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Standing Up For What We Believe In

Thursday, March 7th, 2013

Thursday of the Third Week in Lent

Jer 7: 23-28; Lk 11: 14-23

Dc. Larry Brockman

Are we a Kingdom divided against itself?  Has faithfulness diminished amongst us?  Is the Word of God banished from our speech?    I think it is fair to say that there are signs that these things are happening to Christians as a whole and to the Catholic Church in specific in today’s world.  Today, there are strong voices of dissent amongst Catholics.  These voices of dissent pay lip service to the Creed each Sunday because they don’t really believe in everything the Church teaches.  Rather, they pick and choose with the attitude that they can discern for themselves.

Make no mistake about it.  The Jeremiah prophecy applies as much today as it did to the countless generations of Israelis who didn’t listen to their prophets and didn’t walk in the ways of the Lord.

Let me point out a few, for example:  A divorce rate over 50 %; Sunday Church attendance at about 30%; rampant immorality on TV and in our movies and on the internet that reflects itself in our music and dress as well; 4 Million abortions a year in this country and a society that tolerates it; and a society that is slowly legalizing marijuana and gay marriage.  Even though this congregation may be a bright spot in the midst of our society, the point is that, it is not enough.  It’s just not enough.  More is required of us, the God fearing folk.

You see, that’s what the parable is all about.  Just like the palace in the parable, the Christian element of our society is under attack.  We are depending on a strong man, fully armed to guard our palace.  But just who is this strong man?  It represents the Church.  And the Church consists of not just the building, but all of us believers as well.

Today, our strong man doesn’t appear to be strong enough because secular society is getting too strong in its demands  They have taken away our religious freedom and are poised to disband our institutions- schools and hospitals and other agencies.  We stand the danger of being overrun by the enemy.

Now our strength comes from our unity; and from the obedience that breeds unity.  That is the armor that our strong man depends on- all of us.  Unity and compliance is what Jeremiah is calling for.  But the Old Testament people had hardened their hearts.  They turned their backs to the Lord.  And it applies to us as well, doesn’t it.  Because 70% of our Catholic brethren have turned their back on the Church, and have hardened their hearts.

So, what’s the answer, what’s the way out?  In a word, evangelization-   We have got to evangelize, starting with our own people –  Our brothers and sisters, children, parents, friends, co-workers, playmates, you name it.

How do we evangelize?  We do it, first of all, by our example,. So “Let us bow down in worship; let us sing joyfully to the Lord; and let us acclaim the rock that saves us”.  And then, we do it by being pro-active.  Know about your faith so you can intelligently answer their questions; show them that you are involved; practice what the Church preaches, all of it; and lastly, but most importantly, tell them how great it is to belong, to be a member of the Kingdom of God.  And then, welcome them home.    Yes indeed, “If today you hear his voice, ‘Harden not your hearts”.

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Learning to Step Out of Our Comfort Zones

Thursday, February 28th, 2013

Thursday of the Second Week in Lent

Jer 17: 5-10; Lk 16: 19-31

Dc. Larry Brockman

 

How ironic!  First, Jesus tells the parable about the rich man and Lazarus.  And in that parable, the rich man wants Abraham to have Lazarus rise from the dead to warn his 5 brothers that they need to mend their selfish lives.  But Abraham says that if people will not listen to Moses and the prophets, then neither will they listen to someone raised from the dead!  And then, irony of ironies, Jesus actually went on to raise a person name Lazarus from the grave you know, Martha and Mary’s brother Lazaru!.  And it was in front of the Pharisees and Scribes, too.

And do you know what the Pharisees and Scribes did after that?  They actually plotted to kill Lazarus because of his testimony.  Indeed, the raising of Lazarus was one of the things that pushed the Pharisees over the edge.  After that they wanted to have Jesus arrested and put on trial.  How ironic; and how prophetic Abraham’s words were.

What the parable today demonstrates is just how difficult it is to shake us out of our comfort zone, especially when things are going well for us.  And as a matter of fact, when things are going well people get angry when someone tries to shake them from their apathy about them, especially things that are wrong in this world that people are not facing.  Why?  Because they just don’t want to hear it.

This was the case for the rich man; and the Pharisees were not far behind him.  People can either be too comfortable to care- like the rich man; or they have a vested interest in the status quo and don’t want to hear there is something wrong with it- like the Pharisees.

