Carrying the Dying and the Rising of Jesus in our Bodies

In today's first reading, 2 Cor 4: 7-15, St. Paul reminds the Corinthians, and us, that we "are afflicted in every way, but not constrained; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body. for we who live are constantly being given up to death for the sake of Jesus, so the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us." But so is the Spirit, the spirit of faith. We know "that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and place us...in his presence."

Death is all around us via the covid-19 virus and we are warned that this situation will only get worse! Sadly some people still believe our president who, in the beginning of this outbreak, named it a "hoax."  The majority of people, however, have come to realize that the information about the virus has to be taken seriously and that, by no means, is the coronavirus a joke. Thousands of people, all over the world, have died from this virus and continue contracting the disease every day. Thousands continue dying from the illness.

Yes, death is all around us! But so, too, is the Spirit. We carry the dying and the rising of Jesus in our bodies.   In the midst of the presence of death, is the presence of Jesus. We are not abandoned. And, in faith, we know that death is not the end of our lives but the beginning of our lives in eternity!

As difficult as times are right now, we know, in faith, that Jesus is in the boat with us. He may seem asleep but is not. He bids us come to Him, as He bade Peter to come to Him over the waters. When Peter took his eyes off of Jesus and began to sink, Jesus reached out His hand and saved him. He does the same for us.

Let us keep our eyes on Jesus and not sink under the onslaught of those who are venting their anger in our streets, destroying property, killing fellow citizens, striking out wildly at those who speak the truth. Jesus saves!  Jesus is God! We are not!

The Lord is My Shepherd; I Shall Not Want

Today, the feast of the Good Shepherd, we pray "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall no want. In verdant pastures he gives me repose; beside restful waters he leads me; he refreshes my soul. He guides me in right paths, for his name's sake. Even though I walk in the dark valley I fear no evil, for you are at my side with  your rod and your staff that give me courage."

What more do I want or need?  Nothing!  My shepherd is the Lord. Like any good shepherd, the Lord is always on the watch to be sure that I am safe from evil, from enemies, from those who seek the ruin of my soul!  I belong to the Good Shepherd and to no other. I know God's voice and God knows mine! Each day, God leads me to bountiful "pastures," and to "life-giving waters" that refresh me, strengthen me, purify me,  make me whole and empower me to bear fruit that will last eternally!

The dark valleys are not dark because God goes before me and is the light that guides me to right paths.  God walks beside me, carries a rod, lest any threatening "animal" approach me, and immediately hears my cry for help when I am in trouble and need His help!

Today, 63 years ago, my mother was approaching death, a time when each of us will need God's help.  At the time of my writing this, my mother had less than 24 hours to live here on earth. As she approached the gate of death, God was with her. For her, and us, He is the gatekeeper of the gate to eternal life, as Jesus tells us in today's Gospel, John 10: 1-10:  "Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep.....Whoever enters through me will be saved..."  Sixty-three years ago on this day, the gates to heaven were opened by Jesus, who called by mother by name as she approached those gates.  "The gatekeeper open[ed the gate for my mother, she heard] his voice,...and [was led into heaven]...."     It was her time to enter eternal life and live with God forever in a place free of sin, a place of infinite love and incredible beauty and undeniable justice and everlasting peace.

My faith tells me that my mother was given a glorified body when she entered heaven.  And just as Jesus, given a resurrected body was able to bi-locate and enter any room, even if the doors were locked, so, too, I believe, my mother can be with me and with all of her children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and great, great grandchildren whenever she so chooses. All of those living on the other side of the grave and part of the Church Triumphant, I believe, are with us, to help us in this valley of tears, this valley of darkness. Though we do not see them with our physical eyes, they are still with us, helping us as we encounter difficulties here on earth!  They tell us what Peter tells us in the second reading of today's liturgy (1 Peter 2: 20b-25):  "If you are patient when you suffer for doing what is good, this is a grace before God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his footsteps...."

May I, and you, follow Jesus in this way and know that our loved ones who have gone before us are with us to help us in any way that we need help to live by faith!

Mary and God: No Strangers to Sorrow,

My heart is heavy as I consider the hundreds of people who die of the coronavirus each day. This day, 2000+ years ago Mary stood beneath the cross of her dying son. Now, in 2020, she stands beneath the cross of so  many of her sons and daughters dying of this horrible disease and grieves with the parents, siblings, sons and daughters, grandchildren and other relatives and friends of those losing their lives to this virus.  She knows the sorrows of each, as she herself is no stranger to sorrow!

