God Has Done Wondrous Things for Us--Alleluia!

In today's responsorial psalm, Psalm 98, we proclaim that the Lord "has done wondrous deeds: His right hand has won victory for him, his holy arm. The Lord has made his salvation known: in the sight of the nations he has revealed his justice [Christ the Lord]. He has remembered his kindness and his faithfulness toward the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation by our God...."

God has done wondrous things for us in sending Jesus, the second person of the Blessed Trinity, to take on our human nature. God stooped down to earth to lift us up to heaven literally! God could not hold back His love. He loves us so much that He sent His son to reveal that love. Jesus is the fullness of God in human form. He is fully human but also fully divine. Jesus is like us in all ways except sin, beginning with taking on human nature in Mary's virgin womb, being an infant and a child totally dependent upon His parents, to being an adolescent and learning a trade from his foster father Joseph to  encountering the best and the worst in humankind and to even being put to death on a cross, crucified as a criminal by jealous, evil persons. And Jesus triumphed over death--death had no power over Him. And in Christ Jesus, with whom we live and die, we, too, will triumph over death!  "His right hand has won victory for him" and for us who believe in Him and live for Him.

God held nothing back for us. What am I holding back from God? What holds me back from giving God my all in giving my all in sacrificial love for my spouse, my children, my grandchildren or, if I am a woman/man religious, a priest, what holds me back from giving my all to others with whom I live and work and play and pray?

Rejoicing in the Lord

In today's first reading, Nehemiah 8: 1-4a, 5-6, 7b-12, Ezra, the priest, gathered all of the men, women and children old enough to understand to an assembly. "From daybreak until  noon, he read "the book of the law of Moses which the Lord prepared for Israel."  At every liturgical celebration the priest or minister also read from the Scriptures,  a "law," prepared for our instruction, inspiration and strength. As in the O.T. gatherings when "the scroll" is opened "so that all the people might see it (for he was standing higher up than any of the people)...," our priests, from the raised sanctuaries in our churches,  bless "the Lord, the great God, and all the people..." As in Old Testament gatherings, we, by our attendance at liturgical celebrations, are reminded that each day "is holy to our Lord" and that "rejoicing in the Lord must be [our] strength."

How true is this for you, for me? Is "rejoicing in the Lord" our strength or do we bypass the Lord and seek strength in places and in persons are who unable to lift us up and, in no way, are God substitutes?