Reflections on the Word

CD Program & Reflections on the Word

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Daily Mass Reading Schedule

Below you will find the link for the daily Scripture readings from the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar as adapted for use in the United States. Celebration of solemnities, feasts, memorials, or other observances particular to your country, diocese, or parish may result in some variation.

Click here for the February 2012 Daily Mass Reading schedule

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Todays Meditation

2/9/12

Meditation: Mark 7:24-30

"The demon has gone out of your daughter." (Mark 7:29)

What a relief! Finally, after all her begging and pleading, this woman prevailed upon Jesus to cast a demon out of her daughter. She knew that according to social and ethnic conventions, she, a Gentile, had no business going to Jesus, a Jew, with her request. But her sense of desperation overpowered these concerns. Here was the one man who could heal her daughter.

We might think that this woman should be commended for her faith. And to a degree, we would be right. It took great confidence in Jesus for her to plead her case before the Lord. But faith is only part of the story. This woman could have believed all she wanted, but it would have gotten her nowhere if she didn't push back against Jesus' seeming reluctance. She needed determination as well. And she clearly had more than enough of that!

This story shows us that living in faith is not just a matter of resting peacefully in God's loving arms. It's not just a matter of trusting that everything will turn out all right. No, there are times when faith means having the determination to fight through obstacles until we see the outcome we believe God wants to give us. There are times when we need to couple faith with sheer willpower.

It doesn't show a lack of faith, for instance, if we ask the Lord to give us a job, and then spend most of our day checking the want ads and going on interviews. Neither does it show spiritual weakness if we ask God to heal a relationship, and then take the first step toward reconciliation with an estranged friend. If anything, God applauds these efforts, because it shows that we are putting our faith into action. It shows that we are expecting that he will not leave us high and dry when we step out on our own.

We all have areas in our lives where we will need to take the first step, and the second and third step, before we will see God work. Let's take those steps, firm in our faith and trusting in God's provision.

"Jesus, help me to take those first steps in faith, confident that you will carry me the rest of the way."

1 Kings 11:4-13; Psalm 106:3-4,35-37,40