Just as Mary could do nothing but stand and watch, so, too, family members can do nothing either but stand and watch a loved one die. And in many cases can not even do that, as they are not allowed by the bedside of the sick person! 

God, too, knows our sorrow and grieves with us!  Why, we ask, doesn't God remove this scourge from the face of the earth? Why did he not stop the crucifixion of His only begotten son?  Perhaps the answer to that question is the same answer.  Our salvation depended upon Jesus being obedient to God unto death. Jesus, we are told in the Scriptures, learned obedience from what He suffered!  Are we, too, to learn obedience to God from what we suffer? Are we, in fact, suffering this horrible virus because of the many, many times that we walked away from the challenges of surrendering to God's way of living here on earth?  Have we made serious mistakes that led to this pandemic?

Jesus, we know, did not make any serious mistakes while He walked, lived, taught among us here on earth. His honesty, His confrontation of evil, His building the Kingdom of love and peace that He was sent to build, His healing of the sick, His driving out of demons, His way of challenging the people to live  the spirit of the law and to realize that the letter of the law can, at times, kill led the chief priests, the scribes or teachers of the law as well as the leaders and elders of the nation to feel threatened by Him and jealous of Him and therefore were determined to destroy Him, which they did on the first Good Friday 2000+ years ago!

Jesus, may the crisis which we are now experiencing because of the spread of this virus be a wake up call for us. May our eyes be opened to the fact that, like you, none of us will escape death however it comes to us. However, may we also realize that death is not the end of our life but the beginning of a new resurrected life in heaven with You.  I ask for these graces in your name. Amn

Food for Thought--IV

The coronavirus crisis and the crisis of Jesus sufferings and death:

Condemned to death, Jesus freed us from eternal      death.
On the cross, Jesus prayed: "Father forgive them for  they know not what they do."
Remember me when you get into your Kingdom,      the good thief prayed!
On the way to Calvary, Jesus said to the women:      "Weep not for me but for yourselves and your           children."
Never will I deny you, said Peter to Jesus and, filled  with fear, ended up denying Him three times!
Afraid, the apostles all fled--only John stood with      Mary at the foot of the cross!
Verily, "this is the Son of God," the fearful onlookers  said when an earthquake shook the ground and      darkness covered the earth after Jesus' death.  
In cooperation with Satan, Judas betrayed Jesus        and then, in despair, took his own life.
Resurrected, Jesus triumphed over fear and death.
Until the coming of the Spirit on Pentecost, the        apostles hid behind locked doors for fear of the        Jews.
Secure in their faith by the outpouring of the Spirit    on Pentecost, the apostles went forth to spread        the Good News of Jesus' resurrection and did so        with incredible boldness and courage, not afraid        anymore to express their faith in Christ Jesus.

Following the crisis of the coronavirus, I pray that we will no longer be afraid to put God first in our lives and proclaim our faith in Christ Jesus by living just and upright lives for each other's sake!

The Explosion of Grace through Jesus Christ

Today's first reading, Romans 5: 12, 15b, 17-19, 20b-21, explodes with the awesomeness of God's grace and the gift of salvation. Paul states that "death came to all...inasmuch as all sinned,"  when Adam, the first human being, sinned.  That may appear incomprehensible to us. However, let us think of the body of Christ--one body, the Body of Christ. We know that if any part of our personal bodies is diseased, the whole body is diseased. So, too, with the Body of Christ. If one body of the Body of Christ is diseased by sin, that is, by disobedience to God, each member of that body is, in fact, diseased by sin, as we are one body in Christ.  Paul goes on, however, to remind us that just as, through one man sin entered the world, and through sin, death,..." so,too, through one man did grace and righteousness enter the world:  "If by that one person's transgression [that of Adam] how much more did the grace of God and the gracious gift of the one man Jesus Christ overflow for the many....For just as through the disobedience of one man the many were made sinners, so, through the obedience of the one the many will be made righteous. Where sin increased, grace overflowed all the more, so that as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through justification for eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Think of what Jesus gave us by His obedience to the Father unto His death on the cross and subsequent resurrection, His triumph over death and His nailing of sin to the cross!  On that cross, where Jesus poured out the last drop of His blood for our salvation, Jesus tricked Satan and all of us. Satan may have believed that he had won the war in his seeking our demise and his efforts to block us from ever knowing eternal life with Jesus. He is the one who failed, not Jesus! And for us who may look upon Calvary as a failure, we, too, have been fooled. What looks like failure to the naked, human eye, is, in fact, our salvation. It is from the cross that "grace overflowed all the more, so that as sin reigned in death, grace, also might reign through justification for eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

