OXYGEN

04 July - Friday of the Thirteenth week in Ordinary Time, Memorial of Elizabeth of Portugal

St. Elizabeth (1271-1336) was a princess with a pious upbringing who became Queen of Portugal before she was a teenager. Elizabeth suffered through years of her husband’s abuse and adultery, praying all the while for his conversion, and working with the poor and sick. She rode onto the battlefield to reconcile her family members twice; once between her husband and son when they clashed in civil war, and between her son and his son-in-law years later, preventing bloodshed. This led to her patronage as a peacemaker, and as one invoked in time of war and conflict.

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Amos 87:4-6

Listen to this, you who trample on the needy
and try to suppress the poor people of the country,
you who say, ‘When will New Moon be over
so that we can sell our corn,
and sabbath, so that we can market our wheat?

Then by lowering the bushel, raising the shekel,
by swindling and tampering with the scales,
we can buy up the poor for money,
and the needy for a pair of sandals,
and get a price even for the sweepings of the wheat.’

That day – it is the Lord who speaks –
I will make the sun go down at noon,
and darken the earth in broad daylight.
I am going to turn your feasts into funerals,
all your singing into lamentation;
I will have your loins all in sackcloth,
your heads all shaved.
I will make it a mourning like the mourning for an only son,
as long as it lasts it will be like a day of bitterness.

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Matthew 9:9-13

As Jesus was walking on from there he saw a man named Matthew sitting by the customs house, and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And he got up and followed him.

While he was at dinner in the house it happened that a number of tax collectors and sinners came to sit at the table with Jesus and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, ‘Why does your master eat with tax collectors and sinners?’ When he heard this he replied, ‘It is not the healthy who need the doctor, but the sick. Go and learn the meaning of the words: What I want is mercy, not sacrifice. And indeed I did not come to call the virtuous, but sinners.’
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“Why does your master eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

My friend, who gives spiritual talks frequently at prayer meetings, once shared this at a gathering. At that time, he felt he was being denied something he wanted very much, and could not understand why. So as he was praying, he questioned God with some frustration why he was not able to reach his aim, which he felt would further his ministry.

Soon after, this image came to him. He was in front of a brick wall, a high one, and could find no way to get over it. He tried his best, and saw the brick wall as an obstacle standing in his way. But then the Lord said to him in this vision, “Let me show you what is behind the wall, and why I will not let you go across.” As my friend was taken to a higher vantage point by an invisible hand, he saw a huge, hungry snake waiting behind that wall, a creature he was no match for. Seeing this, he realized how blind he had been, because he had all along been blaming the One who wanted to give him a good greater than he had imagined.

I myself have many questions for the Lord. When things go badly at work, I angrily ask why my colleagues cannot be more efficient. When things go wrong at home, I ask in frustration when a time of peace and complete resolution will arrive. When things go awry in my friendships, I ask in despair where I may find a true friend.

These are difficult and real questions, and I think the Lord encourages us to ask, even if they are in frustration or anger. Jesus did not turn away the questions of the Pharisees, nor did he rebuke them, because he saw that they were genuinely unable to understand what he was doing with tax collectors. Likewise, Jesus will not rebuke us for asking what we do not understand. But let us not close ourselves after we vent our frustrations; there is a bigger picture that most of us cannot see from where we stand. The Word of God is here to help us see with the eyes of heaven, and if we desire Him above all other things, we will not be disappointed.

(Today’s reflection by Melissa Chia)
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Prayer: We pray for those who feel trapped or stuck in places they do not want to be, that the Lord may give them comfort and the eyes of faith to move forward towards freedom. Amen.

Thanksgiving: We give thanks to the Lord for the small and big events each day that remind us what a loving Father we have, who would never give a stone or a snake to his hungry son or daughter.

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Upcoming readings:
05 Jul, Sat - Amos 9:11-15, Matthew 9:14-17
06 Jul, Sun - Zec 9:9-10, Romans 8:9. 11-13, Matthew 11:25-30 - Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
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