Scripture for tomorrow and several from past dates. Going from tomorrow and working back to missed reflections: July 5,4,3,2 with lectionary numbers

Scripture: July 5, Lectionary # 383. Hosea 2:16,17c-18,21-22. Psalm
145:2-3,4-5,6-7,8-9. Matthew 9:18-26:

Miracles do happen! Our Gospel text shows the power of Jesus over sickness
and deat in the two miracles we hear from St. Matthew. One of the miracles
seems to be "the chance of a life time" for the woman with the hemorrages
or a chance happening or lucky coincidences that Jesus is passing by while
she reaches out and touches his garment. She had suffered twelve years
with her affliction but the simple thought she had of just touching the hem
of his garment resulted in a miracle of healing. Jesus, however, was
already on his way to perform an even more extraordinary miracle--raising a
girl who was probably twelve year of age and had just died. Despite those
who ridiculed Jesus' saying she was just asleep he does raise her from the
dead. Mark tells us that those who were her parents were told by Jesus to
give her something to eat. Are miracles that common? Evidently not from
the reaction of those who surround Jesus and doubt he can do the
miraculous.

Something else was at work in both of these miracles. It was the faith and
reverence of the father of the child that made Jesus walk toward the home
where she lay dead. It was the strong belief of the woman with the
hemorrages that brought about her cure. From the ordinary way of looking
at things neither of these would be possible, but with God and Jesus
"nothing is impossible." In our day we need to look at the miraculous
happenings in the realm of the Spirit. This healing of memories, this
forgiving of great sins, this gift of tears or prayer is a miraculous
event. None of these are just coincidences or chance happenings. The
miraculous happens more often in the spiritual realm than it does in the
natural order of things.

In these narratives about the healings, and exorcisms of Jesus we need to
listen to the living voice of Jesus and the living voice of God. The
Scriptures are the media, the cds, the dvds that God gives us to listen to
this voice of Jesus and realize its power over our spiritual ills, sins,
and even deaths. The woman heard Jesus say to her, "Courage, daughter!
Your faith has restored you to health." And the scoffers and disbelievers
heard Jesus say, "Leave, all of you! The little girl is not dead. She is
asleep."

Jesus, we ask you to awaken us from our sleep and help us to listen to your
voice and to realize how much you desire to help us. We need to turn from
our doubts about your healing powers and trust as the woman did and believe
in you as the father of the girl did. Miracle do happen and most of them
are in the spiritual realm that is just as real as our natural realm.
Amen.

Scripture for July 4, Sunday of 14th week. Lectionary # 103. Isaiah
66:10-14. Psalm 66:1-3,4-5, 6-7,16, 20. Galatians 6:14-18. Luke
10:1-12.17-20.

Imagine that! Jesus chooses seventy-two to go and preach the Good News of
the Kingdom. They had been following him on the road up to Jerusalem and
were learning what it means to be a follower of Jesus. The journey with
him was at its beginning but they were already being sent on mission.They
all had very little to offer to Jesus, but he loved them and entrusted them
with his mission of preaching, teaching, and healing. Their limits were
apparent and so too was their trust in the Lord. But they were sent! They
traveled lightly and laid aside anything that would encumber them. Their
inner baggage of fear and selfishness was to be put aside. They were to
bring the kingdom to others and they did. They are disciples of Jesus,
that is, they were simple people learning how to follow him on the way.
Now he is already telling them to take up his mission. They are no longer
just disciples, they are apostles, that is those who are being sent in his
name and with his power.

Courageously they took up his command and soon returned telling him of
their success in preaching, teaching, and healing. Jesus had liberated
them from their fears, anxiety, and doubt. He told them that people were
like the fields which were rich for harvest. Go as laborers who would reap
the harvest which was ripe. People then just like now were looking for
someone or something beyond themselves and Jesus was the one and is the one
who can be that Person and that source which would make them followers,
learners or disciples, and then apostles. They too could be more than the
harvest, they could be the laborers who bring the harvest in.

The seventy-two listened to his message and call. They healed people and
drove out their demons. People were then freed from fear and anxiety. We,
on this Fourth of July, celebrate our own national freedom and our liberty.
We can make this celebration even more real by thanking God for this gift
of our blessed country with its liberating history. Yes, Lord, we praise
you, we bless you, and we give you our thanks. Amen.

Scripture: July 3, Feast of St. Thomas, Apostle. Ephesians 2:19-22. Psalm
117: 1.2. John 20: 24-29.

Let us leave aside the idea of Thomas the Apostle as the doubter. We are
called to appreciate his gifts and his life by thinking outside of the box
in which we have placed this great apostle. He is featured only in John's
Gospel and thus we think of him as being among the intimate friends of
Jesus in the community of Beloved Disciple. We think of him as having faith
in Jesus because he followed him up to his last few days. He asked
questions of Jesus during the Last Supper.

Our first reading from Galatians tells us that the whole structure of those
who would become the community of Jesus, the Church, are held together by
the Spirit and are growing into a Temple sacred to God. We today as the
community of believers in the Lord Jesus are being built into a dwelling
place of God in the Spirit. This is St. Paul's way of addressing the
churches he had founded in Jesus' name. The Epistle to the Ephesians was
addressed to all of the people of God in the local churches and in their
assembly as the church universal. Thomas, too, as an apostle is said to
have done this for the Orient. He is the Apostle of India and Pakistan!