"Seeing the Bounty of the Lord in the Land of the Living" (Psalm 27)

In today's responsorial psalm, Psalm 27, we acknowledge our belief that "the Lord is  [our] light and our salvation,...[our] life' s refuge."  We ask the Lord for the the favor to "dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of [our lives and to]...gaze on the loveliness of the Lord and contemplate his temple."  We then, at the close of the psalm, express our belief that we "shall see the bounty of the Lord in the land of the living."  In order to experience any of the graces expressed in this psalm, however, the psalmist tells us that we  need to "wait for the Lord with courage....[B]e stouthearted, and wait for the Lord!"

"The Lord is our light." In order to know the Lord as our light, we need to experience darkness, as did the man in today's Gospel, Luke 4: 31-37. Think of the joy he experienced when Jesus, His Savior,  delivered  him from the power of an unclean spirit that had taken possession of him. To truly know joy, as this man did,  we need to experience the darkness of  sorrow. To deeply know the strength of our faith, we need to go through the darkness of doubt! To bask in the joy of being healthy we need to live through the dark times of an illness!  The man in today's Gospel, I believe, would have gone through all of these experiences! Even Jesus as a human being was not exempt from experiencing darkness, the most awful of which was His crucifixion and death upon the cross! He passed through death, however, to the glory of the resurrection!  We will, as well!

In Psalm 27, we pray to "gaze upon the loveliness of the Lord and contemplate his temple."  How might that happen? I believe that the loveliness of the Lord resides in every human being and that all people and all of creation are God's temple. God, I believe, lives in each one of us and in creation itself. As temples of God and dwelling places of God's loveliness, we are called to make known God's loveliness and to build God's temple by co-operating with God's grace.  We have examples of this in creation. Everything in the universe reveals God's brilliance, God's loveliness, God's beauty, God's love for us!  As persons with free will, we may or may not cooperate with grace in revealing the loveliness, the beauty, the brilliance of God, the love of God within us and supporting and nurturing the God-life in others. 

The choice to live in the Light or in darkness is ours to make each day, as is the choice to move through "death" to resurrection or to new life each day!  If we choose life and reject death each day, we truly "shall see the bounty of the Lord in the land of the living."

The Lord: Our Allotted Portion and Our Cup

In tomorrow's Entrance Antiphon, we pray: "O Lord, my allotted portion and my cup, you it is who hold fast my lot.  For me the measuring lines have fallen on pleasant sites; fair to me indeed is my inheritance."

That inheritance is not something you and I deserve. The inheritance of life forever with God in heaven is an inheritance for which an immense ransom was paid: the human birth, life, sufferings, death and resurrection of Jesus from the dead.  The Incarnate God poured out his blood, became the sacrificial lamb, for you and me! The "Lord [is our] allotted portion and [our] cup" at the price of Jesus' life and death on the cross.   It is a free gift of God's unconditional love for you and me!

Like Jesus, you and I pass "from death to life" in loving our brothers and sisters (compare tomorrow's first reading, 1 John 3: 11-21).  John reminds us that "[w]hoever does not love remains in death. Everyone who hates his brother [or sister] is a murderer and you know that no murderer has eternal life remaining in him [her]. The way we came to know love was that he [Jesus] laid down his life for us; so we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers [sisters]. If someone who has worldly means sees a brother [sister] in need and refuses him [her] compassion, how can the love of God remain in him [her]? Children," John says to us, "let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth."

John puts it on the line for us! And God Himself has written this law of love on everyone's heart. We have no excuses for walking by someone in need and not helping if we have the means to help, whether that be financial means, material means or spiritual/psychological means to make a difference in that person's life by acts of love, by caring, by acting compassionately.

How do you and I measure up to what God is asking of us?

A God of Justice and of Life

In today's first reading, Ezekiel 18: 1-10, 13b, 30-32, God says to us through the prophet:  "If a man is virtuous...he shall surely live,...But if he...is a thief, a murderer, or lends at interest and exacts usury...[he] certainly shall not live.  Because he practiced all these abominations, he shall surely die; his death shall be his own fault."

