August 8, 2026
Memorial of Saint Dominic, Priest
Lectionary: 412
Reading 1
Are you not from eternity, O LORD,
my holy God, immortal?
O LORD, you have marked him for judgment,
O Rock, you have readied him punishment!
Too pure are your eyes to look upon evil,
and the sight of misery you cannot endure.
Why, then, do you gaze on the faithless in silence
while the wicked man devours
one more just than himself?
You have made man like the fish of the sea,
like creeping things without a ruler.
He brings them all up with his hook,
he hauls them away with his net,
He gathers them in his seine;
and so he rejoices and exults.
Therefore he sacrifices to his net,
and burns incense to his seine;
for thanks to them his portion is generous,
and his repast sumptuous.
Shall he, then, keep on brandishing his sword
to slay peoples without mercy?I will stand at my guard post,
and station myself upon the rampart,
And keep watch to see what he will say to me,
and what answer he will give to my complaint.
Then the LORD answered me and said:
Write down the vision
Clearly upon the tablets,
so that one can read it readily.
For the vision still has its time,
presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint;
If it delays, wait for it,
it will surely come, it will not be late.
The rash man has no integrity;
but the just man, because of his faith, shall live.
Responsorial Psalm
R. (11b) You forsake not those who seek you, O Lord.
The LORD sits enthroned forever;
he has set up his throne for judgment.
He judges the world with justice;
he governs the peoples with equity.
R. You forsake not those who seek you, O Lord.
The LORD is a stronghold for the oppressed,
a stronghold in times of distress.
They trust in you who cherish your name,
for you forsake not those who seek you, O LORD.
R. You forsake not those who seek you, O Lord.
Sing praise to the LORD enthroned in Zion;
proclaim among the nations his deeds;
For the avenger of blood has remembered;
he has not forgotten the cry of the poor.
R. You forsake not those who seek you, O Lord.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Our Savior Jesus Christ has destroyed death
and brought life to light through the Gospel.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
A man came up to Jesus, knelt down before him, and said,
“Lord, have pity on my son, who is a lunatic and suffers severely;
often he falls into fire, and often into water.
I brought him to your disciples, but they could not cure him.”
Jesus said in reply,
“O faithless and perverse generation, how long will I be with you?
How long will I endure you?
Bring the boy here to me.”
Jesus rebuked him and the demon came out of him,
and from that hour the boy was cured.
Then the disciples approached Jesus in private and said,
“Why could we not drive it out?”
He said to them, “Because of your little faith.
Amen, I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed,
you will say to this mountain,
‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move.
Nothing will be impossible for you.”
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/memorial-saint-dominic-priest
Commentary on
Habakkuk 1:12—2:4
Today we have one reading from the Prophet Habakkuk. The
book dates from the years 605-597 BC, i.e. between the great Babylonian victory
at Carchemish and Nebuchadnezzar’s invasion of the southern kingdom of Judah
which resulted in the capture and destruction of Jerusalem. In addition to the
threat of invasion, the city itself was a hotbed of political intrigue and
widespread idolatry.
The first two chapters, from which our readings are taken,
consist of a dialogue between God and the prophet, and may be the only place in
the Bible where someone questions the way God manages events.
The New American Bible comments:
“The third chapter [from which we will not be reading] is a
magnificent religious lyric, filled with reminiscences of Israel’s past and
rich in literary borrowings from the poetry of ancient Canaan, though still
expressing authentic Israelite faith. God appears in all his majestic splendour
and executes vengeance on Judah’s enemies. The prophecy ends with a joyous
profession of confidence in the Lord, the Saviour.”
In today’s reading, the prophet complains to God about how
he can tolerate the evil of those who cause so much suffering among his chosen
people. The Jerusalem Bible summarises the prophet’s feelings
thus:
“If it is true that the Chaldaean triumph is ultimately due
to Yahweh, this only moves the problem back to Yahweh himself who must give the
answer. How is it that a just and holy God, the custodian of justice, can treat
nations thus, and the chosen people in particular? Will he allow the wicked to
engulf the virtuous?”
As well, the New International Bible comments:
Habakkuk cannot see the justice in Judah’s being punished by
an even more wicked nation, and thinks that the Babylonians surely would not be
allowed to conquer Judah completely.
