Do you trust that salvation will come?
Sometimes it’s hard to imagine that things can get better. Psalm 80 gives voice to the desires of a people looking for God’s guidance and salvation: Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face, and we shall be saved. The people long for a messiah who will unite them, and look forward to the Lord rousing his power to take care of his vine, Israel. Similarly, while the prophet Micah does spend a good deal of time proclaiming oracles of punishment to the people, he also looks forward to a messiah coming in the line of David: From you shall come forth one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin is from of old, he says. Salvation is coming, Micah assures the people, if you trust in the Lord who makes this promise. The messiah, Micah adds, shall be peace, ensuring harmony among the people. But they have to wait for the fulfillment of the promise.
A member of the people of Israel, Mary was surely also among those who hoped and waited for a messiah, so when, in Luke's Gospel, the angel announces that she will bear that messiah, she wonders only how this will be possible; she does not hesitate to say yes. Thus, when Mary visits her cousin, Elizabeth is immediately filled with the Holy Spirit and affirms that Mary is blessed because she believed that what was spoken to her by the Lord would be fulfilled. Mary knows bodily the fulfillment of the promise made to her people, and Elizabeth is made aware of that same truth when her infant John prophetically leaps in her womb. The Visitation is testimony to the fulfillment of God’s promise in Mary.
The Letter to the Hebrews reminds us that, to fulfill God’s will, to take away our sins, Jesus offers himself as the ultimate sacrifice. Thus, when Christ came into the world – when he was born – it was with the absolute intent of fulfilling his Father’s plan: behold, I come to do your will, o God. From his birth to his death and rising, from incarnation to resurrection, all Jesus did was done to accomplish God’s plan. Moreover, by this will, we have been consecrated, baptized into his death that we might rise with him. We have but to trust, to trust that salvation will come, to trust in the fulfillment of that promise, and believe!
This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com
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