Jesus: God with Us

In the first reading of today’s liturgy, Jeremiah 23: 5-8, the prophet proclaims the coming of Jesus, the Messiah raised up from the root of Jesse.  Jesus is a King of justice, of righteousness and of truth. No deceit is found in Him. Jesus is the Son of God made one with us in the Incarnation. He is the one who frees all of us in exile—those exiled from their earthly homes and all of us exiled from our heavenly homes by sin and selfishness, greed and avarice, deceit and rebelliousness, corruption and ignorance, hopelessness and faithlessness.  Jesus brings all of us home who are exiled from our true selves, from our personal integrity, from our authentic freedom.  

Jesus says to us: I will bring you back to Me.  I will restore you to truth and justice, to ways that preserve your integrity, that restore your right as women, as precious little girls and boys with the right to be treated with respect, to be taught rightly. I will free each of My sons and daughters from being the   property which others abuse, mutilate or exploit for personal pleasure and for the accumulation of this world’s wealth.  I am a Just Judge. Those who abuse, mutilate and exploit my children, young or old, female or male, who destroy anyone’s right to be true to themselves, to grow up to their fullest human potential, including those who kill a child in its mother’s womb,  I will bring to justice. I have come to free anyone put into slavery by anyone or by any means.

I am God; there is no other (Is 45:5).