Dan Lee
08-13-2011, 11:30 AM
Vui học Thánh Kinh - Chúa Nhật Thứ 20 Thường Niên A
Tải Về (http://www.tomathien.org/component/simpledownload/?view=download&format=raw&fileid=ZG93bmxvYWRzL2tpbmhUaGFuaC9uYW1BL0NOIDIwIFFOIEEuZG9j)
Reading I (Is 56:1, 6-7)
Thus says the LORD: Observe what is right, do what is just; for my salvation is about to come, my justice, about to be revealed.
The foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, ministering to him, loving the name of the LORD, and becoming his servants – all who keep the sabbath free from profanation and hold to my covenant, them I will bring to my holy mountain and make joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be acceptable on my altar, for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.
Reading II (Rom 11:13-15)
Brothers and sisters: I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I glory in my ministry in order to make my race jealous and thus save some of them. For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?
For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable. Just as you once disobeyed God but have now received mercy because of their disobedience, so they have now disobeyed in order that, by virtue of the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy. For God delivered all to disobedience, that he might have mercy upon all.
Gospel (Mt 15:21-28)
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.
Questions:
1. Why did the Canaanite woman cry out to Jesus?
a. She cried out to Jesus because she was hungry.
b. She cried out to Jesus because her daughter was sick.
c. She cried out to Jesus because her daughter was tormented by demon.
2. How did the Canaanite woman react when Jesus said to her: “It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs”?
a. She was furious and disappointed.
b. She did not lose her hope but continued to beg Jesus.
c. She was mad and went home.
3. What did Jesus say after the Canaanite woman said: “Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters”?
a. Jesus said: “O woman, great is your patience! Let it be done for you as you wish.”
b. Jesus said: “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.”
c. Jesus said: “O woman, your faith is so strong! Go home, your daughter is fine.”
Bài Đọc 1 (Is 56: 1, 6-7)
Đây Thiên Chúa phán: “Hãy giữ luật và thực thi công bình, vì ơn cứu độ của Ta đã gần tới, và sự công chính của Ta sẽ tỏ hiện.”
“Người ngoại bang theo Chúa để phụng sự Chúa và mến yêu danh Người, để trở nên tôi tớ Chúa, tất cả những ai giữ ngày Sabbat, không hề sai lỗi, và trung thành với giao ước của Ta, Ta sẽ dẫn chúng lên núi thánh, và Ta sẽ cho chúng niềm vui trong nhà cầu nguyện. Ta sẽ nhận những lễ toàn thiêu và hiến tế của chúng trên bàn thờ, vì nhà Ta là nhà cầu nguyện cho mọi dân tộc.”
Bài Đọc 2 (Rm 11:13-15)
Anh em thân mến, tôi nói với anh em là những người gốc Dân Ngoại rằng: Bao lâu tôi là Tông đồ các Dân Ngoại, tôi sẽ tôn trọng chức vụ của tôi, nếu có cách nào làm cho đồng bào tôi phân bì, mà tôi cứu rỗi được ít người trong họ. Vì nếu do việc họ bị loại ra, mà thiên hạ được giao hoà, thì sự họ được thâu nhận sẽ thế nào, nếu không phải là một sự sống lại từ cõi chết?
Vì Thiên Chúa ban ơn và kêu gọi ai, thì Người không hề hối tiếc. Như xưa anh em không tin Thiên Chúa, nhưng nay vì họ cứng lòng tin, nên anh em được thương xót; cũng thế, nay họ không tin, vì thấy Chúa thương xót anh em, để họ cũng được thương xót. Thiên Chúa đã để mọi người phải giam hãm trong sự cứng lòng tin, để Chúa thương xót hết mọi người.
Phúc Âm (Mt 15:21-28)
Khi ấy, ra khỏi đó, Chúa Giêsu lui về miền Ty-rô và Si-đon, thì liền có một bà quê ở Ca-na-an từ xứ ấy đến mà kêu cùng Người rằng: “Lạy Ngài là con Vua Đa-vít, xin thương xót tôi: con gái tôi bị quỷ ám khốn cực lắm.” Nhưng Người không đáp lại một lời nào. Các môn đệ đến gần Người mà xin rằng: “Xin Thầy thương để bà ấy về đi, vì bà cứ theo chúng ta mà kêu mãi.” Người trả lời: “Thầy chỉ được sai đến cùng chiên lạc nhà Israel.” Nhưng bà kia đến lạy Người mà nói: “Lạy Ngài, xin cứu giúp tôi.” Người đáp: “Không nên lấy bánh của con cái mà vứt cho chó.” Bà ấy đáp lại: “Vâng, lạy Ngài, vì chó con cũng được ăn những mảnh vụn từ bàn của chủ rơi xuống.” Bấy giờ, Chúa Giêsu trả lời cùng bà ấy rằng: “Này bà, bà có lòng mạnh tin. Bà muốn sao thì được vậy.” Và ngay lúc đó, con gái bà đã được lành.
