Wednesday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Have you ever wanted something so bad, that you did all you could to make your wish come true? You did everything in your power to make your desire a reality. Everything from petitioning God, to focusing on a reality so much that it seems to become true. Wishes can create false dilemmas in us or they can help us find a hope that will lead us to faith and truth.
True dilemmas can occur when we are faced with realities that seem to contradict our expectations. When the Israelites had reached the Promised Land, it was just as the Lord had promised filled with milk and honey. The trouble was God's people expected that getting into this new land would be easy. When negativity spread throughout the community, distrust replaced hope and disbelief replaced faith. In a way the Lord gave the people what they had wished for, and thus their grumbling cost them forty more years of wandering in the desert. How does our grumbling and pushback to the Lord's call cause us to wander away from our faith?
The gospel presents a contrast to the expectations of Israelites. Jesus is outside of the Promised Land and the faith and persistence of Canaanite woman models that which we would have expected from the Israelites. Despite the pushback from the apostles and even Jesus, the woman's faith and positive attitude wins the Lord over and he grants her request. Her daughter was healed because of her mother’s faith in Jesus.
Eventually healing occurred to the vision of the Israelites and they were able to enter the Promised Land because their attitude changed. The Israelites came to believe in God’s promise when before they were only looking at the “Promised Land.” God’s promise became incarnate in Jesus. Consider how our own negative or positive attitudes may lead us toward or away from Jesus? Consider what kind of people we surround ourselves with. Do they lead us either toward the Promised Land or the desert? While these questions are simplistic, today's readings challenge us to choose what attitude and what path we will follow.
"Lord You are our Promise. Help us to be persistently faithful to Your will when challenges offer us easier paths forward. Shape our attitudes and guide us always toward You, who lives and reigns one God forever and ever Amen!"
- Deacon Michael Montgomery