Monday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
July 8, 2019
Today, in Mercy, we come to the heart of the Jacob story. Through prayer, it may reveal the heart of our story too.
Think of this. Is there anything better than a true friend who, even in your worst isolation, says:
- I’ve got your back.
- I’m right here at your side.
- I’m with you through it all.
This is who God promises to be for Jacob in today’s wonderful first reading.
Trickster Jacob, banished and fleeing from His enraged brother, falls asleep on the vast plain, with only a rock for his pillow. He is on a journey between two lives – the old one of extreme conflict, and a new one, as yet unrevealed. When he falls asleep on this desolate night, he thinks he journeys alone.
Ever feel like that? In life, we make many small and big journeys from the old to the new, the comfortable to the challenging, the past to the future, the known to the unknown. Sometimes we make choices to leave a “life” behind. Sometimes, life makes the choice in spite of us. In many of these chosen or unchosen transitions, we may feel very alone, even abandoned.
The good news of today’s reading is that God thinks otherwise.
Know that I am with you;
I will protect you wherever you go,
and bring you back to (wholeness).
I will never leave you
until I have done what I promised you.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus realizes this same ancient promise in the lives of two people on painful journeys.
He heals the hemorrhaging woman through just her trusting fingertip along his garment’s hem. Such is the awesome power of faith and promise!
He raises new life in a dying child by the reach of her father’s faith into the heart of God’s mercy.
God is with each one of us too – unequivocally. God’s Mercy is everywhere and always.
Jacob responds to God’s promise with faith and hope. So do the Gospel’s centurion and suffering woman. Each of them, in their particular journey, shows us how to welcome God’s promise, “I am with you.” All we need do is to be with God too.
Music: You Are Mine – David Haas
Lavish Mercy 