Nov 29.pub

Isaiah 30:19-26

Psalm 147:1-6

Matthew 9:34-10:1-8

Summary

Isaiah proclaims that "on that day the Lord will bind up the wounds of his people

(and) he will heal the bruises left by His blows."

The psalmist sings that God will bind up His peoples' wounds and will "cast the

wicked to the ground". In Matthew, Jesus describes the people of Israel as

"troubled and abandoned", as "lost sheep", and commands his disciples to minister

to the lost of Israel, saying "that without cost you have received; without cost you

are to give".

Reflection

What does it take for any of us to realize that we are really lost and feel aban-

doned, that we are "sheep" who cannot, even on a good day, find our way back

home?

Well, I sure don't like to be called

a sheep. It's a blow to my pride.

I mean, really! Haven't I been

given all these talents so I can be

self-sufficient?

Wrong! One gift is missing from

my inventory: the gift of my in-

completeness, the gift that I am

totally dependent on God to make

me whole, and to bring me home.

How do any of us really ever know about this hidden gift? By falling on our faces,

by failing, by losing what we thought we had securely built for ourselves: our little

castles.

Ask the folks in AA. They know.

So Jesus gives us the gift of God's very self. The

gift of "the Way Home". We haven't done any-

thing to "deserve" this except in a very strange