The Good Word

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Hello and welcome to the Word, bringing you the Good News of Jesus Christ every day from the Redemptorists of the Baltimore Province. I am Fr. Karl Esker from the Basilica of our Lady of Perpetual Help in Brooklyn, NY. Today is the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time. Our reading is from the holy gospel according to Matthew. At that time, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a Canaanite woman of that district came and called out, "Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is tormented by a demon." But Jesus did not say a word in answer to her. Jesus' disciples came and asked him, "Send her away, for she keeps calling out after us." He said in reply, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." But the woman came and did Jesus homage, saying, "Lord, help me." He said in reply, "It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs." She said, "Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters." Then Jesus said to her in reply, "O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish." And the woman's daughter was healed from that hour.The gospel of the Lord. Our readings today tell us that God’s love and mercy is greater than anything we can imagine; and we are called by God to enter into and participate in God’s love and mercy. It is a lesson we find difficult to learn and Jesus, in his humanity as he carried out his mission of teaching and healing, also had to learn it. At first reading, many of us are shocked by what seems to be Jesus’ initial callous treatment of the Canaanite woman who came asking for a cure for her daughter. At first he ignores her, then he rebuffs her request implying that she is worth no more than a dog. All this reflects the attitude of the Jews toward their pagan neighbors in Jesus’ time. But this was not God’s attitude, as we hear from the prophet Isaiah in the first reading. The prophet envisions foreigners coming to worship the Lord in Jerusalem. As long as they love the Lord, keep the sabbath and hold to the covenant, their prayers will be heard, their sacrifices accepted and they will even minister in the temple, because God’s “house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.” In closing the infancy narrative of his gospel, Luke tells us that “Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and favor before God and man.” We often forget that, in spite of being the Son of God, Jesus was a true human being and had to grow and learn. His encounter with the Canaanite woman was a growth experience. When she first cried out to him, invoking his title as Messiah, he ignored her. As she kept crying out, his disciples asked him to please give her what she wanted, just to get rid of her. It was not Jesus’ way to simply make a miracle, it had to be within his preaching of the kingdom of God, so he explained to his disciples: "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." At least that was his understanding up to that point. Finally, the Canaanite woman, a foreigner, comes up to him, kneels before him and says: "Lord, help me." Then come the words that grate in our ears: "It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs." But the woman is not to be put off: "Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters." to which Jesus replies: "O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish." In all the gospels, only two people got the better of Jesus in an argument, and both were women: Mary, his mother, at the wedding feast of Cana, and this Canaanite woman. And in both cases, it came after a profound expression of faith in Jesus. Jesus learned that the gift of faith was open to all, and so was the Kingdom of God. Saint Paul would learn the same lesson. He became the apostle to the Gentiles after his message was rejected in the synagogues and could only conclude: God delivered all to disobedience, that he might have mercy upon all. Today we need to learn the same lesson. The demons of war, violence and corruption are forcing millions from their homes. They knock on the doors of other countries, where politicians and influencers try to give them horrible and prejudicial labels, so that we all might turn our backs on them. But that is not God’s way. God’s kingdom is open to all who seek it in faith and good will. May God’s love and mercy reign in our heats, and may God bless you. Fr. Karl E. Esker Basilica of our Lady of Perpetual Help Brooklyn, NY

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Today is the Feast Day of Dominic de Guzmán, better known as the founder of the Dominican Order of priests and brothers. Dominic was born in Spain on this day in August, 1170, and died, almost to the day, 51 years later. His life proves the axiom that it is not how long we live, but how well we live our lives. Dominic grew up in a well-to-do family in Spain. His mother, Joan, who was beautified by Pope Leo XII in 1829, and his father, Felix, were able to send Dominic away to study at the age of 14. After devoting 6 years to the study of the arts and 4 years to theology, he was ordained a priest at the age of 24. During his seminary years, he assisted people suffering from a famine in Spain by selling his manuscripts, furniture, and clothes. His intellect and intense spirituality was recognized by his bishop, as he was asked to accompany the bishop to Denmark on an errand to help secure a bride for the King of Spain. As they travelled through the south of France, they encountered a heretical group called the Cathers. The Cathers believed in two gods - one who was the god of the spiritual realm and another, whom they called Satan, who was the god of the material world. What made the Cathers difficult to sway from their heretical beliefs was that the Cathers preached poverty, chastity, and modesty. They believed that people had to remove themselves from the material world in order to encounter their true selves in the spiritual world. The Cistercian monks in the area tried to engage them in debate, but they were not nearly as self-disciplined as those whom they were trying to convert. Having succeeded in their errand for the King of Spain, Dominic’s bishop was asked to settle in southern France to help the Cistercian monks convert the Cathers. Dominic remained as his assistant and stayed on even after the bishop died. It was during this time, in the year 1208, that Dominic is reported to have had a vision of the Blessed Mother who gave him a rosary. Devotion to the rosary spread quickly and even hardened heretics were converted. In 1214, Dominic established himself in a house in Toulouse, in southern France, with 6 followers. They received papal approval to form the Order of Preachers in 1216. With Dominic’s charismatic presence, they immediately began to attract followers. Dominic, according to his biographer, is said to have refrained from eating meat, was a strict observer of all fasts and periods of silence, to frequently travel barefoot, and to request the worst accommodations and the poorest of clothes. Also, he “never allowed himself the luxury of a bed.”Such an austere lifestyle probably contributed to his early death. On one of his trips visiting his brother monks, he reached the convent of St. Nicholas in Bologna, Italy, exhausted and sick with a fever. He asked his brothers to lay him on some empty sacks on the ground. In the brief time he had remaining, he exhorted his followers to have charity, to guard their humility, and to make a treasure out of their poverty. St. Dominic died at noon on the 6th of August, 1221. St. Dominic de Guzmán, pray for us. Blessings, Fr. Kevin MacDonald, C.Ss.R.

