Sunday Gospel Reflection, December 21, 2025: The Lord himself will give you this sign...

The Lord himself will give you this sign…
 Do you trust enough to accept God’s plan? 

     Try to put yourself in Joseph’s shoes, just for a moment. In Matthew’s Gospel, Joseph has just learned that his betrothed, Mary has been found with child, and, knowing the child is not his, he is struggling to see a path forward. In his confusion, Joseph is bolstered by his own sense of what is right: unwilling to expose her to shame, he decides to divorce her quietly. What stops him? Well, it is true that he is visited in a dream by an angel of the Lord, but it is still up to Joseph himself to follow through on the angel’s command. Why might he do that? Remember that Joseph’s community has been seeking the face of the God of Jacob, as Psalm 24 notes, for centuries, and those who seek God’s face must stand open, ready to trust that one day God will fulfill the promise of Isaiah, the promise of a Messiah who will deliver the people of Israel. One can only imagine, therefore, that it is Joseph’s faith, his profound trust in the Lord’s promise, that allows him to believe the angel’s explanation of Jesus’ divine conception – for it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her – an echo of the prophet Isaiah who had long before revealed that the virgin shall conceive and bear a son… Hence, Joseph, son of David, accepts the angel’s reasoning because he is open, because he chooses to trust – to trust in the Scriptures, to trust in God, to trust in God’s promise. 

    What does this trust imply for those who seek God today? Paul reminds the Romans that (as Joseph was aware) through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, God promised to send his Son, Jesus, the very embodiment of the gospel or Good News. Jesus, descended from David according to the flesh, is the Messiah they have been seeking for so long, as revealed in his resurrection from the dead. So, too, must we recognize that our salvation lies in Jesus Christ: through him we have received the grace of apostleship, a call to belong to Christ, a call to be holy. To do so, we must first trust in God’s promise, seeking the face of God in the infant Jesus to come, Emmanuel, God-with-us, opening our hearts so that he may be born in us as he was born of Mary. Mary and Joseph understood the need to open in trust to God’s loving promise; do we? 

This "vintage" post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture Class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com

Sunday Gospel Reflection, December 22, 2024: He shall be peace...

He shall be peace…
What does it mean for God to take on flesh? 

    The people of Israel waited for a Messiah to come in the line of David, a king who would offer them salvation. But because they understood that salvation to be political – O shepherd of Israel, hearken from your throne upon the cherubim, we read in Psalm 80 – their understanding of salvation was skewed, coloring how they understood God’s love for them. Theirs was conditional relationship with the Lord, dependent upon what God could do for them. The prophet Micah had a similar understanding of the messianic promise as a royal kingship on earth: from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel. But when Christians read Micah, they understand the prophecies to refer to Jesus, the true shepherd of the flock. Jesus, the Messiah sent by God, will come to transform the way in which humankind understands their relationship with God. Notice that Micah does not say the one to come shall bring peace, but rather, he shall be peace. Jesus himself will embody the promise of God; he will give flesh to that promise in the Incarnation. 

    Later, Jesus’ very body, God incarnate, God-made-flesh, will ultimately become the unique sacrifice acceptable to the Lord. The Letter to the Hebrews reminds us that Jesus is obedient to God the Father: Behold, I come to do your will.  Jesus understands God’s plan and willingly participates in it, entering into a full relationship of love with all of humankind. In his very real human flesh, Jesus enters fully into what it means to be human, and offers himself totally for the forgiveness of our sins, transforming our humanity in the process: we have been consecrated through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Consecration is transformation. 

    In Luke’s Gospel, Elizabeth recognizes immediately the presence of God incarnate, physically present in the womb of her cousin Mary: Blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? Elizabeth is blessed by this visit, but she also recognizes how blessed Mary is because she opened herself to God, no matter what difficulties her openness might create for her. 

    Like Mary, we are called to allow Christ to be enfleshed in us. What will that look like? It means that flowing from our lives will be harmony, connection, mercy, forgiveness, and kindness – all those things necessary to be peace. We are to share in his life, which we do every time we receive Eucharist – when he joins our flesh and we join his death and resurrection. We are the Body of Christ incarnate, through which God is active in our world. What is required of us is a faith that isn’t just words; we need a faith that starts in our hearts, a heart response to the love God has for us. Blessed are you who believe, for you will be peace! 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com

Sunday Gospel Reflection, December 24, 2023: May it be done unto me according to your word...

May it be done unto me according to your word…

Will you say yes? 

    In the Second Book of Samuel, God makes it clear to King David that it is God who is responsible for his position in life: It was I who took you from the pasture and from the care of the flock to be commander of my people Israel, the Lord says. David wants to build a house for God (because the ark of the God dwells in a tent!), but God says he will establish a house for David. The Lord promises that David’s house and kingdom shall endure forever in a peace that will last, without further disturbance. Later, the psalmist will sing Psalm 89 in order to remind the Lord of this promise: For you have said, My kindness is established forever; in heaven, you have confirmed your faithfulness. Christians will later read the story of David and the ark of the covenant as a promise of a future Messiah sent to bring salvation to Israel. 

