Faith and fear. We are called to live by faith and not by fear. Faith liberates and fear paralyzes. Simon Peter would go on to give his life for his Lord and Savior. Still, he would  deny three times that he even knew Jesus. If we reflect on our lives, we find that faith and fear are in constant tension. We profess our faith in every Sunday Mass, yet can be afraid to live our faith boldly in our daily lives. It can be a fear of “offending” others or fear of non-acceptance (by friends or co-workers).

This weekend, August 22nd and 23rd, our parish is very happy to welcome a Priest from the Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus. They will speak at all the Masses about the work that they do in over thirty countries of Africa, Europe, the Americas and Asia.

“O Woman, great is your faith!” These are the words spoken by our Lord Jesus Christ to the Canaanite woman in the Gospel for the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Matthew 15:21-28). She is a Canaanite (part of the pagan people to the west and north of Israel).

How often does the Lord speak to us in unexpected ways?  So often in Sacred Scripture we see God choosing the unlikeliest of people and working in the unlikeliest of ways to fulfill His purposes.  God’s ways are not our ways.  God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son to save us from our sins.  The Son of Man came not in glory, but in humility, so as to reconcile us to the Father by His life, death and resurrection.

The Gospel for the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time is from Matthew (14:13-21). It is the account of the miraculous multiplication of the loaves and the fish. Our Blessed Lord not only fed the multitudes, but there were twelve, full wicker baskets left over.