Humble Yet Firm

The WORD today (see http://usccb.org/bible/readings/080917.cfm) reminds me that I should remain humble but be firm in faith. 

Not all people can handle rejection. Others get sad, depressed and some even commit suicide because of rejection in different aspects of life. However, In today’s gospel, we see someone who was able not only to handle the seemingly “rejection”, but to stay firm and humble throughout – thus getting what she wanted. 

Being Greek, the woman in the gospel is classified as a Gentile. And since the “chosen people” during Jesus time were Jews, his focus was on them. That’s why when she came to Him, he “initially rejected” her by saying that the children (of God) should be fed first. He was focusing on the Jews. And went on further and told that the food of the children should not be fed to the dogs. However, the woman did not back down. She was humble, yet firm. She wanted her daughter to be healed, so she humbly accepted that they were not the main priority of Jesus, but was firm when she told Jesus that even the dogs would eat the leftovers of the children. She is not asking to be prioritized, there is no sense of entitlement in her, but she is just humbly asking if she can also benefit from Jesus’ power.

Hindi porke di mo agad nakuha ang pinag dadasal mo, titigil ka na. Minsan gusto siguro makita ng Diyos gaano mo ka gusto and pinagdadasal mo, at gaano kalakas ang tiwala mo sa kanya. 

Just because you don’t get something the first time you ask for it, doesn’t mean God will not give It to you. Jesus eventually gave the woman what she wanted in the first place. He rewarded the humble yet firm faith of the woman and healed her daughter. 

We should be inspired by the woman. There is no sense of entitlement in her, no feeling that Jesus should give her what she wants because she is a good person, or because what she is asking is something good for her daughter. She had a lot of faith, but was humble. She accepted when Jesus initially rejected her request, but had great faith that she did not leave and was persistent. Many times in life we do not get something the first time we pray for it. We sometimes keep on praying, but sometimes we give up easily. We should take inspiration from the woman and work on our faith. God is good. And loving. And powerful. 

May we be inspired by the woman in the gospel and have a humble yet firm faith in God.

Father God,

Thank you for today. Thank you for another day to live. Thank you for all your blessings. Thank you for being generous, for blessing us even if we do not deserve it. Sorry for the times I show weak faith in you. Sorry for the times I forget you. Sorry for not being humble, for the times I feel a sense of entitlement to your blessings. Help me be like the woman with humble yet firm faith in you, especially when things doesn’t go my way or when I don’t get what I pray for. Increase my faith. Make me more pleasing to you. Amen.

Blessed day!

In Christ,

-g-

Ps

See related reflection:

http://mysimplereflection.blogspot.com/2017/02/strong-persistent-and-humble.html

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August 9, 2017
Wednesday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 409

Reading 1NM 13:1-2, 25–14:1, 26A-29A, 34-35

The LORD said to Moses [in the desert of Paran,]
"Send men to reconnoiter the land of Canaan,
which I am giving the children of Israel.
You shall send one man from each ancestral tribe,
all of them princes."

After reconnoitering the land for forty days they returned,
met Moses and Aaron and the whole congregation of the children of Israel
in the desert of Paran at Kadesh,
made a report to them all,
and showed the fruit of the country
to the whole congregation.
They told Moses: "We went into the land to which you sent us.
It does indeed flow with milk and honey, and here is its fruit.
However, the people who are living in the land are fierce,
and the towns are fortified and very strong.
Besides, we saw descendants of the Anakim there.
Amalekites live in the region of the Negeb;
Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites dwell in the highlands,
and Canaanites along the seacoast and the banks of the Jordan."

Caleb, however, to quiet the people toward Moses, said,
"We ought to go up and seize the land, for we can certainly do so."
But the men who had gone up with him said,
"We cannot attack these people; they are too strong for us."
So they spread discouraging reports among the children of Israel
about the land they had scouted, saying,
"The land that we explored is a country that consumes its inhabitants.
And all the people we saw there are huge, veritable giants
(the Anakim were a race of giants);
we felt like mere grasshoppers, and so we must have seemed to them."

At this, the whole community broke out with loud cries,
and even in the night the people wailed.

The LORD said to Moses and Aaron:
"How long will this wicked assembly grumble against me?
I have heard the grumblings of the children of Israel against me.
Tell them: By my life, says the LORD,
I will do to you just what I have heard you say.
Here in the desert shall your dead bodies fall.
Forty days you spent in scouting the land;
forty years shall you suffer for your crimes:
one year for each day.
Thus you will realize what it means to oppose me.
I, the LORD, have sworn to do this
to all this wicked assembly that conspired against me: 
here in the desert they shall die to the last man."

Responsorial PsalmPS 106:6-7AB, 13-14, 21-22, 23

R. (4a) Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your people.
We have sinned, we and our fathers;
we have committed crimes; we have done wrong.
Our fathers in Egypt
considered not your wonders.
R. Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your people.
But soon they forgot his works;
they waited not for his counsel.
They gave way to craving in the desert
and tempted God in the wilderness.
R. Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your people.They forgot the God who had saved them,
who had done great deeds in Egypt,
Wondrous deeds in the land of Ham,
terrible things at the Red Sea.
R. Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your people.
Then he spoke of exterminating them,
but Moses, his chosen one, 
Withstood him in the breach
to turn back his destructive wrath.
R. Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your people.

AlleluiaLK 7:16

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
A great prophet has arisen in our midst
and God has visited his people.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

GospelMT 15: 21-28

At that time Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon.
And behold, a Canaanite woman of that district came and called out,
"Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David!
My daughter is tormented by a demon."
But he did not say a word in answer to her.
His disciples came and asked him,
"Send her away, for she keeps calling out after us."
He said in reply,
"I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."
But the woman came and did him homage, saying, "Lord, help me."
He said in reply,
"It is not right to take the food of the children
and throw it to the dogs."
She said, "Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps
that fall from the table of their masters."
Then Jesus said to her in reply,
"O woman, great is your faith!
Let it be done for you as you wish."

And her daughter was healed from that hour.