Câu Hỏi:
1. Tại sao người đàn bà xứ Ca-na-an lại kêu xin Chúa Giêsu như vậy?
a. Bà ta kêu xin Chúa giúp vì bà ta đang đói bụng.
b. Bà ta kêu xin Chúa giúp vì con gái của bà ta đang đau nặng.
c. Bà ta kêu xin Chúa giúp vì con gái của bà ta bị quỷ ám vô cùng khổ cực.
2. Người đàn bà xứ Ca-na-an phản ứng như thế nào khi nghe Chúa Giêsu trả lời rằng: “Không nên lấy bánh của con cái mà vứt cho chó.”?
a. Bà ta đã tức giận và vô cùng thất vọng.
b. Bà đã không tuyệt vọng nhưng tiếp tục van xin Chúa Giêsu.
c. Bà giận dữ và đi về nhà.
3. Chúa Giêsu đã nói gì sau khi nghe người đàn bà xứ Ca-na-an đáp: “Vâng, lạy Ngài, vì chó con cũng được ăn những mảnh vụn từ bàn của chủ rơi xuống”?
a. Chúa Giêsu nói: “Này bà, sự kiên nhẫn của bà rất lớn. Bà muốn sao thì được vậy!”
b. Chúa Giêsu nói: “Này bà, bà có lòng mạnh tin. Bà muốn sao thì được vậy.”.
c. Chúa Giêsu nói: “Này bà! Đức tin của bà mạnh thật, Hãy về đi, con bà đã được cứu.”
Tô Màu
http://www.tomathien.org/downloads/kinhThanh/namA/pictures/cn20qnA.jpg
“O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish!”
“Này bà, bà có lòng mạnh tin. Bà muốn sao thì được vậy.”
Mt 15:18
Fill in the Blank
CAANITE , CHILDREN , FAITH , HOMAGE, MASTERS, SHEEP
At that time, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a ______________ 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 ______________ of the house of Israel.”
But the woman came and did Jesus ______________, saying, “Lord, help me.”
He said in reply, “It is not right to take the food of the ______________ and throw it to the dogs.”
She said, “Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their ______________.”
Then Jesus said to her in reply, “O woman, great is your ______________! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And the woman’s daughter was healed from that hour.
Điền Vào Chỗ Trống
CA-NA-AN, CHIÊN, CHỦ, CON CÁI, LẠY, TIN
Khi ấy, ra khỏi đó, Chúa Giêsu lui về miền Ty-rô và Si-đon, thì liền có một bà quê ở ______________ từ xứ ấy đến mà kêu cùng Người rằng: “Lạy Ngài là con Vua Đa-vít, xin thương xót tôi: con gái tôi bị quỷ ám khốn cực lắm.”
Nhưng Người không đáp lại một lời nào. Các môn đệ đến gần Người mà xin rằng: “Xin Thầy thương để bà ấy về đi, vì bà cứ theo chúng ta mà kêu mãi.” Người trả lời: “Thầy chỉ được sai đến cùng ______________ lạc nhà Israel.”
Nhưng bà kia đến ______________ Người mà nói: “Lạy Ngài, xin cứu giúp tôi.”
Người đáp: “Không nên lấy bánh của ______________ mà vứt cho chó.”
Bà ấy đáp lại: “Vâng, lạy Ngài, vì chó con cũng được ăn những mảnh vụn từ bàn của ______________ rơi xuống.”
Bấy giờ, Chúa Giêsu trả lời cùng bà ấy rằng: “Này bà, bà có lòng mạnh ______________. Bà muốn sao thì được vậy.” Và ngay lúc đó, con gái bà đã được lành.
Reflections
Reading I
In the first reading Isaiah points out that God intends salvation to be available for all persons. God does not make distinctions based on ethnicity, social class, or economic standing. The prophet affirms that in God’s eyes, believing in the Lord and keeping God’s commandments are what really matter. These are the criteria by which we will be judged. The joy of God’s kingdom awaits all who are faithful.
