faith in the world today. Nowadays, we can find a lot of temptations that lead us to renounce our faith in Christ. The worship of money, the happiness of fame, the addiction to power and the pleasures of physical bodies, the burdens and sufferings of life, oftentimes, overtook our faith in God. The rejection and the loneliness of life have weakened our faith. This is true, not only in our personal life but also in the life of the Christian community. If the church is the sign of the coming of the kingdom of God on earth and the leaven of God’s offer of salvation to the world, then she has to remain steadfast in her faith in Christ. We are the church of today. Our Christian faith must be proclaimed, be advertised, be shared and be put into flesh. What are your experiences of difficulties that moved you to call God and to pray intensely for His help? How did these experiences change you? How do you manifest a persistent prayer in the midst of trials and sufferings today?

The Testimony:

After I graduated from my elementary education, I thought that I would not be able to study in high school because my father was terminated from his job from our local government when the candidates of the political party that he supported during the local election did not win. At my young age, I was tempted to say that injustice really existed in this world. Because of this experience, I decided to undergo the process of hard work, diligence in study, the value of self-determination and the conviction to cooperate with my parents and with the members of the family in whatever endeavors that I wanted to do in life. I decided also to be self-supporting in my studies. I prayed very hard to the Lord for His assistance in my studies and for another job of my father in the spirit of perseverance and persistent prayer. I thanked God that I was qualified for scholarship grant in high school. After four years of praying, hard work and diligence in my studies, I finished my secondary education. Likewise, after four years of waiting, my father has hired back again for a job in the local government unit of our town. The testimonial eligibility of my father for civil service, in connection with his twelve years of service as a barangay captain, finally, was approved. Both my father and I understood the value of persistent prayer. I believed that unrelenting faith in all the circumstances of human life is really a grace. Like the woman in the gospel, I learned to become determined in life, to endure in work and to be persevering in prayer so that the things that I asked might be given to me for the common good and for the glory of God. I firmly believed that God has blessed me with unrelenting faith. My faith enabled me to feel at home with God in prayer and inspired me to bring to God the supplications of the people who were entrusted to my prayers. And so, I am resolved to be possessed by the Word of God and by the Eucharist so that I may become a witness of steadfast faith in the church.

The Eucharist:

The Eucharist is a celebration of our Christian faith. It is in the celebration of the Eucharist that our faith is proclaimed and shared to all people. It is also the highest form of evangelization of our faith. Thus, to celebrate the Eucharist is to proclaim the mystery of our faith in God. To receive Jesus in the Eucharist is to become people of faith and prayer in the midst of division and conflicts in the society. To eat the body of Christ is to become the living testimonies of the healing touch of God for all people. Therefore, in this Eucharist, we pray that the Father in heaven may strengthen us in faith so that we may be able to demonstrate a life-giving faith that will bring healing and reconciliation in the world. Yes, we pray that our Eucharistic celebration may become a joyful proclamation of our unrelenting faith in God.

May God bless us.