9 July 2018
Monday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
In today’s first reading from Hosea, we hear the way that the Lord speaks to the human heart as the bridegroom that it has been longing for since the moment of its creation, even if that heart hasn’t always recognized who its love truly is. In today’s Gospel, we hear of a woman and a girl who also stand in need of the bridegroom who comes to them, the first after a period of waiting for twelve years, the second after passing from this life to the land of waiting among the dead. In both cases, Jesus shows himself to have power, but his power is directed to the help of suffering hearts precisely through the appearance of faith. A reaching out of a hand or a journey to bring Jesus back to a dead girl’s home is a decisive act of faith that moves the mighty power of the bridegroom to heal and raise up what is broken and dead in these two human hearts. Overcoming stigma and distance and even death itself, Jesus shows himself to be the greatest lover of the human heart, and he invites us to move decisively today in response to our faith. He can heal us and bring us back to life, if only we have faith and reach out to him in our need.