Saturday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time
LOVE THE LORD WITH ALL YOUR HEART
Introduction
The beautiful first reading of today is the Shema Israel, “Hear, O Israel,” named after the opening words. It is a text recited three times a day, or at least once in the morning, by every pious Jew, even up to this day. It tells how God is a liberating God, who has gratuitously done much for his people. What else should the people, the object of God’s love, do than respond with their love and express this by faithfulness, loyalty, and obedience to his commandments? Though affection is not yet much a part of it, at least we cannot say that the OT is an age of only law and fear.
Opening Prayer
Lord, you alone are our God.
Through your Son, Jesus Christ,
you have led us out of the slavery and darkness of sin
to give us a share in your own life and love.
Thank you Lord God, for your generosity.
Help us to share ourselves freely
without demanding any return
and inspire all we do with the love
that you have shown us
in Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Reading 1: Dt 6:4-13
Moses said to the people:
“Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone!
Therefore, you shall love the LORD, your God,
with all your heart,
and with all your soul,
and with all your strength.
Take to heart these words which I enjoin on you today.
Drill them into your children.
Speak of them at home and abroad, whether you are busy or at rest.
Bind them at your wrist as a sign
and let them be as a pendant on your forehead.
Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates.
“When the LORD, your God, brings you into the land which he swore
to your fathers: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,
that he would give you,
a land with fine, large cities that you did not build,
with houses full of goods of all sorts that you did not garner,
with cisterns that you did not dig,
with vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant;
and when, therefore, you eat your fill,
take care not to forget the LORD,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery.
The LORD, your God, shall you fear;
him shall you serve, and by his name shall you swear.”
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 18:2-3a, 3bc-4, 47 and 51
I love you, O LORD, my strength,
O LORD, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer.
R. I love you, Lord, my strength.
My God, my rock of refuge,
my shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold!
Praised be the LORD, I exclaim!
And I am safe from my enemies.
R. I love you, Lord, my strength.
The LORD live! And blessed be my Rock!
Extolled be God my savior!
You who gave great victories to your king,
and showed kindness to your anointed,
to David and his posterity forever.
R. I love you, Lord, my strength.
Alleluia: See 2 Tm 1:10
Our Savior Jesus Christ has destroyed death
and brought life to light through the Gospel.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel: Mt 17:14-20
A man came up to Jesus, knelt down before him, and said,
“Lord, have pity on my son, who is a lunatic and suffers severely;
often he falls into fire, and often into water.
I brought him to your disciples, but they could not cure him.”
Jesus said in reply,
“O faithless and perverse generation, how long will I be with you?
How long will I endure you?
Bring the boy here to me.”
Jesus rebuked him and the demon came out of him,
and from that hour the boy was cured.
Then the disciples approached Jesus in private and said,
“Why could we not drive it out?”
He said to them, “Because of your little faith.
Amen, I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed,
you will say to this mountain,
‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move.
Nothing will be impossible for you.”
Intentions
– That with all people who deeply and sincerely believe in God, we may love him with all our heart and mind, we pray:
– That parents may pass on to their children their faith in God, we pray:
– That we may give thanks to God for everything he has given us for free, we pray:
Prayer over the Gifts
God our Father,
we have taken this bread and wine
from the wheat and the grapes,
that you let grow and ripen in our fields.
You toiled with us to let them become
our daily food and our drink of joy.
Give us now Jesus, your Son,
and let him be the food that sustains us
and the drink of your kingdom,
as he leads us to you,
our God, for ever and ever.
Prayer after Communion
God our Father, through Jesus your Son,
you have spoken to us, your people,
and we have listened to him.
We have enjoyed him as our food and drink.
We are grateful to you and we love you
for all you have given us
and even more so for what you are:
our loving and living God.
Accept our thanks and the assurance,
that we want to serve you faithfully
together with your loyal servant,
Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Blessing
“Listen, Israel;” listen, also Christians. We also take as our profession of faith that the Lord is our God, the Lord alone. And we want to love him with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our might. May God stay with you and bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Reflection:
12 August Saturday Mt 17:14-20
Absence of faith
The purpose of this account is to instruct about faith starting from a concrete fact. The account parallel to Mark’s (Mark 9:14-29) is broader and contains more details that render the narrated scene more understandable and the stress there is on prayer.
The miracle of healing serves as a review for Matthew to talk about the power of faith. It was necessary to insist on this in the absence of faith, especially among the disciples, who are “men of little faith” (6:30; 8:26).
Authentic faith, no matter how “little,” even like a grain of mustard seed, is a participation in the power of God (Rom 4:17-21). It is precisely for this reason that it can be said that “it moves mountains” (1 Cor 13:2). It is a poetic description of the power of the creator before whom all obstacles disappear no matter how strong, like the mountains (“the mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs,” Ps 114:4).
Matthew reproaches the disciples for their lack of confidence in the power they had received from Jesus. In that sense, this message has not lost its actuality: it is an exhortation not to put in doubt the saving power of the gospel.