The prophet acknowledges God as the Holy One who lives in
eternity from ancient times, i.e. from the time of the Exodus—the basis of the
prophet’s hope for the future. He says to God:
O Lord, you have marked them for judgment,
and you, O Rock, have established them for punishment.
He calls God “O Rock!”—a title recognising God’s immutable
power. But it is this God who has made Babylon his agent for the judgement of
the chosen people.
At the same time, the prophet sees a contradiction here. He
says to God:
Your eyes are too pure to behold evil,
and you cannot look on wrongdoing;
why do you look on the treacherous
and are silent when the wicked swallow
those more righteous than they?
It is the classic question, asked again and again: Why does
evil seem to flourish unchecked by a just and holy God? It is a question often
asked since September 11, 2001, October 7, 2023 and after so many other
murderous attacks in our time.
God, says Habakkuk, treats people:
…like the fish of the sea…
The victims of Babylonia are as helpless as fish swimming
into a net. In fact, Mesopotamian reliefs show conquering rulers symbolically
catching their victims in fishnets. It seems that Babylonia is allowed to do
anything they like and, in the end, “rejoices and exults.”The Babylonians offer
celebratory sacrifices over their ‘catch’ and burn incense to the booty which
rewards them with wealth and luxury.
The prophet wants to know if there is to be no end to all of
this:
Is he [Babylon] then to keep on emptying
his net
and destroying nations without mercy?
So the prophet goes on a long watch on Jerusalem’s city
walls to see if the Lord has any answer at all to his complaints. The prophet
keeps watch like a sentry on behalf of his people. He looks out from his
“watchpost” expecting a response to his challenge.
Yahweh’s response comes in the second part of today’s
reading:
Then the Lord answered me and said…
The prophet is told:
Write the vision;
make it plain on tablets,
so that a runner may read it.
This is so that it can easily be carried and read out by a
messenger and delivered to all those meant to receive it. The word used here
refers specifically to a prophet’s vision.
The message is “for the appointed time” only, without any
specification of when it will happen. It will be fulfilled at the appointed
time. In fact, it will deal with the fall of Babylon in 539 BC, 66 years after
Habakkuk made his prophecy:
If it seems to tarry, wait for it…
It has an energy of its own, because it is the expression of
Yahweh’s word moving to inevitable fulfilment. Our Advent liturgy uses this
verse to express expectation of the Messiah.
The message, then, is to be patient. It may be slow in
coming, but:
…it will surely come; it will not delay.
In conclusion, a contrast is made between two kinds of
people. On the one hand there are “the proud” whose “spirit is not right in
them”, and on the other, there are “the righteous”, those who “live by their
faithfulness”. The king of Babylonia and his followers can be numbered among
the first kind, as well as those people of Judah who have lost confidence in
God. Others remain utterly faithful to God no matter what happens and how long
he has to wait.
‘Faithfulness’ to God, i.e. to his word and to his will, is
characteristic of the “righteous”, and assures them security and life here on
earth. The wicked, who do not have this ‘righteousness’ run to ruin. The
righteous and the wicked in this context are respectively Judah and the
Chaldaeans—the former will live and the others perish.
In light of God’s revelation about how (and when) he is working,
his people are to wait patiently and live by faith, trusting in their sovereign
God. The last clause of the reading is quoted frequently in the New Testament
to support the teaching that people are saved by grace through faith and should
live by faith (see Heb 10:38-39). It also became the rallying cry of the
Protestant Reformation in the 16th century.
There is a distinction to be made between ‘faith’ and
‘faithfulness’. ‘Faith’ implies a deep and unconditional trust in God’s love
and care for us, even in our sinfulness. ‘Faithfulness’ or ‘fidelity’ suggests
maintaining, through thick and thin and perhaps over a long period of time, the
integrity of a relationship (as in marriage). Obviously both apply in this
passage.
We all need to live by faith and faithfulness. This is one
of the secrets of peace and happiness in our lives.
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Commentary on
Matthew 17:14-20
In today’s Gospel, we have the story of a father distraught
over the erratic behaviour of his son. As usually is the case, Mark’s telling
of this story is much more dramatic than Matthew’s. Nevertheless, Matthew keeps
the main points.
There is the desperation of the father who feels helpless at
the apparent uncontrollable behaviour of his son. The symptoms appear very
similar to epilepsy, a condition which is quite well understood today and whose
causes—at least in general—are known. But it must have been easy for people in
those days to believe that some evil power had suddenly taken hold of an
otherwise normal person to make them behave in such bizarre ways.