Why do people discriminate against others? Is it fear or ignorance or pride that keeps people from seeing others the way God sees them? What can we do to help those who may be from a different race or culture feel welcome in our parish, our school, our community? Pray the opening prayer as you ask that God’s criteria for accepting others may become your criteria: Lord, help me keep my heart open to all your people.
Reading II
The second reading also speaks about discrimination. The first members of the Church were Jews who were unwilling to accept non-Jews into the Church. St. Paul reminds them that he is the “apostle to the Gentiles.” The discriminating attitude of the early members paved the way for Paul to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. It also enabled the Gentiles to respond more easily without the influence of the Jewish culture. Paul hoped that his ministry to the Gentiles would provoke the other members of the Church to a resurgence of their faith.
Paul’s attitude is a good example of how God can turn bad situations into fruitful opportunities. It also shows how important it is to believe in a positive outcome! All too often we only see the loss, the tragedy, the difficulty, the barrier. Are you able to look at a difficult situation and see the potential for good that is there? What can we do to cultivate a more positive attitude in our own lives, within our families, with our colleagues?
Gospel
In the gospel reading, Jesus meets up with a very determined Canaanite woman who begs him to help her troubled daughter. Since the woman was a Gentile, the apostles wanted to send her away, but Jesus continued to speak with her. Besides her great faith and courage, the woman also showed tremendous love for her child. She was willing to risk rejection for breaking through the barriers of convention to ask for help. She truly believed that Jesus could help her daughter, and despite what seemed like his initial reluctance, she simply wasn’t going to give up. She persisted, even begging him. Eventually Jesus praised her undaunting faith and healed her daughter. Jesus’ reply is one we would all love to hear: “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done as you wish.”
The Canaanite woman was a marginalized person in the society of Jesus’ time, because of her gender, her race, and her religious practice. Have you ever experienced rejection because of your gender, race, or religion? How did you deal with it? Have you ever been asked for help by someone of another race or culture? How have you responded? How are women in particular treated in today’s society? Jesus’ attitude towards the Canaanite woman is one that all should imitate, his acceptance of her, as both a woman and a foreigner.
St. Maximilian Mary Kolbe
Aug. 14th
http://www.tomathien.org/downloads/kinhThanh/namA/pictures/stMaximillianKolbe.jpg
“I don’t know what’s going to become of you!” How many parents have said that? Maximilian Mary Kolbe’s reaction was, “I prayed very hard to Our Lady to tell me what would happen to me. She appeared, holding in her hands two crowns, one white, one red. She asked if I would like to have them – one was for purity, the other for martyrdom. I said, ‘I choose both.’ She smiled and disappeared.” After that he was not the same.
He entered the minor seminary of the Conventual Franciscans in Lvív (then Poland, now Ukraine), near his birthplace, and at 16 became a novice. Though he later achieved doctorates in philosophy and theology, he was deeply interested in science, even drawing plans for rocket ships.
Ordained at 24, he saw religious indifference as the deadliest poison of the day. His mission was to combat it. He had already founded the Militia of the Immaculata, whose aim was to fight evil with the witness of the good life, prayer, work and suffering. He dreamed of and then founded Knight of the Immaculata, a religious magazine under Mary’s protection to preach the Good News to all nations. For the work of publication he established a “City of the Immaculata” – Niepokalanow – which housed 700 of his Franciscan brothers. He later founded one in Nagasaki, Japan. Both the Militia and the magazine ultimately reached the one-million mark in members and subscribers. His love of God was daily filtered through devotion to Mary.
In 1939 the Nazi panzers overran Poland with deadly speed. Niepokalanow was severely bombed. Kolbe and his friars were arrested, then released in less than three months, on the feast of the Immaculate Conception.
In 1941 he was arrested again. The Nazis’ purpose was to liquidate the select ones, the leaders. The end came quickly, in Auschwitz three months later, after terrible beatings and humiliations.
A prisoner had escaped. The commandant announced that 10 men would die. He relished walking along the ranks. “This one. That one.” As they were being marched away to the starvation bunkers, Number 16670 dared to step from the line. “I would like to take that man’s place. He has a wife and children.” “Who are you?” “A priest.” No name, no mention of fame. Silence. The commandant, dumbfounded, perhaps with a fleeting thought of history, kicked Sergeant Francis Gajowniczek out of line and ordered Father Kolbe to go with the nine. In the “block of death” they were ordered to strip naked, and their slow starvation began in darkness. But there was no screaming – the prisoners sang. By the eve of the Assumption four were left alive. The jailer came to finish Kolbe off as he sat in a corner praying. He lifted his fleshless arm to receive the bite of the hypodermic needle. It was filled with carbolic acid. They burned his body with all the others. He was beatified in 1971 and canonized in 1982.
