I Thought You Should Know | Observing what is right: Are we acting according to God's will?

Printer-friendly versionSend to friend

These opening lines from Isaiah in today's first reading set the stage for what God wishes to reveal to us today.

We know the awesome power of God's word. In the book of Genesis we are told that when God said, "Let there be light," light was created. The same was true for each stage of creation, including the creation of man in God's own image and likeness. Whenever God spoke, things happened.

However, God created man with a free will. Therefore, when God speaks to man, man has a choice to listen or to refuse to listen. Whether he chooses to listen or refuses to listen, what God has spoken will prevail!

That is why today through Isaiah God is telling us, "Observe what is right, do what is just; for my salvation is about to come, my justice about to be revealed."

He goes on to say that He will bring all who obey His covenant to His holy mountain and make them joyful in His house of prayer. Foreigners who observe His covenant are included in this invitation.

St. Paul deals with this same issue in today's second reading. Paul makes it very clear that those chosen people who have turned their back on the Gospel have lost their way. He also makes it clear that Gentile outsiders will become insiders as they embrace the Gospel. Hence, the Church has become what Isaiah said it would become, "... a house of prayer for all peoples."

In today's Gospel, Jesus addresses the same theme by healing the daughter of a Canaanite woman. Notice that Jesus has moved into Gentile territory near Tyre and Sidon. There, a Canaanite woman, who comes from a people detested and driven out by the Jews, approaches Jesus and asks Him to heal her daughter from a demon.

We might well ask ourselves why Jesus would leave Jewish territory and give a hearing to a woman member of a people formerly at enmity with God's chosen people.

St. Augustine suggests that she was sent by God in order to show the Apostles that people outside the Chosen People can have faith and be saved.

This is not the only time that Jesus addresses this problem. In the fourth chapter of Luke's Gospel, He experiences rejection in Nazareth where he grew up. After He speaks so convincingly about the Spirit of the Lord being upon Him, they respond with the cynicism of saying, "Do here in your native place the things we heard were done in Capernaum."

Jesus responds by telling them that "no prophet is accepted in his own native place ..." and then goes on to say that in the days of Elijah during a severe famine, there were many needy widows in Palestine, however Elijah was sent to none of these, but only to the widow of Zarephath, in Gentile territory. He also says that there were many lepers in Israel during the time of Elisha the prophet, yet only Naaman the Syrian was cleansed.

In other words, insiders become outsiders and outsiders become insiders, depending upon whether or not they listen to God's word. It is belief in God's word that brings people into the kingdom.

Notice the strong faith of this Canaanite woman. She refuses to be put off. In fact, Jesus is aware of her deep faith and perhaps wants her, as an outsider, to demonstrate this deep faith to his Apostles, who were insiders. She does not disappoint Jesus. The more he pretends to rebuff her, the bolder she becomes. She has faith, and was sent by the Father.

We might very well ask ourselves, are we really listening to the word of God and the teachings of the Church, and therefore experiencing God's justice producing fruit in our lives, or are we just going through the motions?

Do we, or perhaps some of our family members, think that because we were baptized Catholics we will be saved, even if we don't go to Church on Sunday? Remember that Our Lord tells us in Mathew's Gospel that, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven" (Matthew 7:21).

When it come to observing the laws of marriage, do we listen to the teachings of the Catholic Church about marital fidelity, or do we seek out a marriage counselor who will tell us what we want to hear?

Just because a marriage counselor says he or she is a Catholic, does not automatically mean that he or she will give you the teachings found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

If such a counselor does not inquire of you whether or not you are receiving the Sacraments of Reconciliation and the Holy Eucharist on a regular basis, I would recommend getting another opinion. If the counselor does not inquire whether or not you have ever spoken to a priest about the difficulties you are having in marriage, I would find someone else to counsel you. If any counselor is quick to tell you that your marriage is over and that both of you should move on and find more compatible companions, then you need to seek another counselor who is faithful to the teachings of the Catholic Church. Psychology without faith will not save a marriage. You deserve a counselor who believes and lives the teachings of the Catholic Church.

What about the situation of a son or daughter whose case seems hopeless to you? Take a page out of the repertoire of the Canaanite woman in today's Gospel. According to her, no case is hopeless if you are persistent in rattling God's cage often enough. Why do you think Jesus saw to it to include this story in His revealed word?