Monday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
“In you, my God, I place my trust.” Such is the response to the psalm in today’s mass. Prayer is to realize and acknowledge this. It recalls all the Lord has done for me. He is Love. He loves me. He is Truth. He tells me how to imitate him, how to love others. I acknowledge this in a personal way each time I receive the Eucharist.
The 1st reading in today’s mass gives me a complementary perspective of God as Love, God as Truth. Just as he was an active presence in this strange, mysterious encounter in the life of Jacob, so in his providence he looks after me, giving a guarding angel to map out the way. He is The Way.
In the Gospel Jesus reacts immediately, first to the request of the official; then to the desire of the sick woman. Quickly he follows the father to where the sick girl lies; then, interrupted, he turns to the woman who touched him, curing her immediately. When I approach the Lord in prayer, he responds to strengthen my faith in the same way, not always giving me what I want, but in his providence granting me something better.