God's Design and God's Purpose

Today we celebrate the feast of  Our Lady of Guadalupe--Mary's appearance to Juan Diego, a Native American belonging to the Aztec tribe!   As with Jesus, Mary's love for the poor and oppressed are revealed in this visit to Juan Diego.  Because the bishop did not at first believe Juan Diego that Mary wanted a cathedral built on the spot where she appeared to him, he asked Mary to choose someone else. And Mary said "No, I have chosen you."  The Bishop wanted proof, so Juan Diego asked for such and was told that there would be roses on a snowy hill nearby. He found the roses and wrapped them in his cloak and took them to the bishop. When Juan Diego opened his cloak and gave the Bishop the roses, there on his cloak was an imprint of our Blessed Mother clothed as an Aztec woman. Many miracles have occurred  for the Mexican people through the intercession of Mary in the cathedral built at her request.

Like Juan Diego and like Mary, Our Lady of Guadalupe,  and like so many others who have gone before us, each one of us has been called to fulfill God's design and purpose that only we, with God's help, are able to do.  If we refuse, that particular purpose is not accomplished. God designed it so! We might, as was the case with  Juan Diego, want God to choose someone else whom we believe is better equipped to carry out what God is asking of us; however, God choose you and me for a specific purpose and equips us to carry out His design no less than He equipped Juan Diego and Mary, the Mother of Jesus, to do what was theirs to do.  When what is being asked of us seems too difficult, and we encounter our weaknesses, that is when God intervenes for us. At times like those, we also know much we depend upon God to empower us to do the good that is ours to do. May you and I humbly step up to the plate and embrace God's will for us as Mary and Juan Diego did!

God's Plan Stands Forever

In today's first reading, Zephaniah 3: 14-18,  we are asked to "[s]hout for joy,...shout aloud! Rejoice, exult with all your hearts,...! Yahweh  has repealed your sentence; he has driven your enemies away. Yahweh,  [your King,] is in your midst; you have no more evil to fear. ...[H]ave no fear, do not let your hands fall limp. Yahweh your God is in your midst, a victorious warrior. He will exult with joy over you, he will renew you by his love; he will dance with shouts of joy for you as on a day of festival."

What is proclaimed by Zephaniah we await in hope!  The day of our salvation is NOW, also, however!  Day by day we live into the reality that our sentence as been repealed; our enemies driven away by Yahweh, our God, a victorious warrior.  In the responsorial psalm of today's liturgy, Psalm 33, we are reminded that "the plan of the Lord stands forever; the design of [God's] heart, through all generations....Our soul, says the psalmist, waits for the Lord, who is our help and our shield, for in him our hearts rejoice; in his holy name we trust."

What we see happening in the world of today and, in particular, in our government that seems to be rejoicing in the  passage of a bill that is predicted by many to deprive millions of health insurance and that eventually, it is also claimed, will tax the middle class and the poor to line the pockets of the rich and create more billionaires, will most likely bring much suffering to many peoples. God's plan, by repealing our sentence, frees us from being enslaved to sin. The government's plan is likely to enslaves us to the effects of the sin of greed for generations to come.

We "wait for the Lord, who is our help and our shield, for in him our hearts rejoice; in his holy name we trust," as we know that "the plan of the Lord stands forever; the design of [God's] heart, through all generations."  

God's Design Unstoppable

In today’s first reading, Act 4: 23-31 Peter and John, having been reprimanded for speaking in Jesus’ name,  return to their own people and reported what the chief priests and elders had told them.  Everything done to stop the spread of Christianity and the work of the Spirit failed. Those against Jesus would not prevail then or now, any more than Pharaoh and the Egyptians thwarted God’s  plan to free the Israelites from slavery.  In our day, no one will stop God’s plan to save us from the forces that rise up against Truth, against Christ and His presence in the world. The Holy Spirit cannot be contained  or silenced by humans. 

In today’s opening Scripture reading, Luke quotes the words of King David, God’s servant, “Why did the Gentiles rage and the peoples entertain folly? The kings of the earth took their stand and the princes gathered together against the Lord and against his anointed….Indeed they gathered in this city (Jerusalem) against your holy servant Jesus whom you anointed, Herod and Pontius Pilate, together with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do what your hand and your will had long ago planned to take place.”  As then, so, now, persons  who gather  to voice their opinions against God’s servants, against those doing good in the world, those standing up for the poor and oppressed, those seeking justice and right relationships will, inadvertently, be helping to forward God’s plan of salvation. 

I have a choice to be a “Peter or a John,” a” Mary Magdalen or a Veronica,” actively and knowingly witnessing to the Risen Christ by word or deed or one of those who rant, rage or entertain folly in the world of today. What choice will I make today?