The man had at first approached the disciples, who were of
no help. Jesus expresses dismay and disappointment at the people’s lack of
faith, presumably including that of his own disciples, in his criticism:
You faithless and perverse generation, how much longer
must I be with you? How much longer must I put up with you?
Jesus then drives out the demon plaguing the boy and he was
made whole. The disciples, who had done their share of healing on their
missionary excursions, wondered why they were not able to heal the boy. Jesus
tells them:
Because of your little faith. For truly I tell you, if
you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move
from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.
How strong is my faith and trust in God’s care of me? Jesus’
words, of course, are not a carte blanche just to ask for
anything that comes into our heads. It is not an invitation to manipulate God;
on the contrary, it is a call to put all our trust in God knowing that,
whatever happens to us, he has our best interests at heart. Such a faith,
accompanied by a deep love, is what brings happiness and peace into our lives.
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Saturday,
August 8, 2026
Ordinary Time
Prayer
Show us your continued kindness, Father, and watch
your people, as we acknowledge your guide and your lead. renews the work of
your creation and guard what you have renewed. Through our Lord Jesus Christ
...
Gospel Reading – Matthew 17: 14-20
At that time,
when they came to the crowd a man approached, knelt down before Jesus, and
said, "Lord, have pity on my son, for he is a lunatic and suffers
severely; often he falls into fire, and often into water. I brought him to your
disciples, but they could not cure him." Jesus said in reply, "O faithless
and perverse generation, how long will I be with you? How long will I endure
you? Bring him here to me." Jesus rebuked him and the demon came out of
him, and from that hour the boy was cured. Then the disciples approached Jesus
in private and said, "Why could we not drive it out?" He said to
them, "Because of your little faith. Amen, I say to you, if you have faith
the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to
there,' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."
Reflection
•
Context. Our passage has Jesus in his work of
healing. After having stayed with the disciples alone in the region of Caesarea
Philippi (16: 13-28) Jesus climbs a high mountain and is transfigured before
three disciples (from 17: 1-10) and then reaches the crowd (17: 14-21) attempts
a new approach to Galilee to regain (7: 22). What to think of these
geographical shifts of Jesus? It is not excluded that they could have a value
of geographical, but Matthew press submit their role of spiritual journey. In
his journey of faith community is increasingly called upon to retrace that
spiritual which marked the life of Jesus from Galilee of his public and that
his resurrection by way of the cross. A spiritual journey in which the power of
faith plays a crucial role.
•
The power of faith. Jesus, after his
transfiguration, with its small community of disciples returned from the crowd,
before returning to Galilee (v. 22) and arrive in Capernaum (v. 24). And while
in the crowd a man approached him and begged him to urgently intervene in the
evil that keeps his imprisoned son. The description preceding the intervention
of Jesus really clear: this is a case of epilepsy with all its pathological
consequences on the psychic level. At the time of Jesus, this type of illness
was traced to evil forces and specifically the action of Satan, enemy of God
and man, and therefore the origin of evil and all evil. Faced with such a
situation arise in which evil forces far beyond human capabilities to the
disciples find themselves powerless to heal the child (vv. 16-19) and because
of their lack of faith (V. 20). For the evangelist, this young epileptic is a
symbol of those who devalue the power of faith (V. 20), not mindful of the
presence of God in their midst (V. 17). The presence of God in Jesus, Emmanuel,
is not recognized, the fact understands something of Jesus is not enough, we
need the true faith. After Jesus rebuked the crowd, you bring the boy:
"Bring him here" (V. 17), heals and frees it when rebuked the devil. Not
simply the miracle of healing a single person "" you must also heal
the weak and uncertain faith of the disciples. Jesus approaches them who are
confused or dazed for their impotence: "Because we could not throw it
out?" (V. 20). Jesus' answer is clear: "For your wavering
faith". Jesus calls for faith that can move mountains of his heart to
identify with his person, his mission, his divine power. It is true that the
disciples have left everything to follow Jesus but have failed to heal the epileptic
boy because of "little faith." It is not lack of faith, only that it
is weak, vacillating for sure, with a predominance of mistrust and doubt. It is
a faith that is rooted entirely in relationship with Christ. Jesus goes beyond
the language when he says: "if you have faith like a mustard seed"
can move mountains, is an exhortation to be guided by the power of faith in
action, which becomes especially strong in times of trial and suffering and
attains maturity when no offense most of the scandal of the cross. Faith can do
anything, provided waivers to rely on their human capacity, can move mountains.
