Welcome to Finding God in Our Hearts. The following production, Pastoral Reflections with Monsignor Don Fisher, is a weekly program of deep spiritual insight on Scripture, revealing the indwelling presence of God. We appreciate your listenership and if you find this program valuable, please subscribe and share with your friends. Share this program is funded with kind donations by listeners just like you. Make your donation@pastoralreflectionsinstitute.com we’re celebrating the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time. The opening Prayer O God, you have prepared for those who love you.

Good things which no eye can see fill our hearts. We pray with the warmth of your love so that loving you in all things and above all things we may attain your promises which surpass every human desire. Our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen. A reading from the Old Testament from The book of Isaiah 56 in the 6 7th verse thus says the 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, who 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 the altar, for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all people. The Word of God of the Lord Responsorial Psalm O God, let all the nations praise you. May God have pity on us and bless us. May he let his face shine upon us, so may your way be known upon the earth. O God, let the nations praise you.

May the nations be glad and exalt, because you rule the people’s inequity, the nations on the earth you guide. O God, let all the nations praise you. May the peoples praise you. O God, may all the peoples praise you. May God bless you, and may all the ends of the earth fear him. O God, let all the nations praise you.

A reading from the New Testament St. Paul’s letter to the Romans 11 to the 15th verse and 29:32 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 them, they too may now receive mercy.

For God delivered all to disobedience that he might have mercy upon all. The Word of the Lord Jesus proclaimed the gospel of the kingdom and cured every disease among the people. Alleluia the Gospel is taken from Matthew 15:21, 28th verse. 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. She’s 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 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 Take the next few moments as we listen to this music to ponder the images and the thoughts that come to you. As you listen to these readings, I want you to think for a few moments about Jesus, the man, his humanity. What did he know?

How much did he know about who he would become? Since we’re told that he was 100% human, it would seem that he had to grow and evolve, just as we do and try to understand something that was beyond his understanding. So there had to come a time in his early. Well, when he turned 33, he was. That sounds young now, but that was a full grown adult. But all through adolescence you wonder what was he wondering about what his ministry would be like.

Did he know at that time he was going to be called to be the Messiah? I think it’s more realistic to think that he grew into it rather than when he came into this world. He had this amazing knowledge he was human. And so he must have been very much influenced in the beginning by the temple. In fact, the only stories we know about his years before his public life were involved with the temple. He was taken there for circumcision.

And then at 12 he was found there, obviously having been taught by the temple, interpreting scripture as the temple interpreted it. Because when the Pharisees and scribes were asking him questions, he gave such stunning answers. So he had to be well imbued with the teaching of the temple. So why did he end up hating it? Why did he end up being killed by it? I think the first thing to begin to think about is how did God awaken in Jesus an awareness that he had a new message.

And I don’t know if he thought perhaps that the message that he was given by God that was so radically different than the temple, know whether he naively at first thought, if I just tell them this, they’ll understand it. But what we have to understand is what Jesus was initiating was a new kingdom, radically different than the temple. The temple was based in justice and the law and sacrifice. God was distant. God’s Spirit lived in the temple, and the men that were surrounding that were the ones who could dole out when they felt they could. Through the practices they asked people to go through, they could dole out forgiveness.

They were the complete and total connection that people had with God. It was only through the temple that people would find God’s justice. And so, in a sense, they were the servants of God. The temple explained very clearly, when you make a mistake, you have to come to us, pay a lot of money, and then you will go through a sacrifice, and then you will be cleansed again. And every time you come into the temple, you need to wash yourself because your cleansing is really not that good. I mean, you’re still pretty unattractive to God, if I can say that.

So what does Jesus come along with? He doesn’t talk so much about justice, though he certainly taught it. But he opened their eyes to a new vision of the relationship between God and humans. It was not simply through an institution called the temple, but it was directly from God to an individual. He cut out the power of the temple. Now I can see very clearly that there was something else going on that Jesus was aware of.

