+(Intro) As we will hear in our first reading this morning, there are many ways we can create idols for ourselves, rather than serve the living God. So let us be mindful of our sins and failings.
(After the gospel) As our gospel today reminds us: Jesus went to all the towns and villages “proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom and curing every disease and illness.” I have sometimes wonder how is it that we today, especially as priests and religious don’t carry with us more of this healing power though it does happen?
There can be no doubt that Jesus continues to be moved with pity for the troubled and abandoned, the sheep without a shepherd. It is not easy to let ourselves become aware of the plight of so many in our society today. And yet it is our Christian faith that leads us to embrace their condition.
This celebration of the Eucharist, this celebration of Christ’s dying and rising in our midst takes us right into the suffering of each of our hearts, in our society and into a trust in his rising to new life in our world of today.
Hos 8:4-7, 11-13; Matt 9:32-38