God Alone Saves

In yesterday's first reading, Isaiah 7: 10-14, God asked Ahaz to ask for a sign. He refuses to do so, thought his kingdom is in great jeopardy. A foreign nation is about to attack Israel and destroy its treasured possessions.  Ahaz himself had given into to worshipping pagan idols, even sacrificing one of his children to a foreign god.  Israel deflected, as had Ahaz.  Part of Israel's history is deflecting to foreign gods, not trusting God on their way to the Promised Land.  As with Adam and Eve, the Israelites abandoned their covenant with God, but God did not abandon His covenant with them, or with us.  When things looked bad,. Israel lost faith. 


In yesterday's Gospel, Joseph is confronted with a situation that looks as though everything in his life had gone terribly wrong: Mary is pregnant.  Joseph plans to divorce her quietly, hoping, no doubt, that she will not be put to death, a practice in his culture in the case of a woman who conceives a child out of wedlock.  At night in a dream an angel appears to Joseph and, in effect, says to him: "You got it all wrong, Joseph.  Mary was not playing around with another man nor was she raped.  The child in her womb was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. That child is the Son of God assuming human form and He will save His people from their sins.  Do not be afraid to take Mary into your home as your wife."


You and I live in a world where everything seems to have gone terribly wrong. Pagan gods are worshipped everywhere, it seems and in every country of the world and every nation!  People seek salvation from their misery and emptiness in consumerism, materialism, power, prestige, popularity, wealth, relativism (anything seems to go--corruption, deception, violations of law). GOD ENTERS, as in Joseph's life and says to us:  "You got everything wrong. Turn to me and away from your idolatrous ways and thoughts.  As with Ahaz, our "cities," our "treasures" will eventually be destroyed. They have no power to save us. We have no power to save ourselves. Only God can save! And God comes to us, not in fire, not in an earthquake, but as an infant baby who wins the hearts of all, as does any infant.  God comes to us hidden in the consecrated host at every Catholic Mass. He comes to save us from ourselves, from our deception, corruption, selfishness, sinfulness. GOD ENTERS QUIETLY, HUMBLY, COMPASSIONATELY AND, DECEIVINGLY, WITH GOD-POWER TO MAKE US HOLY IN HIS NAME AND FOR HIS SAKE!

See the Saving Power of God!

The response to the responsorial psalm, Psalm 98, states that "[a]ll the ends of the earth have seen the saving power of God."  "All the ends of the earth": every continent and every country and State, city and village, in each continent has seen the saving power of God.  Knowledge of God has been spread throughout the world. And, in fact, the law of God has been written on every heart. Furthermore, "everyone who acts in righteousness is begotten by him" (1 John 2:-3:6).  St. John then says to us: "See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are!"

Each of us is a child of God! Each of us, if open to God's revelations and presence in our personal lives and in the world, "have seen the saving power of God." We have seen God's love being poured out, for instance,  by little children who cling to their parents, who rest their tiny heads on their shoulders, who give their art pictures to mommy and daddy, who kiss their baby brother/sister, who want to help mommy and daddy with chores or with baking Christmas cookies, and the parents who respond lovingly to their child's needs and comfort them when they are distressed.  We see God's saving power at work in the reconciliation of spouses, of grown children with their parents, of long-lost relatives being found, in criminals remorseful of the ways in which they have hurt others, in persons who risk their lives to save others from disaster, and on and on!  This evening on the CBS news we have seen God at work through a little boy who has found "forever homes" for 1400 dogs confined to kettles in animal shelters. We see God's love and saving power at work in strangers helping strangers in need, in children making sandwiches for homeless persons and, with parents, distributing those sandwiches. Human being partnering with God, allowing God's power to flow through them, is endless and happens throughout the world!

"Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done [and is doing] wondrous deeds" (Psalm 98) around the world,  in our back yards and in our families!

Setting Things Right

Imagine our God, a God who is determined, in the words of the prophet Isaiah to “set things right.”  “Though … [our] sins be like scarlet,” God, through Jesus Christ, makes them “white as snow” and  “though they be crimson red,” God makes them “white as wool”  (See the first reading of today’s liturgy, Isaiah 1: 10, 16-20).  However, our cooperation is needed, Isaiah tells us, as he addresses his message to us directly:  “Come, now, let us set things right,…Though your sins be like scarlet, they may become white as  snow; though they be crimson red, they may become white as wool.” How? Through the good that we do. Through our reception of the sacraments, time spent in prayer, in reflection upon the Scripture, in seeking the truth from others and from the depth of our own being, by loving others as we love ourselves and by reconciling with others when we are wronged or do wrong to others.  “To the upright I will show the saving power of God,” the psalmist says to us in  Ps. 50, today’s responsorial psalm.  Truly, those who do good experience the “saving power of God” and see it in others and in the world around them.