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Cuando yo era niño mi mamá me dijo: “Nunca debes comer del plato de otra persona”..Pero una vez, estando yo en casa de mi tio, mi tío, halándome el pelo me obligó a comer del plato de uno de mis primos. Mi tio casi siempre me trataba con cariño. Pero no me gustó cuando me hizo eso”. En el desierto cuando los israelitas iban casi muriendo de hambre Moises le pidió a Dios que les mandó una sustancia llamada maná que parecía pan. La gente lo comía pero se quejaba porque fue un alimento sin casi sabor como la comida buena que había comido en Egipto cuando eran esclavos. Pero el maná les salvó la vida . Lo llamaron pan del cielo.. Casi mil años después Jesús hizo algo parecido porque Jesús multiplicó los panes y peces en otro desierto.... Cuando celebramos la Santa Misa, la Eucaristía la verdad es que todos nosotros comemos del mismo plato que es el mismo CUERPO Y SANGRE DE JESÚS. Cuando vamos a recibir la hostia en la Misa ese momento lo llamamos el tiempo de SANTA COMUNIÓN. Cuando profesamos nuestra fe cada domingo rezando el Credo decimos que creemos en…LA COMUNIÓN DE LOS SANTOS..La comunión de los Santos es precisamente una SANTA COMUNIÓN DE LOS SANTOS. Incluye a nosotros acá en la tierra viviendo nuestra fe de día a día. La comunión de los santos incluye además los fieles difuntos en el cielo y en el purgatorio. Yo siempre creo que la tarea de nosotros amando y sirviendo a Dios acá en la tierra es de ayudar crecer esta COMUNIÓN DE LOS SANTOS. La Santa Eucaristía, como dijo el mismo Jesús es el PAN BAJADO DEL CIELO. Después de salir de la Santa Misa nuestra tarea, nuestro trabajo de cada día es vivir el amor de Dios, el amor de Jesús . Porque las demás personas al ver el amor de Dios, de Jesús creciendo en nosotros, pues ellos se atraen, ellos se sienten llamados a formar parte de esa Santa Comunión que no excluye mas nunca a nadie…En el desierto con Moisés los israelitas fueron bendecidos por la divina providencia de Dios. A María los Portorriqueños la llaman VIRGEN MADRE DE LA PROVIDENCIA. La Eucaristía es el NUEVO PAN DEL CIELO QUE ES JESÚS. En el momento de recibir a Jesús en la Santa Comunión, sobre todo,es importante que uds. y yo al salir de la Misa, a que estemos muy convencidos que DIOS DESEA QUE LA SANTA COMUNIÓN ABRAZA, INCLUYE TODA LA HUMANIDAD TODA LA CREACIÓN .

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En aquel tiempo, Jesús propuso esta otra parábola a la muchedumbre: "El Reino de los cielos es semejante a la semilla de mostaza que un hombre siembra en su huerto. Ciertamente es la más pequeña de todas las semillas, pero cuando crece, llega a ser más grande que las hortalizas y se convierte en un arbusto, de manera que los pájaros vienen y hacen su nido en las ramas".Les dijo también otra parábola: "El Reino de los cielos se parece a un poco de levadura que tomó una mujer y la mezcló con tres medidas de harina, y toda la masa acabó por fermentar". Jesús decía a la muchedumbre todas estas cosas con parábolas, y sin parábolas nada les decía, para que se cumpliera lo que dijo el profeta: Abriré mi boca y les hablaré con parábolas; anunciaré lo que estaba oculto desde la creación del mundo.A mí me gusta hacer pan. Por eso yo sé que sin usar levadura el pan no crece. Parece que la levadura es como una bacteria buena que llena toda la masa de harina y la hace subir para que la masa crece. Pero Yo sé que Jesús no está pensando en hacer pan cuando él dice esto: "El Reino de los cielos se parece a un poco de levadura que tomó una mujer y la mezcló con tres medidas de harina, y toda la masa acabó por fermentar". No. Jesús, con este ejemplo de la levadura nos está diciendo que uds. y yo…nosotros, cuando dejemos que el Espíritu Santo llena y bendice entonces nosotros. Nosotros, hijas e hijos de Dios crecemos. Crecemos en amor, en caridad. Crecemos en conocer a gente que necesita nuestra ayuda, nuestro amor…Crecemos en tener una alma y un corazón grande para amar como dice esta viejo canto Cristian:DANOS UN CORAZÓN GRANDE PARA AMAR. DA NOS UN CORAZÓN FUERTE PARA LUCHAR. Hoy Jesús dice esto: El Reino de los cielos es semejante a la semilla de mostaza que un hombre siembra en su huerto. Ciertamente es la más pequeña de todas las semillas, pero cuando crece, llega a ser más grande que las hortalizas y se convierte en un arbusto, de manera que los pájaros vienen y hacen su nido en las ramas". Yo llevo desde el mes pasado 58 años como Misionero y sacerdote redentorista.. Por eso yo he aprendido que Jesús, con este ejemplo está hablando de cómo el Reino de Dios cuando se arraiga en los corazones de nosotros nos haga gente acogedora..En estos días, a mis 84 años de edad voy recordando con alma gozososa toda la gente de Puerto Rico y República Dominicana que me han recibido en sus casas, gente que me han compartido su comida, su música típica, su fe en Dios. Me recuerda de esta vieja canción católica con la cual termino esta reflexión:SI TUVIERA FE COMO UN GRANITO DE MOSTAZA

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