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Bible Reflection (16 August 2026)

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20th Sunday of Year A

Isaiah 56:1,6-7
Romans 11:13-15,29-32
Matthew 15:21-28

Spiritual complacency and spiritual indifference.

Among believers, some of us are spiritually complacent. Some spiritually indifferent. My brothers and sisters, this week, the Scripture Readings invite us to reflect: Am I any of these?

What is spiritual complacency? It is the belief that just because we claim Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, we think we are guaranteed salvation. How we live and the ways our hearts are disposed do not matter. To draw equivalent to a modern ideology, it is identity politics in a spiritual sense. As a result of spiritual complacency, we lead careless life. We do not strive for righteousness because we think whatever sins we commit, God will forgive anyway. We lead irresponsible lives, such as over-indulging in alcohol, thrills, food, and even drugs. We think no harm will come to us as God will always protect us. We may even look down upon those who do not proclaimed Jesus as Lord, thinking that God will condemn these to eternal damnation. In Biblical times, many Jews are spiritual complacent. We read how St Paul was in “great sorrow and unceasing anguish” on the account of the spiritual complacency of his kindred Jews (Rom 9:2). And Jesus Himself said it bluntly to the chief priests and elders, “the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you.” (Mt 21:31) But it is not just the Jews in Biblical times, many Christians today are spiritual complacency. Hence we reflect: Am I spiritually complacent?

What about spiritual indifference? It is the reluctance to think about our faith, live our faith and grow our faith. Christianity becomes something we do, not something we are. In Biblical times, the Pharisees were scrupulous in obeying the 613 commandments handed down to them but paid scant attention to the spirit of the laws. In our modern equivalent, we can be scrupulous about attending church on Sunday and observing religious rituals, with scant attention to the true meaning of these practices. Manyof us who are born into the faith are particularly susceptible to spiritual indifference. So we ask ourselves: Am I spiritually indifferent?

So, if I am spiritually complacent and spiritually indifferent, what must I do? I must claim my faith as my own, and “live” Christianity, not “do” Christianity. In this regard, the Scripture passages this week seek to jolt us out of our complacency and indifference. They do so by telling us how gentiles, foreigners and non-believers are closer to salvation and lead fuller lives than we are.

In the First Reading, Isaiah told the Jews that heritage does not matter, it is the heart that counts: “And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants, all who keep the sabbath, and do not profane it, and hold fast my covenant – these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer” (verse 6-7). In the Second Reading, St Paul used the gentiles to motivate the Jews to come back to the faith: “Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I glorify my ministry in order to make my own people jealous, and thus save some of them.” (verse 13-14) In our times, we see parallels, where the lives of non-Christians and even non-believers can inspire the salvation of Christians. Think of the many non-believers doing good works in our community – volunteering, feeding the poor, donating to charities, and serving the community. As believers, let us lay down our pride to allow the goodwill of non-Christians and non-believers to inspire us to live our Christian calling of love. By God’s mercy, it is never too late return to our faith. As St Paul wrote in the Second Reading, “Just as you were once disobedient to God but have now received mercy because of their disobedience, so they have now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy.” (verse 30-31)

In the Gospel, we read the story of the Canaanite woman. This is a difficult story for many of us to appreciate. But it speaks in a special way to those of us who are spiritually complacent and spiritually indifferent. We read, “a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, ‘Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.'” (verse 22) The Canaanite woman was not a Jew. and hence not among the chosen race. But she was persistent, so much so that the disciples said to Jesus, “Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.” (verse 23) At this, Jesus said these seemingly harsh words to the gentile woman: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (verse 24) Taking it further, Jesus even equated gentiles with dogs: “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” (verse 26) Without the context of the First and Second Reading, we would be puzzled by the seemingly harsh words of Jesus. In truth, Jesus who knows all, knew the woman was a gentile person with great faith, greater than many of the Jews present. He knew His words, though they sounded harsh to the beholders, would not have dampened the woman’s faith. Indeed, on account the of her faith, Jesus’ words drew out this proclamation of faith from the woman: “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” (verse 27) In other words, as a person of faith, she yearned for God’s blessing irrespective of how it came about. In humility, she said that every little blessing from God is of great value to her. Indeed, the woman persistence and humility before Jesus is a great lesson for all who heard her that day, and indeed for all of us who read the passage today.

Exalting the woman’s faith, Jesus granted the woman His blessing. “‘Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.’ And her daughter was healed instantly.” (verse 28) My brothers and sisters, let us claim our faith as our very own, not just as something handed down from our parents. Let our faith be something we live, not just rituals we do. How sweet would it be for us to hear these words from Jesus: “Great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” Alleluia!

Bible Reflection (9 August 2026)

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19th Sunday of Year A

1 Kings 19:9,11-13
Romans 9:1-5
Matthew 14:22-33

Finding God in our storms.

Does doing the right thing always get rewarded? Sadly, no! In fact, in a fallen world like ours, doing the right thing can often bring about challenges to our lives. It is often difficult to navigate these storms, as we feel that we are being punished for doing the right thing. My brother and sisters, if we are struggling with such storms in our lives, let this weeks’ Scripture speak to us. If we are hesitating to do the right thing, afraid of the blowbacks that might come, let this weeks’ Scripture speak to us.

