Tuesday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
July 9, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/070924.cfm

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Jesus went around to all the towns and villages,
teaching in their synagogues,
proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom,
and curing every disease and illness.
At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity for them
because they were troubled and abandoned,
like sheep without a shepherd.
Matthew 9:32-38

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Have you ever felt your heart constrict or your belly drop in the face of deep sadness or shock? If so, you have felt “splancha”, the Greek word for that profound compassion that wells up from our innards for the sake of a suffering person.

Matthew tells us that Jesus felt “splancha” for the crowds because they were troubled and abandoned. They had lost their way to God and had no one to help them find it. Thus he reaches out to heal and teach them about God’s Lavish Mercy.

Today, in that same Lavish Mercy:
By the grace of God may we,
and all who are in need of grace,
be healed of trouble and abandonment
to find our way to God
through the Mercy of Jesus.

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Poetry: Mercy by John F. Dean

Unholy we sang this morning, and prayed
as if we were not broken, crooked
the Christ-figure hung, splayed
on bloodied beams above us;
devious God, dweller in shadows,
mercy on us;
immortal, cross-shattered Christ—
your gentling grace down upon us.

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Music: Merciful God – The Gettys and Stuart Townend