Boy, do we have that problem today!  Our society has lost sight of evil.  Religious persecution of Catholics, Abortion, Assisted Suicide, Gay Marriage, untreated Mental Illness, Third World Hunger, and a whole host of other evils plague us.  But most of us are too busy and passive about it in our relative affluence.

One of the things we do is to trust the Government to solve these social problems.  But isn’t that what Jeremiah was preaching against in the first reading?  Isn’t that trusting in man; trusting in secular society?  We have a responsibility to help folks who are in need and to help people see the error of their ways.  But we cannot delegate it away through the Government.  Especially now when the secular Government is actually acting to bolster some of these evils; and when the Government has no way to pay for it.

There is one thing all of us can do, and that is to pray.  That’s what the Blessed Mother continually asked us to do when she appeared to visionaries at Medugorje and other places; and it’s what the Church is asking us to do during Lent.  Remember, we are being asked to engage in Prayer, Fasting, and Alsmgiving during Lent.

And what is it that we should pray for.  Lots of things:  our enemies conversion; inspiration on how we can deal with and solve the problems, that God will somehow intercede, perhaps send us a leader; but most of all, to trust that when we pray, our prayers will be answered.

Sometimes todays problems seem overwhelming.  But it is then that we should remember Jeremiah’s words:  “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord; whose hope is in the Lord”.  So, pray, pray, and pray some more.

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Ask and You Shall Receive

Thursday, February 21st, 2013

Thursday of the First Week of Lent

Esth C: 12, 14-16, 23-25; Mt 7: 7-12

Dc. Larry Brockman

 

So, all we have to do is ask and it will be given to us!  Now I know there are some of you out there who are chuckling over that one.  A kind of a cynical chuckle, too.  Because there are lots of times we ask for things from the Lord and it seems like we don’t get them.  So, how can it be that our prayers are always answered?

Well, first notice that our Gospel ends with what seems like a disconnect, something that does not appear to be all that relevant to Jesus claim that God will always answer our prayers.  Jesus says: “Do to others whatever you would have them do to you”.  But I think these words from Jesus do help explain the paradox of God answering our prayers when we don’t feel that He has.  Because God is doing to us what we would do ourselves if we had the knowledge, wisdom, and ability that God has.

Think of it this way, and this is a pretty accurate analogy when you really think it through.  When a very young child asks you for something, do you always give them what they want, or do you sometimes, even most of the time, give them something else altogether, and even in some cases, don’t give them anything at all?  You better believe it.  And the reason is that you have their best interests at stake.  You know better than they do what is good and what is bad for them in a given situation, and in fact, you are only doing for them what you would wish they would do for you if the situation were reversed.  That’s why I wouldn’t give my granddaughter the poker for the fire last weekend or give my grandson a third piece of candy when he wanted it, and why I wouldn’t let either of them play near my neighbor’s electric fence.  And clearly, there are times these young children don’t understand.  They can even feel upset and hurt by our lack of responsiveness,

Well, it is the same way between God and us.  God sees what is really best for us.  Sometimes that promotion, that job, that position on the team, that car, and lots of other things that we want are not what is best for us at all.  Occasionally we are lucky enough to recognize the wisdom of God’s actions or lack of action after the fact.  Like when something better came along and we see that we really didn’t want what we originally wanted anyway.

Now a lot of it has to do with what we pray for and how we pray for it.  A mature attitude in prayer really helps- by asking for what we really do need in a really effective way.  The story from Esther is a great example of how we should pray, particularly when we are faced with really difficult situations.  Esther’s was a really dire situation.  Although she was married to the King, the King had been tricked by an unscrupulous person into ordering all of Esther’s people killed.  Notice that Esther does several things in her prayer.  First, she gives praise and acknowledges God.  Then, she is extremely humble and sincere in her request.  Next, she is more concerned for others than her own self.  And, she turns control over to the Lord.  Lastly and most importantly, she is willing to do her part.  Esther is not asking for some miracle, but rather, she is asking for inspiration.  She says “Put in my mouth persuasive words in the presence of the lion and turn his heart to hatred for the enemy”!  Esther’s prayer was answered, too.

God always answers our prayers.  But we must ask in the right way, and ask for what is really best for us.  Otherwise, God will give us what is ultimately the best for us.  And like a small child, we may be too into ourselves and not into God’s plan to recognize what is best for us.

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Carrying Our Cross to Paradise

Thursday, February 14th, 2013

Thursday after Ash Wednesday

Dt 30: 15-20; Luke 9: 22-25

Dc. Larry Brockman

 

It doesn’t get any clearer than today’s Gospel.  First, Jesus tells of his own fate.  He must suffer greatly, be rejected by the supposedly good men of his society, and then be killed.  Then he tells everyone that they must also take up their own cross daily, and die to themselves in order to save their own lives.