    That promise is fulfilled, of course, in the person of Jesus, born of a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David. Mary surely knew of the Lord’s promise to her people; when the angel Gabriel tells her in Luke’s Gospel that she will conceive in her womb and bear a son, Mary simply tries to figure out how she will fit into God’s promise: How can this be? she asks. Once the angel has reassured her, however, Mary says yes: May it be done unto me according to your word. Mary does not choose to be the mother of the Most High; God chooses her, sending the Holy Spirit to come upon her. But Mary says yes!

    Like David, like Mary, we need to accept and recognize the action of the Spirit within us; this is the focus of the Advent season. As Paul tells the Romans, the revelation of the mystery is now manifested and made known to all nations. God is there in their midst, in other words; the gospel is the fulfillment of the promise made to David and effected after Mary’s yes. God’s plan has been fulfilled as God intended, and the good news has been proclaimed to all peoples. We too have a role in revealing God’s infinite love to our world. Will we say yes? How will we allow the Lord to work through us, today and every day? How will we make his love manifest in our world? 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com

Sunday Gospel Reflection, December 19, 2021: Blessed are you who believed...

 

Blessed are you who believed…

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

Sunday Gospel Reflection, December 22, 2019: Let the Lord enter; he is king of glory...

Let the Lord enter; he is king of glory…

How open are you to receiving the Lord?

  In the Book of Isaiah, King Ahaz is reluctant to follow God’s order:  Ask for a sign from the Lord, your God; let it be as deep as the netherworld, or as high as the sky.  When Ahaz balks, saying, I will not tempt the Lord!, God promises a sign anyway:  the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel.  Like Ahaz, we need to get our faith in order; we need to trust that God will be present to us, and we must be open to receiving the Lord.  Psalm 24 confirms the need for the openness to receive the Lord:  only one whose hands are sinless, whose heart is not vain can ascend the mountain of the Lord, the psalmist tells us – He shall receive a blessing from the Lord, but only if he remains open and continues to seek the face of the God of Jacob.

  Unlike Ahaz, Joseph is not afraid to trust the angel of the Lord that appears to him in a dream, echoing the prophecy of Isaiah to Ahaz and confirming that it will be fulfilled in his wife Mary.  In Matthew's Gospel, Joseph does have a choice, but he doesn’t question God:  he is open to receiving the Lord into his home, that the child might be, as Paul tells the Romans, descended from David according to the flesh.  It is through this child’s eventual death and rising that, Paul says, we have received the grace of apostleship, the gift of being sent to proclaim the good news, of being set apart for the gospel of God.  Only through our belief in Christ Jesus, God-with-us, Emmanuel, only through the obedience of our faith, through our openness to receiving the Lord into our lives, by seeking the face of God daily, can we know the salvation that has been promised, the reward from God our savior.

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.

Image source:  www.wordcloud.com

Sunday Gospel Reflection, December 23, 2018: Blessed are you who believed...

Blessed are you who believed…

Do you have hope?

  It’s hard to be patient.  It’s hard to wait for God to fulfill God’s promises.  When, in the Book of Micah, God promises the people that from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, the people have to be patient, have to accept that God works in God’s own time, have to remain obedient to God’s will even as they struggle.  But the promise is worth waiting for, because God assures the people that the messiah shall be peace.  And with peace comes justice, harmony, and wholeness, so that God’s victory shall reach to the ends of the earth. Psalm 80 further assures the people that the son of man sent by God will rule through mercy, saving the people who turn to God and are obedient to him. 

  For Christians, the promises made in Micah and the Psalms are fulfilled in the person of Jesus, whose Incarnation is met with the consummate example of the obedient servant, Mary herself, in Luke's Gospel.  Mary approaches Jesus’ coming birth with absolute faith and is obedient from the moment the angel announces the Incarnation to her.  Later, at the moment of the Visitation, the baby in Elizabeth’s womb proclaims the one who is to come with a definitive leap in the womb of faith; the future John the Baptist will also be obedient to God’s will, believing in the power of God’s work in him and proclaiming the Incarnation, the coming of the Lord.  The ultimate example of the obedient servant is Jesus, of course, who, the Book of Hebrews tells us, came to do God’s will.  The offering of his body, of all that makes him human in the Incarnation, is an offering for the sins of humankind; Jesus will die for the sins of all, obedient, that he might achieve the salvation of all.

  Like the people of Israel, like Mary, John, and Jesus, we are called to believe that the power of God is at work in us – and that all God has promised will be fulfilled.  In short, the Incarnation calls us to hope.  But how do we maintain hope in today’s society?  How do we maintain hope in face of human sin?  We know that Jesus came to take sin away through his obedience to God’s will, an obedience born of absolute love.  And that love, the love he created us with and the love that caused him to send Jesus in the Incarnation, is same love he calls us to.  It is that love that calls us to hope – to hope for the peace, and justice, that is Christ.

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.

Image source:  www.wordle.net