Reflections on Scripture | Saturday of the 18th Week in Ordinary Time

Join Msgr. Don Fischer as he reads and delivers a short reflection on today’s gospel, followed by 3 1/2 minutes of contemplative music and a closing prayer. Msgr. Don hopes that today’s reflection on the gospel will empower you to carry the Word in your heart throughout the day.

Choose either the video or audio below.

Gospel
Matthew 17:14-20

A man came up to Jesus, knelt down before him, and said,
"Lord, have pity on my son, who is a lunatic and suffers severely;
often he falls into fire, and often into water.
I brought him to your disciples, but they could not cure him."
Jesus said in reply,
"O faithless and perverse generation, how long will I be with you?
How long will I endure you?
Bring the boy here to me."
Jesus rebuked him and the demon came out of him,
and from that hour the boy was cured.
Then the disciples approached Jesus in private and said,
"Why could we not drive it out?"
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."

Reflection

Where Jesus consistently goes back to with his disciples is their lack of faith. And so he says something to them that they had to sit and wonder and ponder.

He said, You have a strength within you that you can do something radically, totally impossible. You can move a mountain. Why is that so important? Because what Jesus longs for people to realize is that good is stronger than any other power. That grace, the flow of life from God can take care of every conceivable need. How much do we trust in that?

Without it, we cannot experience the joy that is our inheritance.

Closing Prayer

Father, your strength flowing through us is beyond our imagining. It can do absolutely anything. That doesn't mean that God will use that power any way we want it to be used. But one thing is clear. His power is stronger than evil. And many times people think that evil is winning. It's never going to win. It is always going to be destroyed by the God who created us to live in a world called His kingdom. And we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Kyle Cross