Tải Về (http://www.tomathien.org/component/simpledownload/?view=download&format=raw&fileid=ZG93bmxvYWRzL2tpbmhUaGFuaC9uYW1BL0NOIDIwIFFOIEEuZG9j)
Reading I (Is 56:1, 6-7)
Thus says the LORD: Observe what is right, do what is just; for my salvation is about to come, my justice, about to be revealed.
The foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, ministering to him, loving the name of the LORD, and becoming his servants – all who keep the sabbath free from profanation and hold to my covenant, them I will bring to my holy mountain and make joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be acceptable on my altar, for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.
Reading II (Rom 11:13-15)
Brothers and sisters: I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I glory in my ministry in order to make my race jealous and thus save some of them. For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?
For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable. Just as you once disobeyed God but have now received mercy because of their disobedience, so they have now disobeyed in order that, by virtue of the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy. For God delivered all to disobedience, that he might have mercy upon all.
Gospel (Mt 15:21-28)
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.
Questions:
1. Why did the Canaanite woman cry out to Jesus?
a. She cried out to Jesus because she was hungry.
b. She cried out to Jesus because her daughter was sick.
c. She cried out to Jesus because her daughter was tormented by demon.
2. How did the Canaanite woman react when Jesus said to her: “It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs”?
a. She was furious and disappointed.
b. She did not lose her hope but continued to beg Jesus.
c. She was mad and went home.
3. What did Jesus say after the Canaanite woman said: “Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters”?
a. Jesus said: “O woman, great is your patience! Let it be done for you as you wish.”
b. Jesus said: “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.”
c. Jesus said: “O woman, your faith is so strong! Go home, your daughter is fine.”
Bài Đọc 1 (Is 56: 1, 6-7)
Đây Thiên Chúa phán: “Hãy giữ luật và thực thi công bình, vì ơn cứu độ của Ta đã gần tới, và sự công chính của Ta sẽ tỏ hiện.”
“Người ngoại bang theo Chúa để phụng sự Chúa và mến yêu danh Người, để trở nên tôi tớ Chúa, tất cả những ai giữ ngày Sabbat, không hề sai lỗi, và trung thành với giao ước của Ta, Ta sẽ dẫn chúng lên núi thánh, và Ta sẽ cho chúng niềm vui trong nhà cầu nguyện. Ta sẽ nhận những lễ toàn thiêu và hiến tế của chúng trên bàn thờ, vì nhà Ta là nhà cầu nguyện cho mọi dân tộc.”
Bài Đọc 2 (Rm 11:13-15)
Anh em thân mến, tôi nói với anh em là những người gốc Dân Ngoại rằng: Bao lâu tôi là Tông đồ các Dân Ngoại, tôi sẽ tôn trọng chức vụ của tôi, nếu có cách nào làm cho đồng bào tôi phân bì, mà tôi cứu rỗi được ít người trong họ. Vì nếu do việc họ bị loại ra, mà thiên hạ được giao hoà, thì sự họ được thâu nhận sẽ thế nào, nếu không phải là một sự sống lại từ cõi chết?
Vì Thiên Chúa ban ơn và kêu gọi ai, thì Người không hề hối tiếc. Như xưa anh em không tin Thiên Chúa, nhưng nay vì họ cứng lòng tin, nên anh em được thương xót; cũng thế, nay họ không tin, vì thấy Chúa thương xót anh em, để họ cũng được thương xót. Thiên Chúa đã để mọi người phải giam hãm trong sự cứng lòng tin, để Chúa thương xót hết mọi người.
Phúc Âm (Mt 15:21-28)
Khi ấy, ra khỏi đó, Chúa Giêsu lui về miền Ty-rô và Si-đon, thì liền có một bà quê ở Ca-na-an từ xứ ấy đến mà kêu cùng Người rằng: “Lạy Ngài là con Vua Đa-vít, xin thương xót tôi: con gái tôi bị quỷ ám khốn cực lắm.” Nhưng Người không đáp lại một lời nào. Các môn đệ đến gần Người mà xin rằng: “Xin Thầy thương để bà ấy về đi, vì bà cứ theo chúng ta mà kêu mãi.” Người trả lời: “Thầy chỉ được sai đến cùng chiên lạc nhà Israel.” Nhưng bà kia đến lạy Người mà nói: “Lạy Ngài, xin cứu giúp tôi.” Người đáp: “Không nên lấy bánh của con cái mà vứt cho chó.” Bà ấy đáp lại: “Vâng, lạy Ngài, vì chó con cũng được ăn những mảnh vụn từ bàn của chủ rơi xuống.” Bấy giờ, Chúa Giêsu trả lời cùng bà ấy rằng: “Này bà, bà có lòng mạnh tin. Bà muốn sao thì được vậy.” Và ngay lúc đó, con gái bà đã được lành.
