God sees our faith

Readings for Thursday July 2, 2009

First Reading: Genesis 22:1-19
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 115
Gospel: Matthew 9:1-8


After entering a boat, Jesus made the crossing, and came into his own town. And there people brought to him a paralytic lying on a stretcher. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Courage, child, your sins are forgiven." (Matthew 9:1-2)

We know how amazing and awesome God is. Although we are also aware that He knows and sees everything, do we always act and think as though He is watching? In today's gospel reading, Jesus heals a man who is paralyzed, but this is only after it says, "when Jesus saw their faith." We also see in the first reading Abraham was following God's instructions and was ready to sacrifice his son Isaac, but God seeing how devoted Abraham was stopped him and provided the sacrifice. In both of these cases, God saw the faith that man had and blessed them for their faith.

In the readings for today, we see men who were blessed for showing their faithfulness to God. Many times we think, "well I have been faithful and I have done good works, where are my blessings?" But we must understand and trust that God's blessings do not come in our time, they come in His time. The man who was paralyzed did receive physical healing, but it was his spiritual healing that was the true blessing. Abraham never did get to see his great number of descendants while on earth, but he still trusted in God enough to go along with His plan. We must remember, that we are not working for any sort of earthly rewards, we are working towards the great gift of eternal life in heaven, that is the true blessing. We must be sure that we are faithful in heart and in mind, as well in our good works. We should always be working towards His glory and not our own; and it should not be out of fear, but rather love of our Lord.

We must remember that God is not like some parent who turns their head or leaves the room giving us a window of opportunity to do wrong without their knowledge. God is everywhere, and He knows and sees everything. So the question that we must ask ourselves is, does God sees our faith in everything we are doing, or does He see us carrying out our own will?

Today, let us reflect on the words of St Paul to the Colossians, "Whatever you do, do from the heart, as for the Lord and not for others, knowing that you will receive from the Lord the due payment of the inheritance; be slaves of the Lord Christ." (Col 3:23-24)

Father above we thank you for the gift of this day. God, you are our Lord and master, increase our faith so that we may always do what is please to you. Please place in us a servants heart, so that we may always be faithful and obedient to you in all matters. Lord, we seek to know and love you more while in this earth. We pray for all our brothers and sisters who are blinded to your love and mercy, may their eyes be opened and may they find comfort in your love. We pray for all of our priest and for their ministries. We ask this all through Christ our Lord. Amen.