Imagine the following  conversation with the Lord in prayer:

"Lord, I turn over to You all those who are involved in what seems insurmountable,  larger-than-life 'mountains' of criminality, deception, and corrupt engagements and decisions that have or will have caused incredible suffering throughout the whole world.  Lord, please have mercy on us and bring those directly involved in evil or those corroborating with the wicked to justice.  May their "empires" collapse and their illusionary power be destroyed.  If you will it, Lord, You can do it, that is, you can bring all people to repentance and to a change of heart, choosing to abandon evil and turn toward the good!"

Of course I will it.  The wicked shall be stripped of all power in My timing.  So, too, will those who collaborate with those involved in evil. I am a God of justice.  I see the evil ways, the ways of untruth, and the corrupt behaviors being enacted by persons throughout the world. I hear the cries of those who are victims of their crimes. I am not deaf to the cries of the poor. 

Just as I did not spare the wicked in Noah's time nor the wicked of Sodom and Gomorrah's time, neither will I spare the wicked of this day and time in any country. Everyone will be given the opportunity to turn from evil and do what is good; everyone will be given the chance to repent and change their lives. Anyone who chooses to continue in his/her evil ways, however, chooses death, not life.   Death, as I said through Ezekiel, the prophet, "shall be his/her own fault".  I choose life for everyone, not death!

St. Stephen's Witness

It is the day after Christmas and the Church celebrates the martyrdom of St. Stephen described in the first reading, Acts 6: 8-10; 7: 54-59.  In the Gospel itself, Matthew 10: 17-22, Jesus asks us to "[b]eware of men, for they will hand you over to courts and scourge you in their synagogues, and you will be led before governors and kings for my sake as a witness before them and the pagans....Brother will hand over brother to death, and the father his child; children will rise up against parents and have them put to death. You will be hated by all because of my name, but whoever endures to the end will be saved."  Eight days after his birth, Jesus is brought to the temple and Simeon says to Mary:  "You see this child: he is destined for the fall and for the rising of many in Israel, destined to be a sign that is rejected--and a sword will pierce your own soul too--so that the secret thoughts of many may be laid bare" (Luke 1: 14-15).

Jesus also tells us in the Gospels not to be afraid when  you encounter troubles in the world, as He, too, encountered troubles and conquered them. In the darkest day of our salvation history, when Jesus hung on the cross dying, He, like Stephen, said to God: "Into your hands I commend my spirit." Three days later Jesus conquered suffering and death and rose again. Forty days later, Jesus ascended into heaven. Stephen, as he faced his murderers, was "filled with the Holy Spirit, looked up intently to heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and he said, 'Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of God standing at the right hand of God.'"

May we like Jesus and like Stephen commend our spirits to the Lord when we, in turn, are at death's door waiting to pass through death, by whatever means, and enter eternal life. Like Stephen, when we are dying, may we look to heaven and see Jesus standing at the right hand of the Father waiting for our return to our eternal home.  In preparation for that moment, may we, throughout life's difficulties turn to the Lord for help.  May we always take refuge in the Lord and focus on the Lord when we are facing challenges instead of locking ourselves into our anger, feeding it and thus succumbing to temptations we would otherwise be able to resist because God is always at our side, as He was for St. Stephen.

The Feast of All Souls

Today we celebrate the Feast of All Souls, that is, we remember all of those who have gone before us, all who have fallen asleep in the Lord and who, in Christ Jesus, will be brought back to life in eternity.  All of the just are in God’s hands, the author of Wisdom tells us in chapter 3: 1-9.  We certainly grieved their passing and may even have thought that their deaths were a tragedy or absolute foolishness.  Some believe that their loved ones are dead, period!  And that nothing exist after our deaths.   But, no, there is life after death. Jesus died and rose. In our baptism, we died and rose with Christ. Our final resurrection will happen at the end of our lives, as it did for Jesus.  

