Thursday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time
“She begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter. You may go… When the woman went home, she found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.”
This is the way faith must operate in our lives—we ask; Jesus replies; and then we act as if we believed in Jesus acting in our behalf, regardless of how we feel. We go on our way, trusting in Him who loves us.
The woman in our Gospel today was persistent. She wanted normalcy and health for her daughter. So, she persisted with Jesus. She believed He could and would help her. We must act in the same way. We must keep asking our Blessed Lord for what we need and trust that He is listening.
Pope Benedict XVI, in his document announcing the year of faith, puts it very nicely and helpfully in a quote from St. Augustine: “’Believers strengthen themselves by believing.’”
Reflection by Fr. Xavier Nacke, OSB
Posted in Articles for Ordinary Time, Daily Reflections