In the First Reading this week, Elijah was running for his life. Leading up to the First Reading text, Elijah stood against and defeated the prophets of the pagan god Baal. This has angered queen Jezebel, who as a worshipper of Baal, felt deeply humiliated. Jezebel swore to kill Elijah, and Elijah had to run for his life. Tired and full of anxiety, in the omitted verse from this week’s First Reading, Elijah said to God, “I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.” (1 Kgs 19:10) In his fatigue and anxiety, Elijah adopted a self-defeatist attitude. How do we know that? Elijah knew it was not true that he alone was left because earlier, Obadiah told Elijah how Obadiah “hid a hundred of the Lord’s prophets fifty to a cave, and provided them with bread and water” (1 Kgs 18:13) And later, as God promptly reminded Elijah, “Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.” (1 Kgs 19:18) The First Reading this week is wedged between these two revelations of hope.

In the First Reading, tired, exhausted and deflated, Elijah needed encouragement. So God’s said to him, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” (verse 11) Then came a great wind, an earthquake and a fire. But God was not in any of those. Instead, Elijah found God in the “sheer silence” (verse 12) This revelation is important to Elijah. It was in stark contrast to the earlier encounter, when God came to Elijah in great might to defeat the prophets of Baal; sending fire from heaven to consume an altar, consuming “the burnt offering, the wood, the stones, and the dust, and even licked up the water that was in the trench.” (1 Kgs 18:38) But now, in the midst of Elijah’s struggle, God comforted Elijah in sheer silence, in a moment of tenderness. God knows, in his exhaustion and disenchantment, Elijah needed to encounter a tender loving God.

In the Gospel, the disciples had a similar experience – this time, a physical storm. In many ways this storm is symbolic of the storm of Elijah and the storms in our lives. For in spite of having left everything to follow Jesus, not only were the disciples were not rewarded with comfort, they met this storm that even the experienced fishermen were struggling against. We read, “the boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land, for the wind was against them.” (verse 24) Significantly, Jesus was not with them in the boat. My dear friends, don’t we feel like this sometime? In the midst of our storms, we do not feel the presence of Jesus, and we cry to Him: “Where are you, Lord?” It was in such a moment that the disciples saw Jesus walking to them on water. The disciples were consoled, but seeing this very unnatural sight of someone walking on water, they were also afraid. So Jesus said to them, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.” (verse 27) Drawing great strength for this assurance, Peter then said to Jesus, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” (verse 28) Upon being invited by Jesus to come forth, Peter started walking on water. But as “he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink” (verse 30). Jesus caught Peter and said to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” (verse 31) This sequence of events holds a great lesson for us.

In Peter, we see a pattern of human strength and weakness. Peter drew great strength from witnessing Jesus walking on water, so much so that Peter himself started walking on water. Then, when faced with the strong wind, he became afraid, lost his confidence and started sinking. This was when Jesus reached out and caught Peter. We see this pattern of behaviour repeated throughout the Bible. We saw this in the Frist Reading, when after defeating Baal’s prophets in spectacular fashion, Elijah lost his confidence while running for his life. In another example, in the Book of Numbers, the people were joyous that they have reached the promised land. But when Moses sent 12 men to spy on the land of Canaan, the men came back reporting that the people occupying the land are giants and the towns are fortified (Num 13:28). On hearing this, the people became self-defeatists as Elijah was. They said, “The land that we have gone through as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people that we saw in it are of great size … and to ourselves we seemed like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.” (Num 13:32-33). And this was in spite of them witnessing God defeating the Pharaoh’s army and parting the Red Sea! In truth, this pattern of strength and weakness is also in our lives.

Living a life of faith, upholding the truth as Elijah and the disciples were called to do, is never easy. Like Elijah in the cave and the disciples in the boat, we too are often battled and bruised. In these moment, what goes through our mind? Do we regret having answer God’s call? Are we disenchanted, having expected rewards rather than challenges? Are we discouraged, not knowing if we have the strength to carry on? Do we try to overcome the difficulties by our own human strength? Or in humility, are we prepared to call upon God to our aid? Elijah found God in sheer silence. For us, instead of trying to resolve the challenges by our own strength, do we stop, enter into silence, pray and contemplate? Peter started sinking because he took his eyes off Jesus. Often, the reason we do not find Jesus in the midst of our trials is not because He is absent. But it was because our faith is weak and we took our eyes off Him. So my brothers and sisters, let us ask ourselves: How close am I to Jesus? Have I kept my eyes on Him in good times and in bad? Have I invested time and efforts in my relationship with Jesus? Do I pray regularly? Do I read the Bible regularly? Do I love like Jesus? Do I foster His love in my family and my workplace? Indeed, could my tardiness in faith be the reason I sometime find Jesus absent in my life? And if this is me, do not be afraid. Jesus understands our weakness, and knows what we need. Seek him and we will find Him coming to us – even if it takes a miracle like walking on water for Him to come to us, come to us He will.

My brothers and sisters, let us acknowledge our human frailty, and cried out to Jesus, “Lord, save me!” (verse 30) Do we hear Jesus responding, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” (verse 31) Come Lord Jesus to our aid. Amen.