You and I walk this earth, undergoing a chastisement, a purification, as we grow in intimacy with the Lord.  At the appropriate time, God’s time, we will leave our earthly life for a heavenly one, having been “found worthy” of God, Wisdom tells us. “As gold in the furnace, [God proves us], and, [in death] as sacrificial offerings [God takes us] to himself. In the time of [our] visitation we] shall shine, and shall dart about as sparks through stubble…and the Lord shall be [our] King forever....[The] faithful shall abide with [God] in love: because grace ad mercy are with his holy ones, and his care is with his elect.”  You and I, through our baptism, are God chosen ones, God’s elect. Death will have no more power over us than it had over Jesus.  St. Paul says to us in Roman s 6: 3-9:  “Are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life.  For we have grown into union with him through a death like his, we shall also be united with him in the resurrection.”    Yes! With Jesus, we shall overcome death and, like Jesus, rise to new life in our own resurrection!

I believe! How about you?

The Closeness of Our God

In Dt 4: 1, 5-9, Moses exhorts the people to obey the “statutes and decrees which I am teaching you to observe, that you may life, and may enter in and take possession of the land which the Lord, the God of your…[ancestors] is giving you….Observe them carefully, for thus will you give evidence of your wisdom and intelligence to the nations, who will hear of all these statutes and say, ‘This great nation is truly a wise and intelligent people.’ For what great nation is there that has gods so close to it as the Lord, our God, is to us whenever we call upon him? Or what great nation has statutes and decrees that are as just as this whole law which I am setting before you today.”

Laws and decrees that are just! Laws and decrees that give life! Laws and decrees that, when observed, reveal the intelligence and wisdom of the observer. A few days ago on the news we were told of the police officers who rescued Lily, a toddler! Also in the news a few days ago we saw two little children running after a man who kidnapped their little brother. The thief was caught! Day in and day out, men and women, the young and the old, obey the laws and statutes of our God to reach out to save others, to rescue persons from that which could cause death, both physical and spiritual: addictions, crime, hate, corruption, abuse of any kind. Good choices are made because our God is so close to us that, from within the core of our beings, we are directed by God’s Spirit of Wisdom and Justice, Mercy and Compassion, Love and Forgiveness to follow laws that give life and reject those that lead to death.

Choose Life, not Death

Today’s readings, Dt. 30: 15-20 and Luke 9: 22-25, challenge us with the following statements: “Today I have set before you life and prosperity, death and doom….Choose life, then,…by loving the Lord, your God, heeding his voice, and holding fast to him.”  In the Gospel Jesus says to us: “If anyone wishes to come after me, he [or she] must deny…[him or herself] and take up his [or her] cross daily and follow  me. For whoever wishes to save his [or her] life for my sake will save it….”  Following Jesus, we know, leads to death and resurrection. Many times, we focus only on the dying part and get scared and flee the scene as the apostles did on Calvary. But following Jesus, dying with Jesus, always  leads to resurrection, to new life, new hope, deeper faith and stronger loving.  The dying is what is difficult. None of us cherishes letting go of that in us that needs to die if new life is to arise for us and in and through us.  

Recently, in a slump, I cried out to the Lord, offering Him the following prayer:

“Lord, I give you my all:

•   My holiness and sinfulness

•   My humility and my pride

•   My hope and my hopelessness

•   My manipulativeness and my straightforwardness

•   My generosity and my stinginess

•   My love and my hate

•   My serenity and my anxiety

•   My selflessness and my selfishness

•   My faith and my faithlessness”

The cross—my sinful nature, my weaknesses, my frustrations, my disappointments, my doubts and fears and anxieties, my pride—all of that I need to take up, acknowledge, bring to the Lord in humility and trust. 

Follow me, Jesus, says to us.  Jesus journeyed to Jerusalem. Deliberately! Even when He knew that the chief priests and leaders of his people were waiting to arrest him, charge him as a blasphemer and put him to death, He still went to this city to “sell all”.  Choosing death was, for Jesus, choosing life for all of us. Jesus truly believed in the resurrection. In John 2: 19, Jesus says to the Jews: “Destroy this sanctuary and in three days I will raise it up.”

Do I believe that when I allow Jesus to destroy sin in me, that He will raise me up in three days to new life, new hope, deeper love?

Jesus Shares in Blood and Flesh to Secure our Freedom

In today's second reading, we are given the following message:  "Since the children share in blood and flesh, Jesus likewise shared in them, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the Devil, and free those who through fear of death have been subject to slavery all their life" (Hebrews 2: 14).  "Who through fear of death have been subject to slavery all their life," what could that possibly mean? People scramble here and there, for this or that, compulsively consuming drugs and alcohol to the point of becoming unconscious, delirious, numb. Other people slavishly seek one experience after another, get involved in one sexual encounter, then another and another and another; run here, run there, seeking more and more material goods, larger paychecks, more yachts and summer homes, more and more expensive vacations, more clothes, more gadgets. Others are desperate to look younger and younger, going under the knife for face lifts and tummy tucks and what have you to defy age, to remove wrinkles and liver spots. Are we, in fact, afraid of death, afraid of advancing toward eternal life, afraid of going to Jerusalem with Jesus, unsure that our resurrection will be glorious?

