St. Matthew presents us with an uncomfortable encounter with Jesus. A Canaanite woman comes to Him desperate for help. Her daughter is suffering. She knows Jesus has the power to heal. She approaches Him with faith, calling Him, “Lord” and “son of David.”
Peter does not ask to walk on the water. He requests that Jesus command him to come to him on the water -- a journey ever deeper into Christ -- a journey that entails the overcoming of fear, the courage not to be afraid. Jesus responds with one word, “Come.”
“Jesus said to them, they need not go away; give them something to eat yourselves.”
Whether we are looking for God, or not. God is looking for us. God is always successful.
We often confuse appearances. We mistake our enemies for God’s enemies. We are quick to uproot those whom Christ is patiently nurturing. The Kingdom grows through God’s patience before it culminates in God’s judgment.
“The word that goes forth from the mouth of God does not return empty. It does not come back without succeeding in what it was sent to do.”
Jesus comes back again and again to this image of the child, to communicate a sense of human relationship to God.
“Whoever welcomes you welcomes Me, and whoever welcomes Me welcomes the One who sent Me.” Hospitality extended from one to another becomes a place of encounter. In welcoming another person, we may discover that Christ has already arrived ahead of us.
The deeper we travel through these days of Ordinary Time, the more we encounter the reality that discipleship is not simply believing certain things about Jesus. It’s about following Jesus.
Their first assignment is to connect and re-establish broken friendships among God’s people, to bring back the lost and forsaken, to speak a word that strengthens, the good news that saves, that God’s reign has come near.