✝️ Homily for Tuesday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time (Cycle II)

📖 Readings: Exodus 2:1-15a | Psalm 69:3, 14, 30-31, 33-34 | Matthew 11:20-24
🕊️ Memorial of Saint Bonaventure, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
Theme: “God’s Mercy Calls for My Response”


Today’s readings speak of a God who sees suffering, who acts to save, and who calls us to respond. On this memorial of Saint Bonaventure, we reflect not just on knowing God, but on responding to His mercy with love.

🧺 First Reading – Exodus 2:1-15a: A Child Who Becomes a Deliverer

In Exodus, we see the birth of Moses during a time of oppression. Pharaoh’s decree tried to kill the Hebrew boys, but through God’s hidden hand:

  • Moses is preserved,

  • rescued from the Nile by Pharaoh’s own daughter,

  • and raised within the very house that sought his life.

This reading reminds us:
📌 In life’s darkest moments, God is quietly at work, raising deliverers from unlikely places.
It is a reminder that nothing escapes God’s attention, especially the suffering of His people.

❗ Gospel – Matthew 11:20-24: Mercy Rejected

In the Gospel, Jesus laments over the towns where His mighty works were performed:

“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!”

Why such sorrow? Because despite witnessing God’s goodness, these towns remained indifferent, unwilling to change.

This is a warning to us:
📌 God’s mercy is not automatic—our hearts must respond.

🕊️ Saint Bonaventure – Wisdom That Leads to Love

Today, we honour Saint Bonaventure, known as the “Seraphic Doctor” because of his love for Christ. He taught that true wisdom does not inflate our pride, but humbles us and draws us closer to God in love.

He famously said:

“If you learn everything but do not love, you have learned nothing.”

Bonaventure reminds us that the purpose of knowledge is holiness—to know God more deeply and to serve Him more faithfully.

🔗 Bringing the Readings Together

Today’s readings form a call:

  • God sees injustice and raises people like Moses.

  • Jesus shows His power, but we must not harden our hearts.

  • Saint Bonaventure teaches us that true knowledge leads to action, to love, to transformation.

God is always speaking. The question is: Are we listening? Are we changing?

✅ Life Application

  • Am I aware of the ways God is working in my life, especially in difficulties?

  • Have I become numb to God’s daily invitations to deeper faith?

  • Does my knowledge of faith lead me to greater love, or just more knowledge?

💬 Closing Thought

“In everything, love Him who gave you everything.” – Saint Bonaventure

Let us not delay our conversion. Let us respond today with hearts open to love, ready to act on God’s mercy.

🙏🏽 Concluding Prayer

Lord God,
thank You for never forgetting Your people.
You see us in our struggles, You work quietly in the background, and You call us to rise with courage.

Forgive us for the times we have been like Chorazin and Bethsaida—slow to change, deaf to Your voice.

Give us the humility of Moses, the wisdom of Saint Bonaventure, and the readiness to serve where You need us.

Help us not to delay in responding to Your mercy.
Let us be open today to the little ways You are calling us to love, to serve, and to bring hope to others.

Stay close to us this day and every day,
through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

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