Câu Hỏi:
1. Tại sao người đàn bà xứ Ca-na-an lại kêu xin Chúa Giêsu như vậy?
a. Bà ta kêu xin Chúa giúp vì bà ta đang đói bụng.
b. Bà ta kêu xin Chúa giúp vì con gái của bà ta đang đau nặng.
c. Bà ta kêu xin Chúa giúp vì con gái của bà ta bị quỷ ám vô cùng khổ cực.
2. Người đàn bà xứ Ca-na-an phản ứng như thế nào khi nghe Chúa Giêsu trả lời rằng: “Không nên lấy bánh của con cái mà vứt cho chó.”?
a. Bà ta đã tức giận và vô cùng thất vọng.
b. Bà đã không tuyệt vọng nhưng tiếp tục van xin Chúa Giêsu.
c. Bà giận dữ và đi về nhà.
3. Chúa Giêsu đã nói gì sau khi nghe người đàn bà xứ Ca-na-an đáp: “Vâng, lạy Ngài, vì chó con cũng được ăn những mảnh vụn từ bàn của chủ rơi xuống”?
a. Chúa Giêsu nói: “Này bà, sự kiên nhẫn của bà rất lớn. Bà muốn sao thì được vậy!”
b. Chúa Giêsu nói: “Này bà, bà có lòng mạnh tin. Bà muốn sao thì được vậy.”.
c. Chúa Giêsu nói: “Này bà! Đức tin của bà mạnh thật, Hãy về đi, con bà đã được cứu.”
Tô Màu
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“O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish!”
“Này bà, bà có lòng mạnh tin. Bà muốn sao thì được vậy.”
Mt 15:18
Fill in the Blank
CAANITE , CHILDREN , FAITH , HOMAGE, MASTERS, SHEEP
At that time, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a ______________ 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 ______________ of the house of Israel.”
But the woman came and did Jesus ______________, saying, “Lord, help me.”
He said in reply, “It is not right to take the food of the ______________ and throw it to the dogs.”
She said, “Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their ______________.”
Then Jesus said to her in reply, “O woman, great is your ______________! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And the woman’s daughter was healed from that hour.
Điền Vào Chỗ Trống
CA-NA-AN, CHIÊN, CHỦ, CON CÁI, LẠY, TIN
Khi ấy, ra khỏi đó, Chúa Giêsu lui về miền Ty-rô và Si-đon, thì liền có một bà quê ở ______________ từ xứ ấy đến mà kêu cùng Người rằng: “Lạy Ngài là con Vua Đa-vít, xin thương xót tôi: con gái tôi bị quỷ ám khốn cực lắm.”
Nhưng Người không đáp lại một lời nào. Các môn đệ đến gần Người mà xin rằng: “Xin Thầy thương để bà ấy về đi, vì bà cứ theo chúng ta mà kêu mãi.” Người trả lời: “Thầy chỉ được sai đến cùng ______________ lạc nhà Israel.”
Nhưng bà kia đến ______________ Người mà nói: “Lạy Ngài, xin cứu giúp tôi.”
Người đáp: “Không nên lấy bánh của ______________ mà vứt cho chó.”
Bà ấy đáp lại: “Vâng, lạy Ngài, vì chó con cũng được ăn những mảnh vụn từ bàn của ______________ rơi xuống.”
Bấy giờ, Chúa Giêsu trả lời cùng bà ấy rằng: “Này bà, bà có lòng mạnh ______________. Bà muốn sao thì được vậy.” Và ngay lúc đó, con gái bà đã được lành.
Reflections
Reading I
In the first reading Isaiah points out that God intends salvation to be available for all persons. God does not make distinctions based on ethnicity, social class, or economic standing. The prophet affirms that in God’s eyes, believing in the Lord and keeping God’s commandments are what really matter. These are the criteria by which we will be judged. The joy of God’s kingdom awaits all who are faithful.
