Mt 9:32-38 Jesus Went Around

Tuesday of the Fourteenth Week In Ordinary Time

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A demoniac who could not speak was brought to Jesus, and when the demon was driven out the mute man spoke.  The crowds were amazed and said, “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.”  But the Pharisees said, “He drives out demons by the prince of demons.”

The Pharisees made no sense:  He dries out demons by the prince of demons.  Really??

Today, you would be hard pressed to find a Pharisee.  They have all disappeared. 

People who argue for the sake of argument or argue using illogical arguments eventually disappear.  As Lincoln reportedly once said: “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all the people all of the time.”

In a recent tweet, the Holy Father, Pope Francis, wrote:  “We pray for a heart which will embrace immigrants.  God will judge us upon how we have treated the most needy.”  This tweet was sent soon after the Pope visited the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa (a landing point for African migrants) to drop a wreath of flowers into the Mediterranean in mourning for the thousands of migrants and asylum seekers who have drowned while sailing from Africa to Europe in search of a better life.  This was his first trip outside of Rome.  He chose it himself.  Please watch the beautiful video of this event.

This event was significant, considering the growing anti-immigration sentiment that is sweeping across Europe.  The Holy Father denounced the “globalization of indifference” towards migrants.  He asked, “Has any one of us wept for these persons who were on the boat?  For the young mothers carrying their babies?  For these men who were looking for a means of supporting their families?  We are a society which has forgotten how to weep, how to experience compassion.”

Here is just one example for you:

Prayer has no effect on outcomes.  We need less division not heart.  Pay some tax, that might help.

“Prayer has no effect.”  Thank you for telling us that.  But you would think that people who actually did pray would be able to come to that conclusion on their own, right?  Well, I pray every day and guess what? I can’t make that conclusion.  What this person should have tweeted is that prayer has no “negative effect.”  And that’s important, given the deadly effect European leaders, who do not pray, have had on poor African migrants.  Nearly 6,000 have lost their lives trying to reach Lampedusa.   

“We need less division not heart.”  Oh, okay. We can all see that coming from this individual’s unifying – bridge building – tweet, right?  I don’t know about you, but I don’t even understand it. 

Pay some tax, that might help.  Taxes???  Taxes and migration???  Isn’t the problem mentality, not taxes?  So let me get this straight:  The Vatican (a sovereign nation) should pay taxes to another sovereign nation so that its money can go to their billion dollar weapon systems, right???  All I can say is thank God the Vatican doesn’t belong to any country and thank God they don’t have a military-industrial “complex” or mentality.

Question:  Given the state of immigration in the United States, and how so many of us pay a good amount in taxes, are you glad to see the “big” difference your tax dollars are making in solving our immigration problems? 

Does this person live on the moon???

The Pope is a good shepherd.  Now he isn’t a good shepherd because people tell him so.  He is a good Shepherd because he prays; and when he prays, he listens to the voice of the One above Him.  What the Pope says is beautiful.  But what he says is no different than the voice of the One above Him.

I am the good shepherd, says the Lord; I know my sheep, and mine know me.