Saturday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time/ BVM on Sat

Title

Why Could We Not Drive It Out?

Outline

They hit a frustrating situation that they could not solve

They had healed many who had been sick

They had even driven out demons

But with this one they tried everything they knew to do and failed

Jesus? Well, he is way up there, praying I guess - he often prays all night

Us? Well, it worked when he sent us out. Perhaps we never had a case of someone who was “moonstruck”

Then Jesus shows up

In our reading in Matthew he deals with the boy quickly - the problem is a demon and he expels it

He had been with God and he knew what the will of the Father was

But he comments to the crowd, “Faithless and perverse generation . . .”

And to the disciples he says, “Because of your little faith [you could not drive it out]. Amen, I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

What does he mean by this?

In an Ordinariate mass after the initial greeting and the prayer for purity of heart, the deacon or priest says, “Hear what our Lord Jesus Christ saith; Thou shalt love the Lord they God with all . . .”

Complete love, complete unity of will, complete trust

But if we are to be like that, we must be like Jesus and spend time with him and the Father so that we love what he loves, does what he is doing, trust him to act where he wants to act.

Then our action is “To hear is to obey” - it is done in unity with God

And even the Mount of Transfiguration or the Temple Mount (both could be meant) will move

The “secret” (as if it were secret) is to spend time coming into unity with God and then doing what the Father tells you to do or “doing what the Father is doing”

The crowd was “faithless” in that they were not trust God to do his will, but asking a miracle worker to do their will

The disciples were “little faiths” because they were acting out of their expertise and experience (we are the guys Jesus empowered and sent out) and not out of their union with Jesus, doing the will of the Father. I guarantee that when asked they did not have a prayer time: “Father in heaven, Jesus is not here, but we are. What, if anything do you want us to do?” Then one waits in worshipful quiet.

When I say that, I feel shame, for that is too much like how I act. It is not that God is all my love and will and trust, but that I trust I know how to do this, whatever it is. Instead my “effectiveness” in the eyes of the Father comes from my time before him and from doing what I see him doing or telling me to do - sometimes it is to do nothing, but rather pray more coming into union with him.

And the same is true for you in your own sphere of life.

Readings

Catholic Daily Readings 8-7-2021: Saturday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time

FIRST READING

Deuteronomy 6:4–13

4 Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone! 5 Therefore, you shall love the LORD, your God, with your whole heart, and with your whole being, and with your whole strength. 6 Take to heart these words which I command you today. 7 Keep repeating them to your children. Recite them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Bind them on your arm as a sign and let them be as a pendant on your forehead. 9 Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates.

10 When the LORD, your God, brings you into the land which he swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that he would give you, a land with fine, large cities that you did not build, 11 with houses full of goods of all sorts that you did not garner, with cisterns that you did not dig, with vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant; and when, therefore, you eat and are satisfied, 12 be careful not to forget the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that house of slavery. 13 The LORD, your God, shall you fear; him shall you serve, and by his name shall you swear.

Catholic Daily Readings 8-7-2021: Saturday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION

2 Timothy 1:10

10 but now made manifest through the appearance of our savior Christ Jesus, who destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel,

GOSPEL

Matthew 17:14–20

14 When they came to the crowd a man approached, knelt down before him, 15 and said, “Lord, have pity on my son, for he is a lunatic and suffers severely; often he falls into fire, and often into water. 16 I brought him to your disciples, but they could not cure him.” 17 Jesus said in reply, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long will I be with you? How long will I endure you? Bring him here to me.” 18 Jesus rebuked him and the demon came out of him, and from that hour the boy was cured. 19 Then the disciples approached Jesus in private and said, “Why could we not drive it out?” 20  He said to them, “Because of your little faith. Amen, I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

Notes

Catholic Daily Readings 8-7-2021: Saturday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time

SATURDAY, AUGUST 7, 2021 | ORDINARY TIME

SATURDAY OF THE EIGHTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

YEAR 1 | ROMAN MISSAL | LECTIONARY

On the same date: Saint Sixtus II, Pope and Martyr, and Companions, Martyrs; Saint Cajetan, Priest

First Reading Deuteronomy 6:4–13

Response Psalm 18:2

Psalm Psalm 18:2–4, 47, 51

Gospel Acclamation 2 Timothy 1:10

Gospel Matthew 17:14–20

GREEN if Saturday, Red Martyrs, White BVM