Numbers 13:1-2,25-33;14:1,26,29,34-35
1 The LORD said to Moses,
2 “Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I give to the people of Israel; from each tribe of their fathers shall you send a man, every one a leader among them.” 25 At the end of forty days they returned from spying out the land.
26 And they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the people of Israel in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; they brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. 27 And they told him, “We came to the land to which you sent us; it flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. 28 Yet the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large; and besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there.
29 The Amalekites dwell in the land of the Negeb; the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill country; and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and along the Jordan.”
30 But Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, “Let us go up at once, and occupy it; for we are well able to overcome it.” 31 Then the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.”
32 So they brought to the people of Israel an evil report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land, through which we have gone, to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature. 33 And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim); and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.” 1 Then all the congregation raised a loud cry; and the people wept that night. 26 And the LORD said to Moses and to Aaron,
27 “How long shall this wicked congregation murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the people of Israel, which they murmur against me.
28 Say to them, ‘As I live,’ says the LORD, ‘what you have said in my hearing I will do to you: 29 your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness; and of all your number, numbered from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against me,
34 According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, for every day a year, you shall bear your iniquity, forty years, and you shall know my displeasure.’ 35 I, the LORD, have spoken; surely this will I do to all this wicked congregation that are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall come to a full end, and there they shall die.”
Matthew 15:21-28
21 And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon. 22 And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and cried, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely possessed by a demon.” 23 But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and begged him, saying, “Send her away, for she is crying after us.” 24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” 25 But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” 26 And he answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” 27 She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”
28 Then Jesus answered her, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed instantly.
MEDITATION
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS: Moses is instructed by God to send men into the land of Canaan to gather intelligence about the environment and the way of life of the people. After forty days and nights the scouts returned and in the main gave a positive report , however ten men gave negative false reports to dissuade Moses from occupying Canaan.
This false report implied that the Canaanites are far mightier, dwarf and outnumber the Israelites. This negative report angered the people who again became rebellious to the extent that they yearned back to their oppressed life in Egypt which put paid to their advancement to the promised land!
St MATTHEW tells the story of a Canaanite women who sought Christs intervention in her life and to release her child from the power of the demonic. Jesus strangely ignored the lamentations of this distraught foreign desperate woman who ultimately took the step to kneel before Him in desperation! The perseverance of this Canaanite women moved Christ to answer the prayer request of this needy woman.
More often than not our false presuppositions that Christ is not present in the tabernacle in the form of consecrated bread and wine as offered in the Sacrifice of the Mass, dissuade us from submitting to Christ in worship and prayer and imploring Him to come to our aid! Our rebelliousness to worship Christ Jesus as mandated by Him shall delay or prevent us from being released from bondage by Satan, nevermind from being saved! Let us ignore the false narratives that seek to prevent us from ridding ourselves from evil forces and sin to obtain the mercy of Christ and partake and receive even the crumbs of the bread of life whilst you may not yet be fully in communion with the Catholic Church whom our established.
LET US PRAY:Psalms 106:6-7,13-14,21-23
6 Both we and our fathers have sinned; we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly. 7 Our fathers, when they were in Egypt, did not consider thy wonderful works; they did not remember the abundance of thy steadfast love, but rebelled against the Most High at the Red Sea.13 But they soon forgot his works; they did not wait for his counsel.
14 But they had a wanton craving in the wilderness, and put God to the test in the desert; 21 They forgot God, their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt,
22 wondrous works in the land of Ham, and terrible things by the Red Sea.
23 Therefore he said he would destroy them– had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the breach before him, to turn away his wrath from destroying them.
Author. Henry R SYLVESTER Note: The daily scripture readings are taken from the Roman Missal which the Catholic Church use in the daily Celebration of the Holy Eucharist throughout the world.Some weekly readings may differ because of the celebration of local feast days
Morning Coffee Meditations. 
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