You see, a certain kind of suffering is absolutely necessary to salvation.  That’s what both Moses and Jesus are talking about this morning.

Basically, Moses told the people that they had to obey the Lord and His Law at all costs.  Yet, the Israelis disobeyed the law and the Lord over and over again by not having faith that the Lord was with them; by moving off in their own direction; and by testing Him.  They did that to relieve their suffering and fear in the short term.  But in the long term, they ended up wandering aimlessly for 40 years.  So, they suffered greatly despite their own best efforts, and really, as Moses points out, because of their own best efforts.

What about you and I?  Are we strong in our faith, or do we test the Lord and His patience, doing things our way to avoid the suffering God has given us as part of our lives?  We have 40 days to think about it- Lent is just starting.  And that’s what we are asked to do during Lent- to pull back some from the daily grind; cut back on our self-indulgence- that’s the fasting part; recognize that everything is a gift from God and that life is not just about us, so that we should share our gifts with others- that’s the almsgiving; and reflect on what God really is directing us to do with our lives- that’s the prayer part.

The challenge is to sort out God’s plan for us, and not our own plan.  God loves all of us; and He wants only the best for us.  He gives us talents and interests, and relishes in our successes.  And most of us go off and shape our lives around the talents and interests we have.  But there are consequences that follow the free exercise of our talents and interests.  These include how we allocate our time, and how we accept the responsibility that comes with our chosen path in life.  The devil tries constantly to derail us from God’s path, mostly by appealing to our self-interests and by making the desires we have to satisfy ourselves dominant.  We become addicted to video games, watching TV, football, fashion trends, and following celebrities for example.  This takes away from time adults spend with their families and the duties they have as parents.  And it takes away from time children should use for homework and doing their chores.

We neglect the need to take care of ourselves physically- not getting enough exercise, not eating the right kinds of foods.  We avoid taking care of our neighbors when they are in need because we are too busy or we have something else we want to do.  We don’t get involved in finding out more about our faith because our self-interests conflict and always dominate.

Well, this Lent, let’s make an attempt to really pull back and look at our lives.  How am I being pulled by my own self- centeredness so that I am not following God’s plan for me; and how can I change that so that I accept more of the pain associated with not being so self-absorbed?

Try to identify one such thing that is holding you back from God’s plan for you and make a change as part of Lent.  It may be a diet; a may be a little exercise; it may be some time with the family; it may be an effort to get involved in something to help others, or to improve your own spirituality.  And even though it may seem painful at first.  You will be surprised later at how it saves your life.

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Carrying the Light of Christ

Thursday, January 31st, 2013

 

Thursday of Third Week in Ordinary Time

Heb 10: 19-25; Mark 4: 21-25

Dc. Larry Brockman

 

Guess what!  All of you carry the light of Christ within you.  When you were Baptized, you were given a candle which was lit from the Paschal Candle, and that Paschal candle was first lit from the Easter fire during the Easter Vigil mass.  The paschal candle symbolizes the light of Christ that resulted from His Resurrection.  That means each of you bears the light of Christ within you.

So, the question for us today is simply this:  Is your lamp hiding under the bed?  In other words, are you hiding the light of Christ within you or are you showing it for all to see, effectively evangelizing by word and deed?

There are a couple of ways that you can hide your light.  First, there are those who believe, but they think that their faith is just between them and God.  They don’t need the Church; and they don’t need others.  They just need to talk to God and affirm their belief.   We see these people chastised in our first reading.  Paul says clearly:  “We should not stay away from the assembly”.  And that’s because we really need each other.  God is by His very nature a social being.  First, He is three interrelated persons in one God.  Second, why else would He have made all of us, and then tell us we are made in His image and likeness?  And so He wants us to love and cherish each other, reinforcing our Faith, and giving Him Glory and praise in the assembly.

The second way we can hide our lamps is to keep them neatly hidden right here in the Church.  That’s why the Pope has called the year of Faith.  We have been conned by today’s “inclusive”, secular society, into keeping our faith to ourselves in the name of tolerance of everyone else’s beliefs.  We have bought into the philosophy:  “Let’s not offend others who don’t believe as we do”.

