{"id":1303,"date":"2018-08-08T00:28:09","date_gmt":"2018-08-08T00:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/?p=1303"},"modified":"2018-08-08T00:28:21","modified_gmt":"2018-08-08T00:28:21","slug":"homioly-week-18-02-yr-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/2018\/08\/08\/homioly-week-18-02-yr-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"HOMILY WEEK 18 02 – Yr II"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trust, Fidelity and Praise<\/em><\/p>\n

(Jer 30:1-22; Ps 102; Mt 14:22-36)<\/p>\n

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

Three words – trust, fidelity and praise \u2013 capture the essence of today\u2019s liturgy.<\/p>\n

In the first reading, God comes across as a rejected lover who uses Semitic hyperbole to communicate the depth of his hurt and disappointment in God\u2019s beloved, unfaithful Israel. God portrays them as hopeless and almost beyond redemption.<\/p>\n

Then, halfway through the reading, the tone changes completely. God takes on a stance that is totally opposite, and totally true to God\u2019s nature as a faithful God true to God\u2019s covenant and promises. God will have compassion on Israel, shower unconditional love upon it, and restore it to its former glory, even honoring her.<\/p>\n

Slipped into one of those stanzas is the promise of a prince who will be one of them, a ruler who shall come from their own midst. This ruler alone will be able to approach God, to be drawn near to God.<\/p>\n

Psalm 102 continues that same thrust of unconditional love, proclaiming the Lord will build up Zion again. God will look down upon destitute and imprisoned Israel and transform them into God\u2019s own people once again who will gather together to worship the Lord.<\/p>\n

In the Gospel, we see that prince and ruler in action, in the person of Jesus. First, Jesus shows himself more powerful than the dreaded sea, by walking upon the waters in a storm. Then he reaches out to Peter, the symbol of impoverished Israel, short on faith and drowning in the water of its own efforts to save itself.<\/p>\n

The gospel ends with Jesus landing in a pagan land, being recognized by them, and being so approachable that all the sick who even touch the fringe of his cloak are healed. What could be more encouraging than this scene?<\/p>\n

There is also here the prayer of the Anawim – the poor people – those who know they need God, such as all the sick approaching Jesus, and especially, Peter crying out in his powerlessness to save himself. That is the prayer we all need to pray every morning, as we are all sinners, as Pope Francis likes to remind us, and all in need of God\u2019s mercy.<\/p>\n

The Eucharist is our prime example of our prince and ruler reaching out to us, making God\u2019s self totally available to us, forgiving and healing us.<\/p>\n

Let us strive to be the true and faithful people of God who as in the psalm, gather to praise and worship our God.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trust, Fidelity and Praise (Jer 30:1-22; Ps 102; Mt 14:22-36) ****************************************** Three words – trust, fidelity and praise \u2013 capture the essence of today\u2019s liturgy. In the first reading, God comes across as a rejected lover who uses Semitic hyperbole to communicate the depth of his hurt and disappointment in God\u2019s beloved, unfaithful Israel. God […]<\/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-1303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ordinary-time"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1303","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=1303"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1305,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1303\/revisions\/1305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}