St. Paul says to us in 1 Cor 2: 7-11, "It is of the mysterious wisdom of God that we talk, the wisdom that was hidden, which God predestined to be for our glory before the ages began. None of the rulers of the age recognized it; for if they had recognized it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory; but it is as scripture says: 'What no eye has seen or ear has heard, what the mind of man[woman] cannot visualize; all that God has prepared for those who love him, to us, though, God has given revelation through the Spirit, for the Spirit explores the depths of everything, even the depths of God."

Is it that we are failing to explore the depths of life that we live on its surface only, living to get drunk or to numb out with material things, tummy tucks and face lifts or whatever the world offers as THE way to be fulfilled, actualized, made popular and powerful? Are we ignorant of THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE, and thus slaves to a fear of death?

From darkness to light: who will show us the way?

This past week was a week of terror for Bostonians, a week that thrust many into the darkness of tragedy.  Lives were lost. Individuals were maimed and others seriously injured in other ways. In West, TX, an explosion at a fertilizer plant claimed a significant number of lives, as well,and destroyed properties. In Chicago and in the Midwest floods inundated cities, cars were swallowed up in sinkholes. In China an earthquake rocked a city, claiming more than 160 lives and leaving thousands homeless.  This week's news begins with just as much violence and turmoil and dark, dark realities as last week's. Today's AOL news headings contain the following:    Myanmar Authorities Accused Of Organizing Ethnic Cleansing Campaign Against Muslim Groups.. 125,000 People Displaced In Wake Of Attacks.. In Deadliest Incident, At Least 70 Killed In Day-Long Massacre.. 'They Killed Us Very Easily'.  Another heading reads: Hundreds Feared Dead In Damascus. And in still another,  Michael T. Klare, author and professor of peace and world-security studies, Hampshire College warns us of two nightmare scenarios -- a global scarcity of vital resources and the onset of extreme climate change -- [that] are already beginning to converge and in the coming decades are likely to produce a tidal wave of unrest, rebellion, competition, and conflict.

Who will lead us out of this darkness? Who will calm our fears? The answer to Christians is clear.  Jesus alone is our Savior!  Jesus alone will lead us out of darkness into light. Jesus alone will show us the way to new life when what we knew and loved is taken away from us. "Come to me, all you who...are overburdened, " Jesus says in Mt 11:28.  Rest, at peace, we will clearly recognize the path that will lead us to "new pastures." We also have Jesus' example when He, too, faced the hatred of those determined to destroy Him; when He, too, faced the ugliness of evil in this world.

Surrendering all to the Lord

In today’s Scriptures,  1 Samuel 1: 24-28 and Lk1:  46-56, we have the story of Hannah who brings Samuel to the Temple to give him over to the service of the Lord and Mary’s Magnificat in praise of “the greatness of the Lord,” who had made her the mother of the Messiah, who, by the power of the Holy Spirit, was conceived in her womb prior to her marriage to Joseph.  Both women’s wombs are made fertile. Both women consecrate the fruit of their wombs to the Lord and let go of their first-born sons: Hannah in the Temple, Mary on the cross when her Son surrenders to God’s will to pay the price for our redemption.  To what am I willing to die believing that new life is possible?  God’s plan for our salvation always involves a dying. Believing that God will bring life out of death always demands the faith of Mary, who said to the angel: “Nothing is impossible for God.” Do I believe that, when all around me is darkness and death, sacrifice and pain? Naturally speaking, darkness surrounded Mary when she said “yes” to the will of God, as she could have been stoned to death if she were found with child prior to her marriage to Joseph.   The miraculous encounter between herself and Elizabeth did not erase that possibility. It still existed until God intervened. That intervention was still a future event and demanded a surrender to the will of God, a dying to one’s fears and anxieties, a dying to anger and frustration and a rising to new life that faith gives to all who trust the Lord.

 Am a person of faith and trust? Or am I a person who wallows in fear and mistrust, anger and resentment in the face of this world’s injustices?