Well, I’m sorry, but we need to take the light of Christ out of this Church and spread it far and wide for all to see.  And sometimes it may offend people- it offended the Romans, who persecuted the early Christians.  It offended the Nazis and the Communists, who sent those who stood up for their faith to concentration camps and worse.  And it will likely offend today’s secular humanists who believe in gay marriage, abortion rights, atheism, and a whole range of other moral atrocities that Christianity opposes.

Now you might say, it just isn’t right for us to offend others, we should love them instead.  Two thoughts on that.  First, aren’t their beliefs and practices offensive to us?  But that doesn’t stop them from being bright beacons of their position in the public sector.  So much so that Christianity is losing ground fast.  The second thought is this.  Recently I saw a quote from Pope Benedict that made an interesting point about love.  He talked about “love in truth”.  And the long and short of it was this:   We are all being called to love, yes.  But you cannot love someone if you are not being truthful with them.  And one of the worst ways we tell an untruth is by hiding the truth, and by keeping it to ourselves.  It is called a sin of omission.  God is love; and God is truth.  And so, everything we do needs to be done with loving kindness, but we must always represent the truth.  And it is time for our Christian truth to be front and center again in our society.

And so, let us reflect today on how we can come out of this Church and bear the light of Christ in in our secular society.  It is time to get involved.

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Establishing a Relationship with Jesus Our Priest

Thursday, January 24th, 2013

Thursday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time

St. Francis de Sales

Heb 7: 25b – 8:6; Mark 3: 7-12

Dc. Larry Brockman

It is something that we just don’t understand.  We just can’t relate to it- this business of sacrificing animals to God.  But in the Old Testament days, that is how people approached their God.  The Lord of the Old Testament seemed so distant, so overwhelming, so impersonal, and even fearful.  And so, the people would take their gifts to a Priest, who had to be from the Levite Tribe, and hope that, following the precise methodology handed down through Moses, and through the intercession of that Priest, their appeal to God might be answered.

Now these sacrifices started as offerings from the heart.  They were animals that really meant something to those who offered them, because livestock was at a premium and was critical to the society.  These people were nomadic herders and farmers, not city dwellers with 9 to 5 jobs.  And unlike today, meat was not commonly eaten- it was the exception and a treat.  And so the hope was that really giving something up that meant something to you, would save you from your sins, and restore you to God’s favor.  But over time, these sacrifices became more mechanical and scripted.  So that they lost significance in terms of sincerity.  Following the formula became a culturally necessary thing to do, and not necessarily an offering from the heart.

In our first reading today there are some very detailed theological concepts discussed about priests and how Jesus relate to priesthood.  But the basic point is that Jesus changed everything.  Jesus sacrifice was necessary and sufficient to achieve salvation.  We can’t justify or atone for our offenses by offering up animals, and it is not burnt offerings and animals that appease our God.  Jesus sacrifice did the atonement.  So Old Testament style priesthood is no longer applicable.  That means it is our relationship with Jesus that matters now because he is our high priest and can intercede for us.  And like anyone else that we have a relationship with, it needs to be built on faith and trust in each other.

In our Gospel today, we hear that so many people believed in Jesus’ power, that they were coming from far and wide, and from outside the area.  And they were pressing so hard on him that he was concerned about being crushed.  And we hear that many of these people were cured. Now when we hear stories of specific people being cured elsewhere in the Gospels, Jesus is always quoted as saying that “Your Faith has saved you”.  And we can surmise that this was the case for those who were cured in this large crowd as well.

So, we need Faith, real faith in Jesus as our Lord and Savior, not sacrifices of animals.  And we need a corresponding commitment to Jesus and his way of life.  That’s how we develop a relationship with Jesus.  When we have such a relationship with him, then when we pray, he can and will intercede to the Father for us.

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Don’t Ever Lose Hope!

Thursday, January 17th, 2013

Thursday of the First Week in Ordinary Time

Heb 3: 7-14; Mark 1: 40-45

Dc. Larry Brockman

 

So, what does St. Paul and the Psalmist mean when they say “Harden not your Hearts”?

Well, sometimes we can be so steeped in our every-day problems that our hearts just are not any longer motivated by our Faith and Hope in the Lord.  It is then that our hearts are effectively hardened.

