Year A
Isaiah 56:1.6-7
Psalm 67:2-3.5.6 and 8(R.4)
Roman's 11:13-15.29-32
Matthew 15:21-28
Salvation for All
The magnitude of the statement of Jesus Christ in Matthew 17:20 can be understood when we understand what a mountain represents for the Israelites.
Matthew 17:20He said to them, "Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you."
I like the last phrase; 'and nothing will be impossible to you '. The point is, if the Mountains are where God's glory is hiding, and on this particular mountain that he was transfigured, and as he tells his disciples that if they have faith as a mustard seed, they can make it move, then it means if they have even a little faith, they can invite God's glory from where is hidden and Salvation will be theirs.
If a little faith can invoke the glory of God, then how much more a greater faith?
In the first reading today, God is inviting all who does his will to his holy mountain. He says his house will be called a house of Prayer for all peoples. It's a fact that during Jesus's time on earth the glory of God had already left the temple (cf. Ezekiel 11:23).
But Ezekiel 43 makes us aware that the glory will return to the temple, this time is not the temple we know of but a mystical temple (cf. Ezekiel 40- 44). However, before the glory will return, the temple needs to be cleansed. So when Jesus cleansed the temple in Matthew 21:12ff, he quoted the first reading last statement; 'My house shall be called the house of Prayer...' Infact the mystical temple is his body, for the gospel of John makes us aware that during this event they asked him what sign will he show them for doing this and he said when they destroy the temple, in three days he will raise it up. John comments on this that;
John 2:21But he was speaking of the temple that was his body.
Remember when Paul was persecuting the Christians what Jesus told him when he encountered him on the road of Damascus; "...Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me" (cf.Acts 9:4ff). Why will Jesus say Paul was persecuting him if the members of the Church are not part of his mystical body. This is what radically shaped Paul's understanding of Christianity and he became the Apostle to the gentiles.
1 Corinthians 12:27Now Christ's body is yourselves, each of you with a part to play in the whole.
All those who are saved by Christ through his death and resurrection which makes Baptism powerful; because we die to our old selves when we are immersed into the water and we rise to a new life when we are raised from the water. So in the second reading Paul continues to make us aware that, because God wants to save us all and not only a few, he has consigned all men to disobedience.
Why will God consign all men to disobedience? The answer is found in the gift of freedom that was given man during creation.
In today's gospel, a Canaanite woman begs Jesus to save her daughter who is possessed and tormented by a demon. The woman exhibit a greater faith to the extent that Jesus Christ had to stretch his saving hands to gentiles even though per his mission at that time he was not do so. The first time when she cried out to Jesus, he was silent; we mostly feel God is silent in our situations and he will not come to our aid. Later his disciples begged Jesus for the woman; here we see the help of the saints in Prayer. The second time the woman came to worship Jesus saying "Lord help me," but Jesus' answer was harsh and I believe most of us will have been Irritated by this answer and even stop, but the woman pressed on.
It is her answer to the harsh response of Jesus that showed her great faith. Like the woman today, let us continue to invoke God's glory and join the psalmist in saying
O God, be gracious and bless us and let your face shed its light upon us. So will your ways be know upon earth and all nations learn your Salvation.
The glory of God is his face, Moses sought it in Exodus 33:18, but he was not allowed to see God's face. So John 1:18 tells us no one has ever seen God, but it's his Son whom he loved who has made him known to us. He is the visible image of the invisible God, and through him Salvation is given to all people.
By
Sylvester Amakye-Quayson
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