August 22
Sunday
21st Sunday in Ordinary Time
1st Reading: Is 66:18–21
Now I am going to gather the nations of every tongue, and they will witness my glory, for I will perform a wonderful thing among them. Then I will send some of their survivors to the nations – Tarshish, Put, Lud, Moscheck, Rosh, Tubal, and Javan – to the distant islands where no one has ever heard of me or seen my glory. They will proclaim my glory among the nations. They will bring your kindred from all the nations as an offering to Yahweh on horses, in chariots, in litters, on mules, on camels to my holy mountain in Jerusalem, says Yahweh, just as the Israelites bring oblations in clean vessels to the house of Yahweh. Then I will choose priests and Levites even from them, says Yahweh.
Our reflection from the readings this week is:
When the woman with the hemorrhage dug her way through the crowd to reach Jesus, she had one goal in mind; to be cured from the illness that has denied her a normal life. Apparently, she had sought a cure that was available to her; she spent a fortune on countless visits to her primary care-giver and specialists; she underwent painful tests, yet a cure was far from near (Mark 5:26). Her insurance probably couldn’t cover all her medical expenses; if she was out of a job because of her illness, then she equally lost any form of insurance coverage. This woman was, as a matter of fact, in the throes of trauma and helplessness, as the illness dug a hole into her life. But she didn’t stop fighting the illness that was fighting her to death. She didn’t give in to hopelessness and despair.
Our reflection from the readings this week is:
