adult

Feast of Mary, Mother of God, Year C – 2022

Since the beginning of the Christmas season, we have been looking at a child in a manger,
or, looking at this new-born held close to her heart by his mother.

Personally, this has led me to think at what God… did NOT do!
We usually contemplate what God has done, but what about seeing the reverse?…

God wanted to reach us, the people he has created, to share his life with us, but…
He did not try to reach us as an angel.
He did not show himself with power.
And, amazingly, he did not come to us as an adult!

Yet, being God, he had a vast choice of options!
He chose to be born from a human mother, small and needy.

A God who must rely on human beings… rather unusual, is it not?

He wanted to be known as a GRACIOUS God.
This is what we hear in the 1^st reading (Numbers 6:22-27)
and the Psalm (Psalm 67:1-8) of today’s celebration.

“The Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you.”

“May God be gracious to us and bless us
and make his face shine on us.”

In becoming one-of-us, God has ‘graced’ us,
he has blessed us in all kinds of ways –
ways that we have never finished to discover and to understand!

The whole of the new year opening up before us will not be sufficient for this discovery…
But we can start opening the gift now, and doing so day after day!

Note: Another reflection is available on a different theme in French at: https://image-i-nations.com/marie-mere-de-dieu-annee-c-2022/

Source: Image: lds365.com

3rd Sunday of Easter, Year B – 2021

If asked about someone – whether we know the person or not – we may reply that we know of him, or her.
On the other hand, we may answer that we know him, or her – and there is a difference.
In the first instance, we may have heard about someone, or read some of his/her writings, or seen photos of them.
But we would not claim to know that person.

We are all aware that there are degrees of knowing.
We are conscious that claiming to know someone involves a relationship –
someone may be an acquaintance, a distant relative, or a close friend.

This reflection came to me as I read the gospel text of this 3^rd Sunday of Easter (Lk.24:35-48).
Jesus appeared to the group of his apostles and…

“They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost.”

The apostles knew Jesus – they had lived with him for three years, or so.
They could have claimed to know him… quite well.
Yet, they would have probably admitted that, very often, they did not understand him.
And, on that night, they simply failed to recognize him.

Their knowledge of him had to grow and somehow be transformed.
They knew him as Jesus, the former carpenter, or Jesus, the Man of Nazareth.
Now, they had to recognize in him more than that… they had to know him as the Risen Lord.

“Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.”

I believe that such a growth must be part of my own relationship with God.
God may have been the God of my childhood, and the God of my youth.
He may have remained my God when I became an adult, but… did he remain the same?
And, if I have reached the ‘golden age’, is he still the same for me, as he was before?

Some may hasten to reply that, of course, God is the same, they will claim that God does not change.
This may be correct in some way.
But I have changed, and I believe that my understanding of God should somehow grow with me…

For me too, God must open my mind so that I may understand who he truly is… now…
And he may reveal himself in other ways – surprising and wonderful – as I walk with him from day to day.

Note: Another reflection on a different theme is available in French at: https://image-i-nations.com/3e-dimanche-de-paques-annee-b-2021/

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Feast of Mary, Mother of God, Year C – 2022

Source: Image: lds365.com

3rd Sunday of Easter, Year B – 2021

Source: Images: Bearing the Cross – Altervista