Hard Heart

The WORD today (See http://usccb.org/bible/readings/071415.cfm) reminds me that not all people will choose God.

When we have friends, we want to help them as much as we can. We exert all effort to be there for them, and to bring them back to their feet – be it financially, lovelife, or their faith life. Some people empathize very much that they feel frustrated when someone does not seem to make progress, or would just go back to their old state after us exerting all the effort to help. In today’s gospel, Jesus reminds us that not all will be willing to receive him. Some will really have a hard heart towards him.

We should know when to let go.

It is always a dilemma, to choose whether to stay, persist and hold on, or to let go. This is probably what Jesus felt as well. There are towns – Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum, in which he has been working hard to convert and have them accept God. However, their hearts are hardened towards God and Jesus knew when he has done all that he can and should already move on. He knows when to let go of preaching there and move to other towns who would be more open to receiving God.

We should learn from Jesus. We cannot change everyone. We cannot convert everyone. We cannot help everyone. God is powerful, but the only thing he does not have power over is our heart. He gave us free will to choose whether to follow him or not, whether to receive him or not, whether to love him or not. We just have to do the best we can, and ultimately leave the rest to God, and be open to not getting the results that we want.

May we always do our best in bringing Christ to others, but pray as well for the wisdom to know when to stop and preach to others instead.

Father God,

Thank you for today. Thank you for another day to live. thank you for the reminder. Lord,  sorry for being frustrated for not getting the results that I want. Sorry for the times I hang on when you are already telling me to let go. I just lift up to you the people in my life who seem not ready for you. and I ask that you continue to strengthen and empower me as I do my best to bring you to others. And give me the wisdom to know the right time to move on and let go. Amen.

Blessed day!

In Christ,

-g-

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July 14, 2015

Memorial of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, Virgin

Lectionary: 390

Reading 1 Ex 2:1-15a

A certain man of the house of Levi married a Levite woman,

who conceived and bore a son.

Seeing that he was a goodly child, she hid him for three months.

When she could hide him no longer, she took a papyrus basket,

daubed it with bitumen and pitch,

and putting the child in it,

placed it among the reeds on the river bank.

His sister stationed herself at a distance

to find out what would happen to him.

Pharaoh’s daughter came down to the river to bathe,

while her maids walked along the river bank.

Noticing the basket among the reeds, she sent her handmaid to fetch it.

On opening it, she looked, and lo, there was a baby boy, crying!

She was moved with pity for him and said,

“It is one of the Hebrews’ children.”

Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter,

“Shall I go and call one of the Hebrew women

to nurse the child for you?”

“Yes, do so,” she answered.

So the maiden went and called the child’s own mother.

Pharaoh’s daughter said to her,

“Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will repay you.”

The woman therefore took the child and nursed it.

When the child grew, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter,

who adopted him as her son and called him Moses;

for she said, “I drew him out of the water.”

On one occasion, after Moses had grown up,

when he visited his kinsmen and witnessed their forced labor,

he saw an Egyptian striking a Hebrew, one of his own kinsmen.

Looking about and seeing no one,

he slew the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.

The next day he went out again, and now two Hebrews were fighting!

So he asked the culprit,

“Why are you striking your fellow Hebrew?”

But the culprit replied,

“Who has appointed you ruler and judge over us?

Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?”

Then Moses became afraid and thought,

“The affair must certainly be known.”

Pharaoh, too, heard of the affair and sought to put Moses to death.

But Moses fled from him and stayed in the land of Midian.

Responsorial Psalm PS 69:3, 14, 30-31, 33-34

R. (see 33) Turn to the Lord in your need, and you will live.

I am sunk in the abysmal swamp

where there is no foothold;

I have reached the watery depths;

the flood overwhelms me.

R. Turn to the Lord in your need, and you will live.

But I pray to you, O LORD,

for the time of your favor, O God!

In your great kindness answer me

with your constant help.

R. Turn to the Lord in your need, and you will live.

But I am afflicted and in pain;

let your saving help, O God, protect me;

I will praise the name of God in song,

and I will glorify him with thanksgiving.

R. Turn to the Lord in your need, and you will live.

“See, you lowly ones, and be glad;

you who seek God, may your hearts revive!

For the LORD hears the poor,

and his own who are in bonds he spurns not.”

R. Turn to the Lord in your need, and you will live.

Alleluia Ps 95:8

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

If today you hear his voice,

harden not your hearts.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel Mt 11:20-24

Jesus began to reproach the towns

where most of his mighty deeds had been done,

since they had not repented.

“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!

For if the mighty deeds done in your midst

had been done in Tyre and Sidon,

they would long ago have repented in sackcloth and ashes.

But I tell you, it will be more tolerable

for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you.

And as for you, Capernaum:

Will you be exalted to heaven?

You will go down to the netherworld.

For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Sodom,

it would have remained until this day.

But I tell you, it will be more tolerable

for the land of Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.”