This week's readings Week of August 18 - 24 Sunday, Aug. 18, 2002 Reading I: Is 56:1, 6-7 Reading II: Rom 11:13-15, 29-32 Gospel: Mt 15:21-28 Monday, Aug. 19, 2002 Reading I: Ez 24:15-23 Gospel: Mt 19:16-22 Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2002 Reading I: Ez 28:1-10 Gospel: Mt 19:23-30 Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2002 Reading I: Ez 34:1-11 Gospel: Mt 20:1-16 Thursday, Aug. 22, 2002 Reading I: Ez 36:23-28 Gospel: Mt 22:1-14 Friday, Aug. 23, 2002 Reading I: Ez 37:1-14 Gospel: Mt 22:34-40 Saturday, Aug. 24, 2002 Reading I: Rv 21:9b-14 Gospel: Jn 1:45-51 Pope's Prayer Intentions August General Intention Development of consciences that respect the environment: That all of us, individually and collectively, may develop a growing respect for the environment as God's gift to us. August Mission Intention Prayerful support for missionaries who work in the world's shantytowns: That the missionaries in the world's vast shantytowns may manage to alleviate the suffering that injustice inflicts and help the people living in them to develop to the fullest.

Send them away? Never! Help them? Always

		Word of God  Word of Life  Fr. John G. Stillmank

Many times in the Gospel Jesus' disciples show that in spite of their close association with him they still haven't figured out the program. They still don't get it.

When people were bringing their children to Jesus so he could touch them and be close to them, the disciples try to send them away.

"Jesus came for us.We are all his little ones aching to be held, sinners hungry for salvation, the poor who have only their faith."

When the hungry crowd gathers around Jesus to hear him preach and stay so late that they need some food, the disciples try to send them away.

When a Canaanite woman comes begging Jesus to cure her daughter who is tormented by a demon, the disciples try to send her away.

Jesus never permits it.

"Bring the little children to me. To such as these belong the kingdom of God," he says. "There is no need to send the crowd away; give them some food yourselves," he says again. And "woman, great is your faith," he says.

Readings for 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Aug. 18) Is 56:1, 6-7 Ps 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8 Rom 11:13-15, 29-32 Mt 15:21-28

For Jesus, the faith which each of these shows - the children and their parents, the large crowd, the Canaanite woman - is what he came for. He came for little ones, not the big honchos. He came to save sinners, not the righteous. He came to preach to the poor, not to the self-sufficient.

In other words, he came for us. We are all his little ones aching to be held, sinners hungry for salvation, the poor who have only their faith.

This is the program of the Gospel which Jesus taught his disciples. Clear. Simple. Consistent.

The world's program is not so clear, or simple, or consistent. It's vague, isn't it? Complicated. Inconsistent, except on one thing: there's no room for little ones, no room for hungering to be free from sin, no room for the poor.

Doesn't the world "send away" its little ones, for example the unborn? Doesn't the world "send away" all thoughts of sin, personal responsibility, hunger for justice and peace? Doesn't the world "send away" the poor and hungry, the homeless and helpless, the downtrodden and uneducated, the disenfranchised and diseased?

Jesus spent his life teaching the disciples the program he wanted for his Gospel and his Church. The least are the greatest in his kingdom! Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness should be first in line to be fed. The poor have a special place in his heart.

So what do we do, we who believe in and follow Jesus? When his little ones come to us, when the hungry seek us out to help them, when the poor have nowhere else to turn: do we send them away? Never. Do we do as Jesus taught us? Always!

Fr. John G. Stillmank is Moderator of the Curia for the Diocese of Madison and pastor of St. Andrew Parish, Verona, and St. William Parish, Paoli.