And that didn’t make him very popular with the people of the temple. But it was filled with corruption. It had become something that wasn’t giving life, but robbing people of life, a den of thieves. So you can see that Jesus, even though he was taught by the temple, realize as he got older how far it was from what God longed for people to know about who he is and how he works. So when I listen to this gospel, it’s so interesting because here is Jesus, and we know that one of the things that was so spectacular about his ministry were the miracles that he performed. Acts of kindness, acts of healing God, working through Jesus, healing people.

Jesus knew it was the power of God, not him, that was healing. And what’s interesting about this image of that, that he had such. How would I say this? Such a keen awareness of that. But I don’t know that he realized what he was doing in the sense. Maybe he did.

But when this woman was coming to him and said, please, please forgive me, he was tired, he was worn out. And so one of the things that he did was kind of fall back on his training in the Temple. I don’t have any responsibility for you. You’re not of the. You don’t belong to the Temple. You’re not an Israelite.

You’re a Canaanite, which is really a bad thing to be. So he reverts to his early training. And then the woman comes up and is the exact expression of who God and Jesus himself wanted the temple to say to him, I believe in you. I believe you can do this. I believe God uses human beings, and through that human being, they can touch me. Not through the Temple, just through a human being who believes.

And his heart is melted. And he heals her and said, that’s what I want from the temple, some kind of faith in what I’m saying. Because what I’m saying, Jesus was convinced was the truth. So that asked you and me. I think that what is it we still cling to? Is it the incredible example of Jesus as one of us, like us, filled with a message radically different than the one we basically would come up with ourselves and what the temple did and what most religions come up with.

We will teach you what God wants from you. You will do what he asks, and then you will be gifted with what you ask for, especially salvation. That’s the heart of what both religions teach. And it means that God is a God who demands service. He needs you to serve him. But the truth is, and Jesus comes to not only blow the system of the Temple apart, but he said, look, this God that you are longing to be a part of, and he longs to be a part of you.

He’s a servant God, and all he wants is for you to allow him to minister to you. Think how radically different that is. Not an institution that demands you do certain things and don’t do other things, but a God who works directly with you and dwells in you and serves the people that you love through you by your melding and uniting your intention to him, because he said, I’m going to take the law that is the heart of the Old Testament Testament and place it on your heart. And that’s where the law will be. And what you have to understand is I have added to the law mercy. And mercy sounds like just forgiveness.

No, mercy isn’t just forgiveness. It’s a radical change as to the focus of what religion is inviting people to engage in. It’s not about justice, but about mercy. And mercy is not about forgiveness, though it includes that, but about the most amazing relationship that we’re invited to have with God by allowing him to allow us to believe in this story, this beautiful story of a Messiah who comes into the world with the most amazing message. Paul got it. He changed.

And throughout his reading, in this particular set of readings, you know, he’s so sad that why don’t the Israelites believe this? And they still in a way don’t. So what is it? Why are they there and why did they resist? I think it’s only to make absolute, totally clear what religion can become and what it always tends to become and against what it should be. The shadow of religion is power over people.

Mercy is empowering people not just to receive healing and goodness, which is a wonderful thing, but it knows human beings so well that it says, you know, not only do you want to be touched and healed by me, and that’s creates thanksgiving, but if I can empower you to heal one another through my presence in you, that’s a joy that I feel when I heal you, and that’s a joy I want you to feel. That’s a different religion. SA the closing prayer Father, you long for intimacy with us. You long to engage us in the work that is so dear to your heart. You want us to feel the feelings that you have when you bring life to someone who’s already somehow caught in a darkness. Bless us with this gift, most especially believing that it is your promise that we will be empowered and be like you.

And we ask this in Jesus name, Amen. The music in our program was composed and produced by Ryan Harner for this show. Pastoral Reflections with Monsignor Don Fisher is funded with kind donations by listeners just like you. You can make a one time or recurring tax deductible donation on our website pastoralreflectionsinstitute.com we thank you for your listenership and your continued support. Without it, this program would not be possible. Pastoral Reflections with Monsignor Don Fisher is a production of the Pastoral Reflections Institute, a NonProfit in Dallas, Texas.

Dedicated to enriching your spiritual journey. Executive Producer Monsignor Don Fisher. Produced by Kyle Cross and recorded in Pastoral Reflections Institute Studios. Copyright 2023 SAM.