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The BreadCast


Daily Exposition of the Readings for Catholic Mass...

as well as Prayers to the Saints on the General Roman Calendar (for the U.S.).  

From the books Our Daily Bread and Prayers to the Saints by James H. Kurt - both with imprimatur.

Jul 17, 2022

(Mic.6:1-4,6-8;   Ps.50:5-6,8-9,16-17,21,23;   Mt.12:38-42) 

“The Lord has a plea against His people,

and He enters into trial with Israel.”

“God Himself is the judge,” brothers and sisters.  And so He declares: “Gather my faithful ones before me, those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”  All are brought before His throne, and all must “present [their] plea” in His presence.

And what shall we say on that Day?  Will you “come before Him with holocausts, with calves a year old?  Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with myriad streams of oil?”  Hear His word to His people: it is not these the Lord desires.  It is not the sacrifices offered in the temple built by human hands the Lord seeks of His chosen ones.  The temple He has destroyed, and with it the vain works of the flesh.  It is now the Lord’s desire that you but “walk humbly with your God.”  And so He promises: “To Him that goes the right way I will show the saving power of God,” and proclaims, “He that offers praise as a sacrifice glorifies me.”

Oh how we should praise Him! He who is “greater than Jonah” and “greater than Solomon.”  Oh how we should repent and reform our lives at His preaching!  Oh how we should walk in the light of His wisdom!  But are we not too often like those who offer vain sacrifice and seek to have our eyes impressed by some extraordinary sign?  The sign stands before us.  But all too often we are as faithless and blind as the scribes and Pharisees in our gospel today.

What a terrible thought that we might be condemned for our lack of faith by the “citizens of Nineveh” and “the queen of the South,” who needed so little, really, to believe in the greatness of the Lord.  Has He not “brought [us] up from the land of Egypt”?  Has He not released us from “the place of slavery”?  Why do we so soon forget what the ancients knew by much less?  Is not Jesus in our midst this day? 

Let us not be blind to His presence, and let us not offer our sacrifice unworthily.  For here before us stands the Lord of all; into our souls and bodies we receive Him by Word and by Sacrament.  All He asks of us is our faith.  And will we believe Him?  Or is our worship only on the tongue and not burning in our heart?  Let Him not find you faithless this day.

*******

O LORD, teach us your way of humility;

let us seek only to be as you.

YHWH, how can we seek a sign from you when it is we who should be offering a sign to you, and more than a sign – our very lives.  For your Son comes to us bringing salvation to our souls and teaching us the way to find it; should we not repent of our sin, rend our hearts before Him, and praise you for your mercy this day?

But we have not faith, LORD, and so we come only with vain sacrifices, mere words  on our lips and a heart seeking our own will to be done.  We would create you – but it is you who have created us!  You have created us and you would redeem us, and so you enter into trial with us to see if we shall merit your love.  Bring our sins up before our eyes, that by your grace we might turn from them and walk humbly with you.

Why should we even need your Son to be buried in the earth, LORD?  Should our faith not recognize you before us without such a sign?  Ah, but we are blind, so blind.  Discipline us in your love that we might reform our lives and find the way to you.