DOING THE IMPOSSIBLE AGAIN
“They beheld stupendous wonders.” –Wisdom 19:8
Mass Readings: November 18
First: Acts 28:11-16,30-31; Resp: Psalm 98:1-6; Gospel: Matthew 14:22-33
Listen to the Mass Readings
The whole Israelite nation had been enslaved in Egypt for several hundred years. They had no way of ever being freed. Then the Lord did a series of “stupendous wonders” (Wis 19:8) by which He set His people free, “for all creation, in its several kinds, was being made over anew” (Wis 19:6).
The book of Leviticus prescribes that in the Jubilee Year, slaves are freed, debts are forgiven, and land is restored to its original “owners” (see Lv 25:28). The Great Jubilee, which Pope St. John Paul II proclaimed in the year 2000, was hoped to be something like the Exodus – only much more extensive. By external appearances, however, it seems like the radical freedom prophesied for the year 2000 did not take place. We need again for the Lord to do “stupendous wonders” in our own day.
“Will not God then do justice to His chosen who call out to Him day and night? Will He delay long over them, do you suppose? I tell you, He will give them swift justice. But when the Son of Man comes, will He find any faith on the earth?” (Lk 18:7-8)
PRAYER: Father, do it again.
PROMISE: “Your all-powerful word from heaven’s royal throne bounded, a fierce warrior, into the doomed land, bearing the sharp sword of your inexorable decree. And as he alighted, he filled every place with death.” –Wis 18:15-16
PRAISE: St. Rose started a school for American Indians at the age of seventy-one. The Potawatomi Indians to whom Rose ministered called her “the woman who always prays.”
