SEEING SIGNS – CONVERSION

July 13, Tuesday

FIFTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

 

      Moses had to be saved from the waters so that he could share the same experience as his people when they were to be saved by passing through the waters.

      The poor and the oppressed are often more open to salvation than the self-satisfied, sophisticated city dwellers; the latter are often in the Bible the image of rationalistic and corrupt people, also among the Jews. As they are more individualistic, they do not easily form a community of salvation. In the noise and bustle of a busy life, they do not see the signs of God’s presence.

 

First Reading: Exodus 2:1-15a

A man from the family of Levi married a Levite woman. The woman became pregnant and had a son. She saw there was something special about him and hid him. She hid him for three months. When she couldn’t hide him any longer she got a little basket-boat made of papyrus, waterproofed it with tar and pitch, and placed the child in it. Then she set it afloat in the reeds at the edge of the Nile.

The baby’s older sister found herself a vantage point a little way off and watched to see what would happen to him. Pharaoh’s daughter came down to the Nile to bathe; her maidens strolled on the bank. She saw the basket-boat floating in the reeds and sent her maid to get it. She opened it and saw the child—a baby crying! Her heart went out to him. She said, “This must be one of the Hebrew babies.”

Then his sister was before her: “Do you want me to go and get a nursing mother from the Hebrews so she can nurse the baby for you?”

Pharaoh’s daughter said, “Yes. Go.” The girl went and called the child’s mother.

Pharaoh’s daughter told her, “Take this baby and nurse him for me. I’ll pay you.” The woman took the child and nursed him.

After the child was weaned, she presented him to Pharaoh’s daughter who adopted him as her son. She named him Moses (Pulled-Out), saying, “I pulled him out of the water.”

Time passed. Moses grew up. One day he went and saw his brothers, saw all that hard labor. Then he saw an Egyptian hit a Hebrew—one of his relatives! He looked this way and then that; when he realized there was no one in sight, he killed the Egyptian and buried him in the sand.

The next day he went out there again. Two Hebrew men were fighting. He spoke to the man who started it: “Why are you hitting your neighbor?”

The man shot back: “Who do you think you are, telling us what to do? Are you going to kill me the way you killed that Egyptian?”

Then Moses panicked: “Word’s gotten out—people know about this.”

Pharaoh heard about it and tried to kill Moses, but Moses got away to the land of Midian.

 

Gospel: Matthew 11:20-24

Next Jesus let fly on the cities where he had worked the hardest but whose people had responded the least, shrugging their shoulders and going their own way.

“Doom to you, Chorazin! Doom, Bethsaida! If Tyre and Sidon had seen half of the powerful miracles you have seen, they would have been on their knees in a minute. At Judgment Day they’ll get off easy compared to you. And Capernaum! With all your peacock strutting, you are going to end up in the abyss. If the people of Sodom had had your chances, the city would still be around. At Judgment Day they’ll get off easy compared to you.”

 

Prayer

Lord our God,
we are often blind and insensitive
to the wonderful things you do among us
and to the love people show us.
Open our minds and hearts
to see the signs of your presence
in the good people do to one another and to us.
Make us also see the presence of our crucified Lord
in people who suffer.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

Reflection:

Miracles are for change

We do agree that God works miracles in our lives. We might go on with our poetic language and say, every moment of our life is a miracle of God! Yes indeed! But what is important is to determine how do we respond to God’s miracles. The signs and wonders of Jesus in the Gospels were always with a purpose – to elicit a response from the people, a change of behaviour, a conversion of heart. After healing the lepers or the paralysed we listen to Jesus saying, “Do not sin again.” Jesus never worked a miracle to impress, but only to convert a heart back to God or to bring people into deeper union with God.

Even in the Old Testament, the signs and wonders worked by Yahweh were intended to bring about a response of faith and trust from Israel. But, the people Israel and the listeners of Jesus became so accustomed to these signs, losing sight of their purpose. Thus, in the Gospel today we hear Jesus raising a warning for the people of those regions. They refused to pay attention to the message of God, and failed to change their behaviour and return to God. Jesus sounded frustrated on the time and energy he spent on them going wasted – like the gardener who planted and cared for the fig tree gets frustrated when the tree failed to produce fruits (Luke 13:6-9).

The Words of Jesus were an attempt to encourage his hearers’ conversion by shocking them. Matthew, while writing his Gospel had in the back of his mind those synagogues of Antioch that had turned their backs on the Christian message. Therefore, he makes use of the words of Jesus to discourage any laxity or negligence in the faith and in perseverance of the members of his own community.

This leads us to think, what about us? How many opportunities, invitations to growth, to change, to conversion have I received from God through multiple channels and people? Do I take responsibility? Do I listen? Or am I like the cities of Chorazin, Bethsaida or Capernaum – stiff-necked and hard-hearted? The worst attitude that we hold on to, is our refusal to accept that we are sinners and not wanting to regret, not wanting to convert, not wanting to change, not wanting to grow.

There is no sin, however serious it may be, which God cannot forgive! The Word of God wants me to pay attention to the voices and signs of God and amend my ways to move closer to Him.

 

Video available on Youtube:  Miracles are for change