We as their descendants or the churches the apostles left behind should
boast in the Lord as Paul did and as Thomas did. Our sense of belonging to
a community united under the name of Jesus and his apostles is a gracious
gift of God which unites us with God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Our
baptism is the real sign of this and enables us to be citizens from above.

Returning to our sainted hero for the day, St. Thomas, we thank John for
having remembered his words and handed them down to us. We learn how
Thomas came to believe in Jesus from Cana on but now was offering us the
fullness of that belief. Jesus appearance to Thomas in the octave of his
resurrection seals the reality of Thomas mature faith as an apostle.
Thomas was aware that Jesus had suffered horribly and died a cruel death on
the cross, but in this appearance he brought his understanding of the
Paschal Mystery to its fullest meaning when he cried out his being born
again by saying, "My Lord and my God." Jesus had gently confronted his
immature faith by letting him see and even touch his sacred wounds. Thomas
did not have to do that for he had come to the fullness of faith in Jesus
as the Son of God. We are asked to do the same with out having the special
appearance of Jesus as Thomas had. We are blessed with him when Jesus says
that blessed are those who have not seen but have believed. Thomas is
alive and well in the splendor of God's heavenly kingdom. May our faith in
Jesus grow into the courageous love that developed in Thomas. He is not a
doubter any longer but one who is a healer of doubters. Amen.

Scripture: July 2, Lectionary # 381. Amos 8:4-6,9-12. Psalm
119:2.10.20.30.40.131. Matthew 9:9-13:

Is Matthew the tax collector the same person who writes the Gospel of
Matthew? In the living tradition of the Church we affirm that this is the
same person. He is important in the order in which the Gospels have been
read in the Church from the beginning. It is called the Wester Order:
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The liturgical celebrations of the Church
have used this order from the beginning, but we know that the first Gospel
to be written was Mark, then Matthew, followed by Luke and finally John
giving the thological finishing touch to the more kerygmatic gospels which
are also called the synoptics, that is, those having the same general
outlook. Matthew may have had a second name which we cull from the Gospel,
namely, that of Levi. It is Mark and Luke who call him by that second name.
His preferred name for the Gospel of Matthew is the same and it means "
Gift of God." He is the man who left all to follow Christ. Matthew is
mentioned in all of the listings of the apostles. He is the only Matthew
in all of the Bible perhaps attesting to the authenticity of the name
behind the first Gospel of the Western Order. For over two thousand years
this is the only named attached to the Gospel. As one would expect from a
tax-collector there is a definite order and neatness to the narratives and
layout of this Gospel. There is also an affinity with numbers that the
other Gospels lack. For example the numbers five, twelve, and seven are
easily seen in this Gospel. His magnificent use of numbers and names in
lists are seen in the genealogy in chapter one.

We are familiar with this Gospel from the many times it was used in the
history of the church and its liturgy of the word. Before Vatican II
(1962-65) this Gospel was used more frequently in the Mass than the other
three put together. It is also the easiest Gospel for the Jews to
understand because of its resonance with Jewish thought in the parables and
its structure into five great parts like the Torah. His book uses the term
kingdom fifty-six times and it gives us the parables of the kingdom. Its
theme is known as the "Hebrew porch of the New Testament."

Jesus calls Matthew and he leaves at once and calls Jesus! to a dinner with
other tax-collectors and sinners. Matthew's ability to leave his
possessions behind him and to immediately follow the Lord shows us he was
searching for something beyond the accumulation of wealth and power. He is
a gift of God for all of us and a model for orderly writing. Amen.

Scripture: July 1, Lectionary # 380. Amos 7:10-17. Psalm 19:8,9,10,11.
Matthew 9:1-8:

The scribes question Jesus' authority to forgive sins even though he
demonstrates he can do this by means of a miracle. Openness requires
humility and authenticity and in this instance the scribes of this
narrative did not have either of the two.

In our first reading from Amos we learn that his authority is challenged
and even outright rejected by the King of the Northern Kingdom Jeroboam.
Even though God is the one who called Amos and gave him the gift of
prophecy both the northern ruler and the southern would not accept what he
said in the name of God. He had a tough job with two non-listening kings
who refused to hear God through one of the great prophets of justice.
We see in the Gospel that the paralyzed man had faith in Jesus while the
scribes did not. They rash judged his words about healing the man of his
sins and called Jesus a blasphemer. In this respect both Jesus and Amos
are undergoing the same type of opposition to what in reality is the word
of God spoken through Jesus and a prophet. Both however carry out God's
plan and God's word despite the oppostion of kings, rulers, and people.

Both Jesus and Amos were given the authority (exousia=power from within the
person) to carry out the mission God had given them. They achieved their
purpose in life and their goals which were always in harmony with God's
will for them. We can learn much from these two readings when we feel we
are not being listened to, when we are rejected and told to go elsewhere.
We are like them when we suffer rash judgment. Here is where our faith
needs to be strong enough to realize we are united to Christ through the
prophetic calls of God that we hear or sense in times of our being
rejected. Like Amos tells us "We seek God and live!" Amen.