Blessed Virgin Mary 

St. Sixtus Ⅱ, Pope & martyr 

St. Cajetan, priest

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊  

Deuteronomy 6:4-13

 Listen, Israel:

Yahweh, our God, is One Yahweh.   And you shall love Yahweh, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength.   Engrave on your heart the commandments that I pass on to you today.   Repeat them over and over to your children, speak of them when you are at home and when you travel, when you lie down and when you rise.   Brand them on your hand as a sign, and keep them always before your eyes.   Engrave them on your doorposts and on your city gates.

 Do not forget Yahweh when he has led you into theland which he promised to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; for he will give you great and prosperous cities which you did not build, houses filled with everything good which you did not provide, wells which you did not dig, vineyards and olive groves which you did not plant.

So when you have eaten and have been satisfied, do not forget Yahweh who brought you out from Egypt where you were enslaved. Fear Yahweh, your God, serve him and call on his Name when you have to swear an oath.

 

Ps 18:2-3a, 3bc-4, 47 & 51

I love you, Lord, my strength

 

    ＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊   

Matthew 17:14-20

When they met the people, a man approached Jesus, knelt before him and said, “Sir, have pity on my son who is an epileptic and is in a wretched state. He has often fallen into the fire and at other times into the water.   I brought him to your disciples but they could not heal him.”

 Jesus replied, “You, faithless and evil peo­ple! How long must I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring him here to me.”  And Jesus commanded the evil spirit to leave the boy, and the boy was immediately healed.

The disciples then gathered around Jesus and asked him privately, “Why couldn’t we drive out the spirit?”   Jesus said to them, “Because you have little faith. I say to you: if only you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could tell that mountain to move from here to there, and the moun­tain would obey. Nothing would be impossible to you.  

 

Gospel Reflection：

Our capacity to do wonderful things hinges on our faith. The stronger our faith is, the better will be the result of our endeavors. In this gospel we hear of a man going directly to Jesus after his attempts to solicit help from Jesus' disciples failed. The disciples' faith is still weak. It cannot do much in its current state.

And so Jesus got irritated at their slow progress. They have everything they need to cultivate a strong faith. They have his words and example to nurture their own spiritual life. But this passage allows us to see how human the disciples are. They too have their own weaknesses. They have to strive hard in order to have deep faith. And so if today we too struggle to believe, let us remember that the disciples too at one point of their lives had the same struggles as we have.