Faith Daily | 13 July 2022

PRAYER of the DAY - APBA p558

O Lord, we beseech you

mercifully to receive the prayers of your people

who call upon you,

and grant that they may both perceive and know

what things they ought to do,

and also may have grace and power

faithfully to fulfil them’

through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen

GOSPEL for the Day: Matthew 11: 25-27

25At that time Jesus said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; 26yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. 27All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

GOSPEL REFLECTION: Graeme Curnow

I felt this passage was a bit “left field” until I read in the previous verses 20 -24, which put it into context. (There is a similar passage in Luke 10 starting at Verse 12.)

Prior to Jesus thanking God He had expressed His frustration and bitterness because His ministry had failed to impress local, unrepentant, townsfolk including those living in His favourite, Capernaum.

Who among us has not been similarly disappointed when our own earnest Christian ministry fails to bear fruit or to be appreciated?

It is comforting to know that Jesus, the Man, had been in that situation. However, in today’s passage Jesus shows us how to get over it. He finds something to thank God for and then to re-claim the authority that God has given Him. We can but follow Jesus’ example.

It is also encouraging that Jesus appreciated the simple faith of children rather than the cynicism of their sophisticated, and wise elders. Perhaps we should take the Scriptures more at their face value, rather than analyse them for hidden metaphors.

Thus, we may become more adept at recognising and appreciating angels when they encounter us?

FINAL PRAYER A Prayer from Carmena Gadelica

God’s will would I do,

My own will, bridle.

God’s due I would give,

My own due, yield.

God’s path would I travel

My own path, refuse.

Christ’s death would I ponder,

My own death, remember.

Christ’s agony would I meditate,

My love to God, make warmer…..

Amen.