August 08, 2015
Saturday, 18th
Week in Ordinary Time
St. Dominic
1st Reading: Dt 6: 4-13
Gospel: Mt 17:14–20
A man approached Jesus, knelt before him and said, “Sir, have pity on my son who is an epileptic and is in a wretched state. He has often fallen into the fire and at other times into the water. I brought him to your disciples but they could not heal him.”Jesus replied, “You, faithless and evil people! How long must I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring him here to me.” And Jesus commanded the evil spirit to leave the boy, and the boy was immediately healed.The disciples then gathered around Jesus and asked him privately, “Why couldn’t we drive out the spirit?” Jesus said to them, “Because you have little faith. I say to you: if only you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could tell that mountain to move from here to there, and the mountain would obey. Nothing would be impossible to you.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel
in the Assimilated Life Experience)
Today’s Gospel story introduces the child to Jesus as an epileptic. It turns out he is actually possessed by an evil spirit. “Why couldn’t we drive out the spirit?” Jesus’ disciples ask. In reply Jesus says, “Because you have little faith.”Is it possible to follow Jesus and remain shallow in faith? As it was possible for the disciples who had the historical Jesus in their midst, so it is possible for us who follow Jesus mediated in signs and symbols called sacraments. As a people we have been Christianized for more than four hundred years. Has our faith gone any deeper? An affirmative answer will appear insincere in the light of some serious moral issues afflicting our society.
Consider the problem of corruption. Despite being the Far East’s cradle of Christianity, corruption in our country has gone worse to this day. What is alarming is that constituents no longer take offense at corruption even as public officials rob them openly of their hard-earned money in many ways. In utter surrender someone is proposing that we just have to level off the opportunity for corruption for everybody. Like the Apostles in today’s Gospel story who gave up on the boy from whom they could not drive the devil away, this person has given up all hopes. To him, exorcising this country of the evils of corruption is no longer possible, and so we should just settle for the so called “lesser evil” by giving everybody the equal opportunity to cheat.
If this is the attitude of many, then our faith has not only remained shallow but dead. Any compromise with the devil is venturing unto the mouth of the grave.- Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM . Email:dan.delosangeles@gmail.com. Website:www.frdan.org.
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