Faith Daily | 5 July 2022

PRAYER of the DAY - APBA p 558

O God,

you have prepared for those who love you

such good things as pass our understanding:

pour into our hearts such love toward you,

that, loving you above all things,

we may obtain your promises

which exceed all that we can desire;

through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen

GOSPEL for the Day: Matthew 9: 32-38

32 After they had gone away, a demoniac who was mute was brought to him. 33And when the demon had been cast out, the one who had been mute spoke; and the crowds were amazed and said, ‘Never has anything like this been seen in Israel.’ 34But the Pharisees said, ‘By the ruler of the demons he casts out the demons.’

35 Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness. 36When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; 38therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest.’

GOSPEL REFLECTION: Angela Back

I can’t but focus on the compassion of Jesus. ‘He had compassion on the crowds because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd’ – how graphic and how heart- warming this is. Healing a mute man amazed the onlookers: ‘nothing like this had ever been seen in Israel’. Jesus brought a new reality to the people of Palestine. And this cost him grief. He wept over the people of Jerusalem, wanting to gather them into his arms as a mother hen gathers her chickens under her feathers. Surely this must be His reaction now as he sees in Ukraine cities being destroyed, people distraught under bombing. He will be calling on the people of Europe to turn to him, the Good Shepherd.

Mercifully, we are not in this sort of trouble. But in our praying we can, like the prophet Isaiah, bring our hopeful imaginations to bear on these grim situations. We can continue to pray for his compassionate shepherding. There are of course, big, and small confusions, distresses, illnesses, and losses in our everyday lives. We have all have felt them. Finding he knows, he cares is a source of joy. And his help comes.

FINAL PRAYER A blessing:

When you no longer know how to be,

may the Father take you on your deeper journey.

When you no longer know what to do,

may the Spirit reveal to you your fitting task.

When all feels lost or foreign,

may you know your home in Christ.

Amen.