Daily Reflection
of Creighton University's Online Ministries
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July 13th, 2012
by

Tami Whitney

English Department
Click here for a photo of and information on this writer.
Friday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
[387] Hosea 14:2-10
Psalm 51:3-4, 8-9; 12-13, 14+17
Matthew 10:16-23

 

All the readings today talk about how God takes care of his people. In the first reading the people decide it does no good to pray to false idols because they don’t do any good, but God listens to his people and takes care of them. When they call, he hears and answers; so in the psalm the people sing praises to God who hears them and helps them.

But in the Gospel, it doesn’t seem like it’s that easy. Jesus says that people will be persecuted for their beliefs. Their own families will turn against them and hand them over to death and imprisonment. But what about the God who hears his people and cares for them? How can this happen that God’s people will be harmed for their belief in God? Jesus says we should still sing God’s praises. We should still have faith and belief in God who takes care of us. When we get to trial, God will put the words in our mouths that will save us. And if not, well, we will have our relief in the next world. If we get to the end of our lives with our faith intact, we have a reward on the other side. God does hear us. God does care for us.

I recently saw a delightful movie, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. In the film a character says, “Everything will be all right in the end. If it’s not all right, it is not yet the end.” Here on earth, it sometimes seems that everything is not all right. And we might wonder about God who hears our prayers and takes care of us. Where is he when these horrible things happen? Where is he when, as Jesus says, family members turn against each other and people are persecuted for their faith? But everything will be all right in the end. Whoever endures to the end will be saved.

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