Gospel for July 01, 2009, Wednesday
Claretian Communications Foundation, Inc. | 07/01/2009 12:00 AM
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13th Week in Ordinary Time
Bl. Junipero Serra
1st Reading: Gen 21:5, 8–20a
Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.
The child grew and on the day Isaac was weaned, Abraham held a great feast. Sarah saw the child that Hagar, the Egyptian had borne to Abraham, mocking her son and she said to Abraham, “Send this slave girl and her son away; the child of this slave must not share the inheritance with my son, Isaac.”
This matter distressed Abraham because it concerned his son, but God said to him, “Don’t be worried about the boy and your maidservant. Listen to Sarah and do whatever she says, because the race which is called by your name will spring from Isaac. But from the son of your servant I will also form a nation, for he too is your offspring.”
Abraham rose early next morning and gave bread and a skin bag of water to Hagar. He put the child on her back and sent her away. She went off and wandered in the desert of Beersheba. When there was no more water in the skin, she pushed the boy under one of the bushes, and then went and sat down about a hundred yards away, for she thought, “I cannot bear to see my son die.”
But as she sat there, the child began to wail. God heard him and the Angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said, “What is the matter, Hagar? Don’t be afraid. God has heard the boy crying. Get up, pick the boy up and hold him safely, for I will make him into a great nation.” God then opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. She went and filled the skin and gave the boy a drink.
God was with the boy. He grew up and made his home in the wilderness and became an expert archer.
Gospel: Mt 8:28–34
When Jesus reached Gadara on the other side, he was met by two demoniacs who came out from the tombs. They were so fierce that no one dared to pass that way. Suddenly they shouted, “What do you want with us, you, Son of God? Have you come to torture us before the time?”
At some distance away there was a large herd of pigs feeding. So the demons begged him, “If you drive us out, send us into that herd of pigs.”
Jesus ordered them, “Go.” So they left and went into the pigs. The whole herd rushed down the cliff into the lake and drowned.
The men in charge of them ran off to the town, where they told the whole story, also what had happened to the men possessed with the demons. Then the whole town went out to meet Jesus; and when they saw him, they begged him to leave their area.
REFLECTION
Today’s Genesis story describes a lonely wilderness place, to where Hagar and her son were sent. In wilderness places, one experiences both the presence and the absence of God. When we find ourselves in the wilderness for any length of time, we quickly learn that there are others there, too. No matter what makes our life a wilderness, it can be lonely. But, in the wilderness, God does hear. When everything about us looks like wilderness and threat of death, God opens our eyes, and we see new life.
Then again, we know that all of life's stories don’t have happy endings. Some end in the deathly wilderness, without a sign of the life-giving water of new life. We can also recognize all the ways we alienate ourselves and retreat into places of isolation. But, in our despair, we must not shut God out of our lives or close our hearts to love. We must be comforted by God, who hears our weeping. In our prayer, we can sense God’s unconditional love. When we harden our spirits to avoid pain, we must pray to God for help to allow His penetrating love to break through our shell of self-protection.
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