(Is.56:1,6-7; Ps.67:2-3,5-6,8; Rom.11:13-15,29-32; Mt.15:21-28) "God delivered all to disobedience, that He might have mercy upon all." (In love let me speak, O Lord.) Brothers and sisters, the Lord has said, "My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples." Yet our scholars and leaders make it a den of unbelief. Like the scribes and Pharisees of Jesus' day, they are deaf and blind to the light of God. We must not follow in their steps, but speak the truth of the presence of Christ that all might enter the portals of the Lord. I ask you: How shall the Lord's "way be known upon earth; among all nations, [His] salvation," if His Truth is blunted, if His Word is watered down into an alphabet soup? The commentary of the missal I read states of our gospel: "Matthew took this story from Mark… He molded it to bring out a message for the Church of his day." And so again, and continuously, those who presume to speak for the Church know nothing of God's Word. In their excessive analyzing, in their presumption and fabrication, they themselves attempt to mold the divine Scriptures to fit the vision of their blinded eyes, unable to see the Lord who stands before them. It is remarkable how ignorant these "intelligent" beings are to the simple fact that "prophecy has never been put forth by man's willing it," that "men impelled by the Holy Spirit have spoken under God's influence" (2Pt.1:21). And so they seek to make the Bible as any other sacred text, and the Church no different than the next. Why? So that there will be "an open-minded respect for all who seriously follow their religious convictions, provided of course that they fulfill their obligation to find the truth." But what they do not see is that the very condemnation of people they seek so anxiously to avoid, they are themselves effecting, in an eternal fashion. For they do not open the loving arms of the Catholic Church and speak of the acceptance of all into its grace and favors. They themselves do not "fulfill their obligation" to the truth for they know not what truth is: that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life is not heard by those who thirst for it most of all. And they do not see the absolute beauty of the woman's cry, "Please, Lord, even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters." (Or Jesus' wonderful exclamation, "O woman, great is your faith!") They do not see the way is not easy for any to come to salvation – be it the Gentile to whom the gates had seemed to be shuttered (though even throughout the Old Testament the Lord makes it very clear that "foreigners who join themselves to the Lord… them [He] will bring to [His] holy mountain") or the Jew who must repent of the hardness of his heart. They do not witness that all must come crawling on their knees to Jesus, and so how can they preach it? Their eyes are not open to see that the daughter who is healed is more than just the woman's blood offspring, but all the Gentile race; and they do not call all these to the light of His face. May the Lord have mercy on their disobedience. "May God bless us, and may all the ends of the earth fear Him." Written, read & chanted, and produced by James Kurt. Music: "The Whole Whale" (second half) from The Whole Whale, eighth album of Songs for Children of Light, by James Kurt. ******* O LORD, lift us up from the pit and baptize us with your fire. YHWH, opposition from sinners we must indeed endure if we are to be called by the Name of your Son. The Cross we must carry through this world if we are to come to where Christ is at your right hand. If we are lowered into a muddy cistern, what should that matter to us, as long as we ourselves are not guilty of sin. Should we not take great strength in the suffering of Jesus and all those who have followed Him so faithfully to the Cross? Have they not proven that you come, O LORD, to save those who cry out to you? We shall be delivered even from death by the grace upon your Son, and so why should we fear the shedding of our blood? Your sword of truth cannot but divide the evil from the good, those who look to you from those who take their refuge in the things of this earth. Let your fire come, dear God, and burn away all sin from our midst, that all your afflicted and poor may rise from the ground blessed.