Such was the case with the Israelis in the desert.  They were parched, as was the land they were travelling through.  Water was at a premium.  And even though the Lord had rescued them from Pharaoh and the Egyptians and cared for them for 40 years they didn’t trust the Lord’s promise to care for them going forward.  They were wholly and totally focused on their immediate needs, and not on Faith and Hope in the Lord.  Their Faith was so weak that their hearts were numb, even hardened, to the big picture of the promised land that would come to those who trusted and followed the Lord’s commands.  And so Paul quotes this famous Psalm and warns the Christian community of the same trap- a trap in which one forsakes the living God.  When you fall into such a trap, you despair of hope, and abandon your Faith.

Does it ever happen to us?  Well, our Faith and hopes were passed to many of us when we were young.  We came to believe; we resolved to dedicate our lives to doing God’s will, and our hope was in a future in God’s Kingdom.  But then life happened.  And in the midst of the turmoil of life, we find ourselves, in a figurative sense, having spent 40 years in a desert wandering around in what seems like an aimless pursuit.  Sometimes we have a tendency to give up hope when the latest trial arrives our way, the straw that breaks the camel’s back so to speak.  It could be an illness, a financial problem, or a relationship problem.  But instead of trusting and hoping in the Lord, we look to our own devices, and forget about hope and faith.

The leper in Biblical times was a forsaken person.  He was shunned by society because it was an infectious and incurable disease.  It would be easy to despair in such a case, to abandon all hope, and lose Faith.  But the leper in the Gospel had Faith and Hope in Jesus.  And he was rewarded for it.

That is a lesson all of us need to remember.  No matter how bad things get, we must never lose hope and Faith in God.  Rather, when the going gets tough, open your hearts to the Lord.

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Unconditional Love

Thursday, January 10th, 2013

Love, unconditional love, that’s what today’s scriptures are all about.

Elsewhere John writes that “God is Love”.  There are four words in Greek that mean love.  They mean a mother’s love, passionate love; friendship; and unconditional love respectively.  But the kind of love that John is talking about is unconditional love or agape.

When you think about it, God’s loved has to be like that.  Because everything He created, by definition, is imperfect compared to God.  And so, God has to accept it as He created it, unconditionally, otherwise, if God rejected it, it would be eliminated, gone.  Here John is telling us we need to love God the same way as He loves us.

Now on first thought, that sounds easy enough.  God created me, I know that, I appreciate that He created me, so I love God unconditionally.  But John is saying, “Wait a minute; it is not that easy”.  First, he tells us that if we don’t love our brother, who we can see; then we cannot be loving God correctly.  So the first question is- do we love our brothers- all of them?  Then John says, the way you will know that you love God is if you keep His commandments.  And His commandment is that we love our brothers- all of them- with unconditional love, agape love.

Now our brothers include our family, our friends, our coworkers, and our classmates.  But they also include pedophiles, illegal aliens, homosexuals, politicians in the other party, and just to make it real, real, clear, the Alabama Football team are our brothers!  Wow, what a tall order is that.

I think we have to understand that there is a difference between loving someone and liking what they do.  We are asked to love as God does.  So, we need to unconditionally love sinners, just like God does.  We should always thank God that he loves us that way- because we are all sinners and each of us wants to be loved by God and be with Him forever in eternity.  So does everyone else- including the Alabama football team and all people in those other groups I mentioned.

The secret to the apparent dilemma is twofold.  First, God is the judge, and will administer eternal justice; and so we should leave the condemnation up to God.  And if you listen carefully, that’s what the psalm is all about this morning.

And second, the way we can be sure that we project God’s attitude of love is to let God’s spirit do it for us.  That is what the Gospel this morning is all about.  It says very clearly that Jesus claims the scripture was fulfilled in the assembly’s hearing:  “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me to…”.  To do all those things he mentioned.  Yes, indeed, that is what Jesus did to fulfill God’s will for Him, to love unconditionally even love those who caused him incredible suffering and death.  Jesus called on and let the Spirit of God work through Him.  Jesus didn’t react to those who confronted and persecuted him with his human emotions- with anger, judgment, scorn, sarcasm, and the like.  Rather, He let the Spirit of God, who is love, guide His way.

We are all being called upon to do the same  To let the Spirit of God dominate over our human emotions when dealing with the difficult people and situations in our lives and to love others as God loves us.

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An Eye Witness Tells It All

Thursday, December 27th, 2012

Thursday in the Octave of Christmas

St. John the Evangelist

1 Jn 1: 1-4; John 20: 1a, 2-8

Dc. Larry Brockman

 

He was a different sort of person than the other Apostles- younger, and more of a thinker.  His Gospel doesn’t track with the other three Gospels. The stories recorded in it are different and unique, like the Wedding Feast at Cana, the Prodigal Son, and the Woman at the Well.  And his message has a deeper theological content, like the beginning of his Gospel that explores the Trinity, and the sixth chapter that deals with the bread of life.  Today we celebrate his feast, the feast of John the Evangelist.

