The coming of the Messiah

In Is 35: 1-10, Isaiah prophesizes about the fulfillment of God’s promise of sending a Messiah to turn the world back to God.  We know that, through Christ Jesus, we will be saved.  Satan, seemingly totally out of control in today’s world, will be overcome. Evil will be destroyed along with those who perpetuate evil and do not repent.  “Here is your God,” Isaiah says, “he comes with vindication” Is 35: 4),  All of us, in some way or another, long to be exonerated now. However, our justification might not happen until we enter eternal life, as it did not happen for Jesus until His resurrection.

Isaiah tells us that when the Messiah enters our lives and our world, our eyes and the “eyes of the  blind will be opened”, our ears and “the ears of the deaf will be cleared” (Is 35: 5).   Wars will cease between individuals, families, nations, cultures, men and women, rich and poor, homosexuals and heterosexuals; human trafficking and drug trafficking, and violence of any kind will cease. With the coming of the Messiah into our personal lives we will create a world in which the integrity of every human being will be honored, each one’s needs will be met.

Am I ready for this Messiah? Am I preparing a path in my life where Jesus is welcome, where the Spirit is heard and God’s instructions followed?  If so, how is that happening? If not, what do I need to change?

Trusting the Lord

In today first reading, Is. 26: 1-6, we are encouraged with words: "Trust in the Lord forever! for the Lord is an eternal Rock."  I am at our province headquarters in Oshkosh, WI.  I came here on the 3rd of Dec. and will be here until the 14th. I came to set up a vocation committee that consists of lay people, SSM Associates and some Sisters.  I said to the Lord on the way here: "Lord, this is a trust walk, an act of faith. I have no idea who I will be interviewing or whether the persons I asked for suggestions have any information for me. The first night at Franciscans Courts, our headquarters in Oshkosh, I went to the library around 7:00 p.m. and around 7:30 a sister who does chaplaincy work at Mercy Hospital in Oshkosh dropped by and gave me a list of names of persons she thought would be good committee members. On returning to my room, the phone rang. It was one of our Associates. She had a list of names for me.  I was overwhelmed. I had been praying the prayer; Lord, bless me this day and I will indeed be blessed!

I have 12 person interested in working with us to promote religious life and priesthood, to put forth effort to make SSMs known. I will be interviewing all of these persons and writing recommendations to the Council.
Our communication specialist who is also a marketing guru has offered to analyze my work and help me develop strategies for more effective use of social media and maintaining ongoing contact with inquirers.

"Trust in the Lord! for the Lord is an eternal Rock!"  How many times the Lord confirms this truth for me! What about you?

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Honor God’s name!
Acknowledge God’s presence!
Prepare God’s way!
Probe God’s messages!
Yes, know that God is always speaking Truth, seeking Truth, and inviting us to Truth!

The Lord is King!

Halleluiah!
Always present is my God! Halleluiah!
Now and forever near to those who seek Him,
Knowing my comings and goings and my thoughts from afar!
Sound the trumpet! God is near!  Halleluiah!
Give glory and honor and praise to God’s holy name!
In times of darkness and of light, in sorrow and in joy, in life and in death
Verify that God is God,
Invisible and infinite,
Never far from the brokenhearted is our
God and Savior!

God: our mother, foster parent, guardian, savior

Today’s readings abound with statements of God’s love, a love that is eternal and is practical. God’s love brought us into existence, put us together in our mother’s womb, taught us to walk and talk, to think and understand, to feel and respond with compassion.  “I fostered [you] like one who raised an infant to his cheeks; …though I stooped to feed [you, you] did not know that I was [your] healer’( Hosea 11: 1, 3-4, 8c-9).  God goes on to say “My heart is overwhelmed, my pity stirred…I will not give vent to my blazing anger” when I see you walk away from Me, the Source of your life. I will not blaze out in anger toward you when I see you worshipping false gods, looking for fullness of life in empty cisterns; mocking Me, beating me, abusing Me, cursing Me,” as you do whenever you do these things to your family members, loved ones, strangers, your neighbour, persons different from you because of race, gender, or culture (cf. Mt. 25: 40). God seems to be reminding us that He is as hidden in the other person as He is in the Sacred Host.   My faith tells me that every human being, all of creation, is a sacrament, a sign of God’s  love for me, of  God’s Presence, of God’s life-giving Spirit, for in God,  “we live and move and have out being” (Acts 17:28). What does your faith tell you?

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the feast of God’s love. The second person of the Blessed Trinity, God the Son, in total obedience to the Father assumed human nature to show us the way back to the Father, that is, the way of obedience to our God.  In total self-giving, Jesus becomes the unblemished Lamb sacrificed to redeem all of humankind and so we pray at every Mass, the Lamb’s Supper, when the heavens open up and the Son of God comes down upon our altars:  “Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.”  Such love! What sacrifices am I willing to make in return for this love?