{"id":1223,"date":"2018-07-10T03:24:42","date_gmt":"2018-07-10T03:24:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/?p=1223"},"modified":"2018-07-10T03:24:42","modified_gmt":"2018-07-10T03:24:42","slug":"homily-week-14-01","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/2018\/07\/10\/homily-week-14-01\/","title":{"rendered":"HOMILY WEEK 14 01"},"content":{"rendered":"

Covenant Love<\/em><\/p>\n

(Hos 2:14-16,19-20; Ps 145; Matt 9:18-26)<\/p>\n

***************************************<\/p>\n

Have faith in Jesus; touch the hem of his garment, receive healing and share that life with others.<\/p>\n

There is a relational progression in the readings today. In the first reading from Hosea, God is like a lover tenderly calling Israel to come back to her first fervor. God wants an intimate, covenantal marriage relationship with God\u2019s people, involving righteousness, justice, steadfast love and mercy. God wants God\u2019s people to truly know and experience God\u2019s love.<\/p>\n

Psalm 145 unfolds what God is truly like: kind, merciful, slow to anger, gracious, abounding in steadfast love. Our response to that love is to praise God and celebrate God\u2019s awesome deeds.<\/p>\n

In the Gospel we see God incarnate, Jesus, performing two miracles. A synagogue leader\u2019s daughter has died, and an older woman with a hemorrhage wants to touch his cloak. By touching the hem of his garment with faith, she is healed, and because of the faith of the synagogue official, the girl is raised back to life.<\/p>\n

These two figures in the gospel are significant, appearing in all three Synoptic Gospels. Unlike Matthew, Luke is careful to point out that the girl is \u201cabout 12\u201d and that the woman had suffered for 12 years. One is at the age of puberty while the other is barren. One died before being able to give birth; the other was unable to birth new life.<\/p>\n

Jesus\u2019 miracles are all revelatory \u2013 he is not a miracle worker who performs miracles for their own sake. Note that Jesus never healed appendicitis. All his miracles have a purpose. He heals the mute so they can praise God, as in the psalm. He heals the deaf so they can hear God\u2019s word. He heals the lame so they can walk and spread God\u2019s word. He heals the blind so they can see the beauty of God\u2019s creation and praise God for it.<\/p>\n

The meaning here is that Jesus is about to birth something new in the world; a new world order, a new creation, as foretold in the first reading. By putting our complete faith and trust in him, we can participate in that new creation. Just touching the hem of his garment with faith brings healing to us.<\/p>\n

An unusual example might be youth drinking all weekend, who sneak into 5 pm mass on Sunday, and sit at the back with sunglasses on. They are touching the hem of the garment of Jesus just by being there with some degree of faith, and healing is happening<\/p>\n

The Eucharist we celebrate now is truly touching the hem of his garment, and healing is happening to us right here and now \u2013 through Jesus\u2019 word and sacrament.<\/p>\n

May it deepen our faith in Jesus, bring us healing and new life, and empower us to share that life with others.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Covenant Love (Hos 2:14-16,19-20; Ps 145; Matt 9:18-26) *************************************** Have faith in Jesus; touch the hem of his garment, receive healing and share that life with others. There is a relational progression in the readings today. In the first reading from Hosea, God is like a lover tenderly calling Israel to come back to her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ordinary-time"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1223"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1224,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1223\/revisions\/1224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}