The disciples, the early community have experienced that unbelief can not be
won by prayer and fasting, but you must join the death and resurrection of
Jesus
Personal Questions
•
Through musical meditation we observed that the
disciples are placed in relation to epileptic and Jesus himself. You also find
your way relationship with Jesus and with others using the power of faith?
•
On the cross Jesus gives witness to the Father
and reveals completely. Jesus' words that you thought you asked the total
membership: you feel every day committed to move the heart of the mountains
that stand between your selfinterest and the will of God?
Final Prayer
The LORD is a stronghold for the oppressed, stronghold in
times of trouble.
Those who honor your name trust in you; you never forsake
those who seek you, LORD. (Psalm 9)
Dominic Guzman was born in 1170 at Calaruega in Castile,
Spain. He was the youngest of four children of the warden of the town. He was
educated by his uncle, the archpriest of Gumiel d’Izan, and later at Palencia.
He became an Augustinian canon of Osma Cathedral and led the normal life of a
priest for seven years, marked by a devotion to prayer and penance.
In 1201, he was made prior of his community. In 1204, on his
way to Denmark, Dominic first encountered Albigensian heretics at Toulouse, in
the south of France. Albigensianism (also known as Catharism) was a form of
gnosticism. It believed in two mutually exclusive powers—one purely spiritual
and the other materialistic and evil. The reconciliation of the Albigensians
with the Church would become the principal aim of Dominic’s apostolic work. For
this he formed religious women in communities who lived lives as austere and
devoted as those of the perfecti of the Cathars.
The first house was the convent at Prouille, founded in
1206. Nearby was another for preachers who by persuasion, simplicity of life
and learning would win over the Cathars, while silently reproving the standards
of the Cistercians sent to preach against them.
In 1208, the murder of the papal Legate, Peter of Castelnau,
led to the declaration of a ‘crusade’ or holy war against the Albigensians.
Dominic took no part in the violence and widespread killing, relying only on
peaceful instruments of preaching and prayer. Three times he refused a
bishopric, believing himself to be called to other work.
This work would be the foundation of the Friars Preachers
(popularly called ‘Dominicans’), which occupied the last seven years of his
life. Dominic’s plan was to set up communities which would be centres of sacred
learning, whose members would be devoted to study, teaching, and preaching as
well as prayer. He retained the monastic Divine Office, but it was chanted in a
simpler form than the traditional mode of the monks. These members would be
trained men whose contemplation would bear fruit in the communication of the
gospel. They would be able to move around and lead a simple life, but in a less
total and idealistic way than the Franciscans, although Dominic knew and had a
deep respect for Francis. Unlike Francis, Dominic was an excellent organiser
and a pioneer in shared responsibility.
His Order was also the first formally to abandon manual
work, a major part of monastic life. Papal approval was given for the new
congregation, but only on condition that it would follow an existing rule of
life. Dominic chose the Augustinian rule which was short and left room for
adjustments. He then made some additions for greater effectiveness and
efficiency. The new Order spread all over Europe and was one of the leading
missionary groups in Asia (especially in the Philippines, but also in China).
Later, it would spread to North, Central and South America.
Dominic spent the last years of his life travelling between
Italy, Spain and France. The first General Chapter was held at Bologna in Italy
in 1220. Dominic died in the following year, 1221, after attempting to go on a
preaching journey to Hungary. At his death, the Order included five provinces:
Spain, Provence (France), Lombardy (Italy), Hungary and Rome.
Although the Dominicans’ preaching against the Albigensians
met with limited success, their communities dedicated to theological learning
and teaching filled a much-felt need in medieval Europe. Among the outstanding
Dominican theologians were Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas, whose influence
has lasted into modern times. Popular devotion to Dominic sprang up soon after
his death, and he was canonized in 1234.
His usual attributes in art are a lily and a black and white
dog, a pun on the name of Dominic and the Dominicans (Domini canis, the
Lord’s dog). The dog is shown holding a torch in his mouth as herald of the
truth. There are also the well-known cycles of his life by Fra Angelico at
Fiesole and Florence, based closely on the tomb-sculpture at Bologna. Later
artists depicted him with a rosary, under the mistaken understanding that he
was the originator of the devotion.
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