Daily Reflection – July 8, 2016
Friday 8 July 2016
First Reading: Hosea 14:2-10
Responsorial Psalm:
My mouth will declare your praiae
Psalm 51:3-4,8-9,12-13,14 and 17
Gospel Reading: Matthew 10:16-23
Today’s Note: Friday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Gospel Reading:
Jesus said to his Apostles:
“Behold, I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves;
so be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves.
But beware of men,
for they will hand you over to courts
and scourge you in their synagogues,
and you will be led before governors and kings for my sake
as a witness before them and the pagans.
When they hand you over,
do not worry about how you are to speak
or what you are to say.
You will be given at that moment what you are to say.
For it will not be you who speak
but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.
Brother will hand over brother to death,
and the father his child;
children will rise up against parents and have them put to death.
You will be hated by all because of my name,
but whoever endures to the end will be saved.
When they persecute you in one town, flee to another.
Amen, I say to you, you will not finish the towns of Israel
before the Son of Man comes.”
Reflection:
Return . . . to the Lord. (Hosea 14:2)
In a speech in 1910 about courage and risk taking, US president Theodore Roosevelt said, “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles. . . . The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly . . . who spends himself in a worthy cause.”
The people of Israel were certainly marred, but not from wars and battles. For them, it was their struggle to stay faithful to the Lord in the midst of much temptation. Too often they had stumbled and given in to sin. But rather than sit on the sidelines and criticize them, God calls them to get back up and keep fighting: “You have collapsed through your guilt,” he says through Hosea. “Return . . . to the Lord, your God” (Hosea 14:2). He makes it clear that God is with them, ready to forgive and restore them.
As we walk through life, we, too, will struggle with sin and temptation. There will be moments when our faces will be marred. There will be times when we won’t feel like fighting the battle anymore. It’s so much easier to give in! But this is when we can remember the “worthy cause” we are fighting for: our relationship with the Lord and the building of his kingdom. There is nothing more precious and noble!
Listen to what God has promised to do for us every time we turn back to him: “I will heal their defection . . . love them freely . . . be like the dew for Israel” (Hosea 14:5, 6). He is always ready to flood us with love at our weakest and messiest moments. No matter how often we do it, when we reach out to God, he will help us.
Remember too that God has also decided to spend himself on a worthy cause: you! Your heavenly Father, whose power is made perfect in your weakness, has a reservoir of grace, compassion, and strength waiting just for you. All you have to do is ask.
“Father, thank you for your mercy and love, which are new every day. Be with me today; help me stay true to you.”
