Self-fulfilling prophecy of failure

They were scared to death even to try.

And so they would die as failures.

Thus we hear in today’s first reading, culled from the 13th and 14th chapters of the book of Numbers, of how the children of Israel came to the very edge of the Promised Land only to lose faith and doom themselves to mournful death in the desert.

Even after having seen the power of God with their own eyes, they chose to believe faulty intelligence rather than God’s own word.

Instead of moving ahead with the Lord, they cowered and cried in the night (and when they finally did decide to move forward, it would be too late).

They doomed themselves by their own self-fulfilling prophecy of failure.

The contrast with the woman in today’s Gospel (Matthew 15:21-28) could not be more dramatic.

She moves forward with unshakeable faith, even when she hears our Lord say things that would have caused almost anyone to turn away in anger and/or self-loathing.

Then Jesus said to her in reply,
“O woman, great is your faith!
Let it be done for you as you wish.”

May we never let ourselves be slowed by self-fulfilling prophecies of failure, but may we always move forward every day of our lives with prudence and faith according to the will and the call of God.