More than any other of the Gospel writers, John stressed the role of the Incarnation in God’s relationship with us.  John said that God’s love for us was so great that He sent His only begotten son into the world to live as one of us.  That is the Incarnation, one of the great mysteries of our Faith.  And John also emphasized his personal role as an eye witness.  That should be a source of joy to us- an eye witness that personally recorded what happened.  Why, because the Gospel story of Jesus’ life was not just recorded by some folks who heard it second or third hand, but rather, by eye witnesses, people who were involved.

We hear about two such eye witness accounts this morning.  First, in his letter, John brings to us the reality of the Incarnation.  First He says: “What was from the beginning.”  Here he is referring to the fact that Jesus was from the beginning and is God.  Then he says “What we heard, what we have seen with our own eyes, what we have looked upon and touched with our hands concerns the Word of Life”.  Just imagine- this man heard, looked at, and touched the real thing- God almighty in human form.  John is spreading this good and exciting news so that we, too can fellowship with Jesus- that is his avowed purpose, and is something that should bring us joy.

The second eye witness account is of another great mystery of our Faith- the Resurrection.  John was there too.  He witnessed the trial, the crucifixion, and the burial of Jesus personally, together with the stone rolled against the tomb and the Roman Guards so that no predicted Resurrection could be staged.  And yet, what do we hear in the Gospel?  John’s first hand witness to the Resurrection.  Inexplicably, the stone was rolled back, the guards were gone, and the burial cloths- one for the head and one for the body- were separately and neatly rolled up.  As John entered the tomb and saw, he says he believed.  It had all come together for him, all the prophecies he had recorded in his Gospel- the suffering, death, and resurrection on the third day were fulfilled.

We have a choice to believe or not.  We are not eye witnesses, just people who have had the good fortune to hear the stories handed down by the eye witness.  We are challenged to believe, really believe in these two great mysteries- the Incarnation and the Resurrection.  What they mean is everlasting life for those of us who believe.  So believe, rejoice, and live your lives in the Lord.

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Be Greater Than John the Baptist!

Thursday, December 13th, 2012

Thursday of the Second Week of Advent

Is 41: 13-20; Mt 11: 11-15

Dc. Larry Brockman

 

So, the least in the Kingdom of God  Is greater than John the Baptist, who is the greatest of those born of a woman!  Is there any hope for us then, who certainly don’t have the insight or the zeal or the discipline of John the Baptist? Contrast that thought with response in our Psalm today:  “The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow in anger, and great in kindness.”  How can both of these be true?  What does it all mean?

It means we all have cause to rejoice.  You see, the coming of Jesus, our savior, changed everything for us.  Up until then, the Kingdom of God was not open, and great as any human born of a woman might be, they could not enter the everlasting Kingdom of God.  Jesus’ coming put into action God’s plan to save all of us who believe and follow Jesus.  Yes, the Lord is gracious.

And to help us on our journey of life, we have been given great gifts- the Church and the Sacraments- Baptism, the Eucharist, Confirmation in particular.  These initiate and confirm us in our faith.  And the sacrament of reconciliation gives us a second, and third, and fourth, and on and on, chance to make things right with God as we fall on the way.  Yes indeed, the Lord is merciful and slow to anger.

Now most of us can’t really appreciate the literal meanings of the first reading.  We are not shepherds and farmers, and we don’t live in ancient times.  We have huge diesel driven bulldozers and earthmoving equipment that can literally move mountains.  We have cell phones and electric lights and running water and air conditioning, even in the middle of the desert.  These things, by the way, are not what Isaiah was predicting.  But try for a moment to visualize the promise that the Lord is delivering through Isaiah.   Imagine threshing a mountain with a hand tool with ease, and water bubbling free in the desert with rivers flowing on bare land.   For nomadic ancient peoples, these things symbolized a dream come true-. a permanent solution to wandering and scraping the land for survival.  Well, they symbolize the same thing for us- a dream come true, a state of prosperity and happiness forever.  Yes indeed, the Lord shows us great kindness.

So, rejoice, because the coming of Jesus does for us what the exiled people that Isaiah spoke to were hoping for.  Jesus coming guarantees us who believe everlasting life in the Kingdom of God, where we will also be greater than the greatest born of a woman.

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