Why do people discriminate against others? Is it fear or ignorance or pride that keeps people from seeing others the way God sees them? What can we do to help those who may be from a different race or culture feel welcome in our parish, our school, our community? Pray the opening prayer as you ask that God’s criteria for accepting others may become your criteria: Lord, help me keep my heart open to all your people.
Reading II
The second reading also speaks about discrimination. The first members of the Church were Jews who were unwilling to accept non-Jews into the Church. St. Paul reminds them that he is the “apostle to the Gentiles.” The discriminating attitude of the early members paved the way for Paul to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. It also enabled the Gentiles to respond more easily without the influence of the Jewish culture. Paul hoped that his ministry to the Gentiles would provoke the other members of the Church to a resurgence of their faith.
Paul’s attitude is a good example of how God can turn bad situations into fruitful opportunities. It also shows how important it is to believe in a positive outcome! All too often we only see the loss, the tragedy, the difficulty, the barrier. Are you able to look at a difficult situation and see the potential for good that is there? What can we do to cultivate a more positive attitude in our own lives, within our families, with our colleagues?
Gospel
In the gospel reading, Jesus meets up with a very determined Canaanite woman who begs him to help her troubled daughter. Since the woman was a Gentile, the apostles wanted to send her away, but Jesus continued to speak with her. Besides her great faith and courage, the woman also showed tremendous love for her child. She was willing to risk rejection for breaking through the barriers of convention to ask for help. She truly believed that Jesus could help her daughter, and despite what seemed like his initial reluctance, she simply wasn’t going to give up. She persisted, even begging him. Eventually Jesus praised her undaunting faith and healed her daughter. Jesus’ reply is one we would all love to hear: “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done as you wish.”
The Canaanite woman was a marginalized person in the society of Jesus’ time, because of her gender, her race, and her religious practice. Have you ever experienced rejection because of your gender, race, or religion? How did you deal with it? Have you ever been asked for help by someone of another race or culture? How have you responded? How are women in particular treated in today’s society? Jesus’ attitude towards the Canaanite woman is one that all should imitate, his acceptance of her, as both a woman and a foreigner.
St. Maximilian Mary Kolbe
Aug. 14th
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“I don’t know what’s going to become of you!” How many parents have said that? Maximilian Mary Kolbe’s reaction was, “I prayed very hard to Our Lady to tell me what would happen to me. She appeared, holding in her hands two crowns, one white, one red. She asked if I would like to have them – one was for purity, the other for martyrdom. I said, ‘I choose both.’ She smiled and disappeared.” After that he was not the same.
He entered the minor seminary of the Conventual Franciscans in Lvív (then Poland, now Ukraine), near his birthplace, and at 16 became a novice. Though he later achieved doctorates in philosophy and theology, he was deeply interested in science, even drawing plans for rocket ships.
Ordained at 24, he saw religious indifference as the deadliest poison of the day. His mission was to combat it. He had already founded the Militia of the Immaculata, whose aim was to fight evil with the witness of the good life, prayer, work and suffering. He dreamed of and then founded Knight of the Immaculata, a religious magazine under Mary’s protection to preach the Good News to all nations. For the work of publication he established a “City of the Immaculata” – Niepokalanow – which housed 700 of his Franciscan brothers. He later founded one in Nagasaki, Japan. Both the Militia and the magazine ultimately reached the one-million mark in members and subscribers. His love of God was daily filtered through devotion to Mary.
In 1939 the Nazi panzers overran Poland with deadly speed. Niepokalanow was severely bombed. Kolbe and his friars were arrested, then released in less than three months, on the feast of the Immaculate Conception.
In 1941 he was arrested again. The Nazis’ purpose was to liquidate the select ones, the leaders. The end came quickly, in Auschwitz three months later, after terrible beatings and humiliations.
A prisoner had escaped. The commandant announced that 10 men would die. He relished walking along the ranks. “This one. That one.” As they were being marched away to the starvation bunkers, Number 16670 dared to step from the line. “I would like to take that man’s place. He has a wife and children.” “Who are you?” “A priest.” No name, no mention of fame. Silence. The commandant, dumbfounded, perhaps with a fleeting thought of history, kicked Sergeant Francis Gajowniczek out of line and ordered Father Kolbe to go with the nine. In the “block of death” they were ordered to strip naked, and their slow starvation began in darkness. But there was no screaming – the prisoners sang. By the eve of the Assumption four were left alive. The jailer came to finish Kolbe off as he sat in a corner praying. He lifted his fleshless arm to receive the bite of the hypodermic needle. It was filled with carbolic acid. They burned his body with all the others. He was beatified in 1971 and canonized in 1982.