Tuesday of the fourteenth week

Entrance Antiphon Psalm 48 (47): 10‑11 Your merciful love, O God, we have received in the midst of your temple. Your praise, O God, like your name, reaches the ends of the earth; your right hand is filled with saving justice.

Collect O God, who in the abasement of your Son have raised up a fallen world, fill your faithful with holy joy, for on those you have rescued from slavery to sin you bestow eternal gladness. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Scripture today: Hosea 8:4-7.11-13; Psalm 113b; Matthew 9:32-38

While they were going out, a man who was demon-possessed and could not talk was brought to Jesus. And when the demon was driven out, the man who had been mute spoke. The crowd was amazed and said, Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel. But the Pharisees said, It is by the prince of demons that he drives out demons. Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. (Matthew 9:32-38)

No-one Like Him! Christ once said that a prophet is not without honour except in his own country. There is an old saying that familiarity breeds contempt — a hyperbole that illustrates that we can easily underestimate greatness when we live with it. We read in our passage today that “a man who was demon-possessed and could not talk was brought to Jesus. And when the demon was driven out, the man who had been mute spoke.” St Matthew describes the event in matter-of-fact fashion, and implies that the exorcism was an effortless procedure for our Lord. Let us notice, though, the response of the people. “The crowd was amazed and said, Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.” In the history of the chosen people, there had been no equal to our Lord’s doings. Matthew, constantly intent on situating our Lord against the backdrop of the Old Testament prophecies, is taking this remark of the crowd and making it his own. One of the features of our Lord’s ministry is the scale of demon-possession that presents itself before him. There is nothing of this in any book of the Old Testament. In fact, in the whole of the Old Testament, Satan appears but rarely. There is the Serpent who tempted Eve at the beginning and who was condemned by God as a result. There is Satan who tests Job. There is no mention of a multitude of demons, nor do the Patriarchs exercise power over them, nor does Moses, nor do the prophets. In the Old Testament Satan is entirely subject to God, and any activity of his is subject to God’s permission. If there is any battle with the demons going on, it is unseen and it is a matter between God and Satan. But from when Christ begins his ministry, the demonic realm is shown to be a kingdom in competition with him. It is as if the confrontation between God and Satan, his far weaker adversary, is now manifested as being a matter between Christ and Satan. As with God, so with Christ, the demons are far the weaker. They angrily scurry before him and pathetically do his bidding. Let us not miss the great point that “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.”

For the Christian, the reading of the Old Testament prepares him for the figure of Christ. It provides an emerging profile which is especially consistent with the Person who, in the fullness of time, appeared. It also shows forth his uniqueness. However exalted the teaching of Moses (as in the Book of Deuteronomy, say), that of Christ far exceeds it. As John writes, Moses gave the Law, Jesus Christ brought grace and truth. However soaring the teaching of Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezechiel, or say, Hosea, Jesus Christ surpasses them all. Nothing like him had been seen in Israel. Apart from the content and character of his teaching, he eclipses his predecessors also in the intensity of his prophetic and missionary activity. Our Lord pronounced John the Baptist to be the greatest born of woman, and so as being the greatest of the prophets. But John’s ministry cannot be compared with that of Jesus Christ — even in terms of intense activity. John remained at the river Jordan, and the people came to him. We read in our passage today that “Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field” (Matthew 9: 32-38). Christ sought to reach all, and he founded and built his Church to go to the whole world and make disciples of all the nations. Being a disciple of his is the way to salvation, and the whole world is called to this discipleship. What other prophet attempted such a kingdom? He was setting out to conquer the world, and finally to hand the world over to his Father. The world, as subject to his lordship, was to be his kingdom. Nothing like this had been seen in Israel.

In fact, nothing like this has been seen in the history of the world. Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, is the Lord of lords and King of kings, and to him has been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Just as he looked on the harvest ahead of him and wished to make disciples of each and all, so he wishes to make disciples of each one of us. Let us hear his call, then! Let us take our stand by his side as his disciples in real truth, and join with him in calling on all others to believe, and become his disciples in their turn. It is the way to heaven and to life hereafter.

(E.J.Tyler)

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A Second Reflection: (Matthew 9:32-38)

One's Hidden Starting Points It is an amazing thing that God himself became man and dwelt among his own, and then so many of his own did not accept him (John 1). In our Gospel scene of today (Matthew 9:32-38), our Lord has just displayed miraculous powers, delivering a dumb person of demon-possession and restoring his speech. The people were rightly amazed. And yet we read that the leaders of the people who were present did not accept him, choosing instead to interpret his power as coming from the prince of devils, from Satan himself. It reminds us of the fundamental importance of a right attitude to Christ and all that he revealed. It is our starting points which largely govern our attitudes and our thoughts, and to establish the right starting points involves a serious struggle. Experience of people makes it clear that a person who lives in the darkness about Christ and his revelation, and who chooses to remain so, has little freedom to change this. There is a certain slavery about it.

So much depends on our hidden assumptions, our basic starting points that can be obscure and out of sight. Let us pray to God to give us the right starting points so that we will be open to his light, and able to bring it to others.

(E.J.Tyler)