Are you ready to
let Jesus turn your world upside down?
As the exiled
people of Israel prepare to return to their land, the prophet Isaiah proclaims a year of favor from the Lord, a jubilee
year. Observation of a jubilee year involved a complete change of circumstances
for all involved, a world turned upside down, so to speak: the Lord sends his representative to bring glad tidings to the poor, to heal
the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives… It is a moment of
radical change, and the people of Israel are called to rejoice heartily in the Lord – to rejoice because they have
confidence in what God has accomplished and will accomplish in and for
them. It is a moment of joy, born of a
world turned upside down.
Contrary to what
we might imagine, Mary likewise rejoices when faced with the possibility of
radical change. She is pregnant and
unwed, but, as we hear in Mary’s canticle in Luke’s Gospel, her soul rejoices in the Lord. Not only has he blessed her with the
bearing of the savior, he has also filled the hungry with good things, and the
rich he has sent away empty. Mary
recognizes the radical change that is about to be born in her, and she is
filled with joy. We also know from Luke’s
Gospel that John the Baptist leaps for
joy in his mother’s womb; as an adult he will head to the desert, a place
of radical change and transformation, where he will come to understand the
message he is to proclaim: there is one among you whom you do not
recognize, he tells the Pharisees in John’s Gospel. Their world is about to be turned upside down
as well, but they will refuse to recognize the messiah in their midst.
Every time we
recognize God present in our lives is an extraordinary moment. We want to hold onto our own plans; we fail
to see that God works differently. A
poor child, born in anonymity, invisible to the political world around him, is
made glorious by the actions of God, and by our recognition of God’s work in
our lives. This is why Paul exhorts the
Thessalonians to rejoice always and
to remain blameless for the coming of our
Lord! God saves us in ways we can’t
begin to expect; God saves us by loving us in this moment, no matter what; God
saves us by turning our world upside down and sending his Son.
Are you ready to
let Jesus turn your world upside down?
This post is based
on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: Wordle (http://www.wordle.net)
No comments:
Post a Comment