St. Damasus I, Pope

He who walked on the sea could calm the bitter waves... 

 

The Lord of Storms Gives Us More Than We Can ...

"He who walked on the sea could calm the bitter waves,"

 It demonstrates Jesus's unique authority as God's Son,

not just over people, but over the natural world.

 

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊     

Isaiah 41:13-20

For I, the Lord your God,

Take hold of your right hand and say to you: "Fear not, I am your assistance."

Fear not, Jacob, poor worm, and you, people of Israel, so frail. I am your redeemer, says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, your helper.

I will make you a thresher, new and with sharp double teeth: you will thresh hills and mountains, crushing them and reducing them to chaff.

You will winnow them, the wind will carry them off and the storm will scatter them. But you will rejoice in the Lord and glory in the Holy One of Israel.

The poor and the afflicted seek water, and find none. Their tongues are parched with thirst. But I, the Lord, will hear them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.

 

I will open up streams over the barren heights and let the rivers flow through all the valleys;

I will turn the desert into lakes and brooks and the thirsty earth into a land of springs.

I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the acacia, the myrtle and the olive; I will plant in the wasteland fir,

cypress and pine that all may see and know, consider and understand,

that the hand of the Lord has done this, that the Holy One of Israel has created it.

 

Ps 145:1 & 9, 10-11, 12-13ab

The Lord is gracious and merciful; slow to anger, and of great kindness.

 

＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊      

Matthew 11:11-15

I tell you this: no one greater than John the Baptist has arisen from among the sons of women; and yet,

the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John,

the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven is something to be conquered; and violent men seize it.

Up to the time of John, there was only prophesy: all the prophets and the law.

And if you believe me, John is indeed that Elijah, whose coming was predicted. Let anyone with ears listen!

 

Gospel Reflection ：

"In our weakness, we rely on the Lord."

The people of Israel are presented in very puny terms in the first reading today.

The people are called "poor worm" and "so frail."

We find the metaphor of the worm at various points in the Bible to mean insignificance, smallness, ugliness or decay.

The phrase in Psalm 22 "a worm and not a man" is applied to Christ's suffering and disfigurement in his Passion.

 

Here, Isaiah is using "worm" to describe Israel as weak and small. Yet, the expression is not made simply to belittle Israel,

but rather to show that their strength comes not from themselves as a people, but from the Lord. Similarly, Psalm 22 ends in words of triumph.

Saint Teresa of Avila describes herself as a worm in reference to her weakness, her sinfulness and her smallness before God.

She also describes all souls initially as worms, but she elaborates on her image to say that we are like silkworms,

and so her image is one of beautiful transformation, as we die to self and live our new life of union with Christ.

This she represents as a white butterfly. Thus, in our weakness, we rely on the Lord, who is "our assistance."