Monday, July 7 2014; Monday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 383

Reading 1 
Hosea 2:16, 17c-18, 21-22

Thus says the LORD:
I will allure her;
I will lead her into the desert
and speak to her heart.
She shall respond there as in the days of her youth,
when she came up from the land of Egypt.

On that day, says the LORD,
She shall call me “My husband,”
and never again “My baal.”

I will espouse you to me forever:
I will espouse you in right and in justice,
in love and in mercy;
I will espouse you in fidelity,
and you shall know the LORD.

Responsorial Psalm 
Psalm 145:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9

R. (8a) The Lord is gracious and merciful.

Every day will I bless you,
and I will praise your name forever and ever.
Great is the LORD and highly to be praised;
his greatness is unsearchable.

R. The Lord is gracious and merciful.

Generation after generation praises your works
and proclaims your might.
They speak of the splendor of your glorious majesty
and tell of your wondrous works. 

R. The Lord is gracious and merciful.

They discourse of the power of your terrible deeds
and declare your greatness.
They publish the fame of your abundant goodness
and joyfully sing of your justice. 

R. The Lord is gracious and merciful.

The LORD is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and of great kindness.
The LORD is good to all
and compassionate toward all his works.

R. The Lord is gracious and merciful.

Gospel 
Matthew 9:18-26

While Jesus was speaking, an official came forward,
knelt down before him, and said,
“My daughter has just died.
But come, lay your hand on her, and she will live.”
Jesus rose and followed him, and so did his disciples.
A woman suffering hemorrhages for twelve years came up behind him
and touched the tassel on his cloak.
She said to herself, “If only I can touch his cloak, I shall be cured.”
Jesus turned around and saw her, and said,
“Courage, daughter! Your faith has saved you.”
And from that hour the woman was cured.

When Jesus arrived at the official’s house
and saw the flute players and the crowd who were making a commotion,
he said, “Go away! The girl is not dead but sleeping.”
And they ridiculed him.
When the crowd was put out, he came and took her by the hand,
and the little girl arose.
And news of this spread throughout all that land.

REFLECTION
SOURCE: One Bread One Body
THEME: BLOW UP THE DAM!

"I will espouse you in right." –Hosea 2:21

I studied forestry in college. My colleagues clearly understood the delicate balance of a natural ecosystem. Artificially altering even part of an ecosystem threatens the health of the whole forest. For example, when a river is dammed, its life-giving flow is blocked. Above and below the dam, plant and animal life and critical habitat are altered, often catastrophically. Despite this knowledge, my colleagues ardently supported zero population growth. They favored limiting human reproduction through artificial contraception or sterilization. They reasoned that humans ruin natural ecosystems faster than anything else, and thus God's beautiful ecosystem of human procreation should be dammed.

Almighty God has a divine ecology and economy that brings all His creation into unity with the perfect unity of the Holy Trinity (Catechism, 260). All creation interacts harmoniously when subject to His beautiful order. God pours out His superabundant, overflowing river of love to all humanity, trying to allure us back into His loving order (Rm 5:5; Hos 2:16). As my forestry colleagues instinctively realized, it's the human beings that block the divine ecology. Just as a husband and wife utilize contraceptive barriers to limit or block their reproductive powers, we build dams and walls to try to control or block His love. What follows is a catastrophe: divorce, depression, loss of faith, disobedience, and devastation left behind for the next generation.

Are you swamped? Are you struggling to keep your head above water? Repent of blocking God's order. Blow up the dam! Let the fresh, flowing water of the Holy Spirit restore God's refreshing harmony to your life (Jn 7:37).

PRAYER: Father, it's only a small step from dammed to damned. Let Your river of everlasting life flow through me (Ez 47:8ff).

PROMISE: "Your faith has restored you to health." –Mt 9:22

PRAISE: Mary and Tom did not block God's grace through artificial contraception and were blessed with ten children.

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