St. Dominic, priest 

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊

Habbakuk 1:12-2:4

But you, are you not Yahweh from past ages?

You, my holy God, you cannot die. You have set this people to serve your justice and you have made them firm as a rock to fulfill your punishment. Yahweh, your eyes are too pure to tolerate wickedness and you cannot look on oppression. Why, then, do you look on treacherous people and watch in silence while the evildoer swallows up one better than himself?

 You treat human beings like the fish in the sea, like reptiles who are nobody’s concern. This nation catches all on its hook, pulls them out with its net and piles them up in its dragnet. 

Pleased and delighted at their catch, they offer sacrifices to their net and burn incense to their dragnets, since these supplied them with fish in plenty and provided them with food in abundance. Will they continue, then, to constantly empty their nets, slaughtering nations without mercy?

 I will stand in my watchtower and take up position on my battlements; I will see what he replies, if there is an answer to my question. Then Yahweh answered me and said, “Write down the vision, inscribe it on tables so it can be easily read, since this is a vision for an appointed time; it will not fail but will be fulfilled in due time.

If it delays, wait for it, for it will come and will not be deferred. Look: I don’t look with favor on the one who gives way; the upright, on the other hand, will live by his faithfulness.”

 

Ps 9:8-9, 10-11, 12-13

You forsake not those who seek you, O Lord.

 

＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊

Matthew 17:14-20

When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus, knelt before him and said, “Sir, have pity on my son who is an epileptic and is in a wretched state. He has often fallen into the fire and at other times into the water. I brought him to your disciples but they could not heal him.”

 Jesus replied, “You, faithless and evil peo­ple! How long must I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring him here to me.” And Jesus commanded the evil spirit to leave the boy, and the boy was immediately healed.

 The disciples then gathered around Jesus and asked him privately, “Why couldn’t we drive out the spirit?” Jesus said to them, “Because you have little faith. I say to you: if only you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could tell that mountain to move from here to there, and the moun­tain would obey. Nothing would be impossible for you.

 

Gospel Reflection：

In 1997, a prestigious Philippine foundation gave the Filipino Hero Award to a ten-year- old girl. Her name is Rona Mahilum. She climbed up stage with face partly burned. The year before, her parents and two older siblings went to another village celebrating fiesta.

They were selling softdrinks. Rona was left with her five younger siblings. At midnight, their house caught fire. Rona instinctively crawled towarda the door to escape. But, she stopped, rushed back to her five siblings and dragged them outside.

People would say the girl was not really a hero-it was a pump of adrenaline anyone could be pump us pumped up like that. When Rona was interviewed, she herself said she is not a hero. She said she is a believer. Any-one  who has faith in God instinctively does the same. There is nothing extraordinary for those who believe as it is built-in like adrenaline.