WORD 2day: Monday, 18th week in Ordinary time
August 3, 2020: Jeremiah 28:1-17; Matthew 14: 22-36
The readings today remind us of our call to be a prophets... how far are we aware of the fact that each of us baptised in the Spirit is called to be a priest, a prophet and a prince (or princess)? Of course, knowing is one thing, and being convinced of it is another; but being it, much less said, is totally a different thing.
Today we have umpteen number of preachers, prophets and evangelists... all proclaiming from rooftops and laptops, day in and day out. Especially during these moments of crisis and lockdown... there are numerous of them, everywhere in every form! Let us beware dear friends, as the first reading points out, being a prophet is not speaking things that others would love to hear from us -like the myriad of fortune tellers, prediction prodigies, healer wheelers, and prosperity preachers today who do things to woo more and more 'customers'. Jeremiah warns Hananiah today in the first reading against his false sense of prophecy! And we know the sad end of Hananiah.
The Gospel has a symbolic message in the same lines. Jesus chides his disciples for their lack of faith, especially Peter. It might look a bit too demanding on Jesus' part to expect the disciples to remain unperturbed when they are almost sinking, and Peter to remain calm when he was almost drowning. But the point that the Master makes is that his disciples should be perturbed by nothing, absolutely nothing!
"Let nothing disturb you", he would say to them often. In today's world so immersed in numerous kinds of concerns, with the crisis all around us, wouldn't it be truly prophetic to live a life so unperturbed! Not to be prophets for profit, but real prophets who live with a serenity that comes from knowing that 'it is the Lord' who is in charge. The Lord says that today: do not fear, It is I.
The Gospel has a symbolic message in the same lines. Jesus chides his disciples for their lack of faith, especially Peter. It might look a bit too demanding on Jesus' part to expect the disciples to remain unperturbed when they are almost sinking, and Peter to remain calm when he was almost drowning. But the point that the Master makes is that his disciples should be perturbed by nothing, absolutely nothing!
"Let nothing disturb you", he would say to them often. In today's world so immersed in numerous kinds of concerns, with the crisis all around us, wouldn't it be truly prophetic to live a life so unperturbed! Not to be prophets for profit, but real prophets who live with a serenity that comes from knowing that 'it is the Lord' who is in charge. The Lord says that today: do not fear, It is I.
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