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Epiphany of the Lord, Year C – 2025

3 janvier 2025
Nicole Gregoire
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Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: 'God-with-us', being far, darkness, deceitfulness, epiphanies, hope, Isaiah 60:1-6, light, Matthew 2:1-12, questioning, search

Day after day, we read the Scripture to know and to understand –
to know better, to understand more deeply who God is.
The Bible texts offer us images and symbols, they relate events, they describe situations.
Very often, they present us a message by way of contrast, of opposites.

We see this in the readings of today’s feast as we celebrate the Epiphany of the Lord.
The 1st reading shows us a landscape of darkness overcome by light (Isaiah 60:1-6):

“Arise, shine, for your light has come… and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.
See, darkness covers the earth, and thick darkness is over the peoples,
but the Lord rises upon you… Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn”.

People who had been exiled return in joy and celebration:
“Your sons come from afar, and your daughters are carried on the hip.
Then you will look and be radiant, your heart will throb and swell with joy”.

The gospel text presents us with a series of paradoxes, of realities turn around all of a sudden (Matthew 2:12):

Magi from the East, learned people, are searching, questioning to find their way.
Having reached their destination, they prostrate themselves before a new-born.
They offer this child gifts fitting a powerful ruler.
They trust the deceitful king Herod but, warned in a dream, they managed to outwit him.

Looking at these scenes, better still contemplating what they suggest…
Do we not perceive something of our own personal experience?


We know too well the darkness, the questioning, the feeling of being far from those we love, the deceitfulness of some people?…

And yet… do we not also experience some personal… ‘epiphanies’ – the revelation in the here-and-now of our lives – of the One who has made himself “God-with-us”?

Epiphanies – manifestations, real and unmistakable – that
we are not alone,
our search is not in vain,
light will prevail over darkness,
our lives have meaning,
God hears our cry when we feel we can no longer cope…

We can walk in HOPE… Someone shows the way and walks with us…

 

Note: Another reflection is available on a different theme in French at: https://image-i-nations.com/lepiphanie-du-seigneur-annee-c-2025/

 

Source: Images: pexels.com (Ray Bilcliff; Keenan Constance; fauxels; AndreaPiacquadio)
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7th Sunday of Year A – 2023

17 février 2023
Nicole Gregoire
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Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: 1 Corinthians 3:16-23, aware, home, hope, John 14:23, joy, questioning, relationship with God, surprise, temple of God, wonder

Reading the word of God in the Bible, one can experience all kinds of feelings:

joy and consolation,
hope and anticipation,
wonder and questioning,
regret, perhaps… or helplessness?…

But there are times when the feeling is one of surprise – total and unexpected amazement!
The first lines of today’s 2nd reading can awaken such a reaction.
Writing to the Corinthians, Paul somehow admonishes them in these words (1 Corinthians 3:16-23):

“Didn’t you realize that you were God’s temple,
and that the Spirit of God was living among you…
The temple of God is sacred; and you are that temple.”

These words are truly astonishing.
Just pause for a moment and ask yourself:
If, one day, someone came to you and asked you that very question:
‘Do you realize that YOU are God’s temple’, how would you answer?

I think that, faced with this situation, many people would be taken aback,
possibly unable – or unwilling – to answer!
How many of us, Christians, ARE AWARE of this reality?

A temple is seen as a sacred building since it is the location where worship happens.
It is considered to be a place for ritual celebrations.
In other words: it is reserved for activities related to God.

But, on the eve of his death, Jesus told his apostles (John 14:23):

“If anyone loves me, he(she), will keep my word,
my Father will love him(her),
and we shall come to him(her),
and make our home with him(her).”

With the word ‘home’, Jesus meant more than a building, or a simple location.
Obviously, he had in mind something that goes beyond wood or bricks.
Jesus was speaking of a relationship.

This is what we are called to: a relationship of close proximity with God.

Something amazing, yes, but more still:
something absolutely wonderful that needs to be discovered anew – and lived – day after day…

 

Note: Another text is available on a different theme, in French at: https://image-i-nations.com/7e-dimanche-de-lannee-a-2023/

 

Source: Image: Scripture Images

 

15th Sunday of the Year, A

13 juillet 2017
Nicole Gregoire
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Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: beatitude, glimpse, God's message, God's presence, happy, Life, looking, meaning, Mt.13:1-23, perceive, questioning, réflection, see, sight, situations, staring, words

The words we use can express different levels of meaning.
Some words go deeper than others, we know it.

To get a glimpse of something or to catch sight of someone, is different from truly looking at the thing or the person.
Looking at a scene, staring at somebody, this too is different.

Seeing itself is also different from perceiving which implies something more…
And we all know that we may be looking… without seeing!…

This reflection came to me as a few words of today’s gospel caught my attention (15th Sunday of Year A – Mt.13:1-23).

A single line suddenly caught my sight.
It is the one which gives Jesus words as he says:

“Happy are your eyes because they see.” (v.16)

 

I stopped reading, there and then I paused…
I paused and… I asked myself whether this ‘beatitude’ is mine!

My questioning led me to ask whether I truly see the sights, the scenes, the situations of my daily life, as God would want me to…

More still, do I perceive there God’s presence?
Do I discern God’s message?

Perhaps much of life is about SEEING… as God sees!…

Source: Images: Dissolve, Masterfile, goodtherapy,org, Masterfile

2nd Sunday of Lent, Year A

9 mars 2017
Nicole Gregoire
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Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: Abram leaving, beliefs, country, customs, doubting, Gn.12:1-4, He.11:8, hésitation, leaving, Lent, promises, questioning, traditions

LEAVING… there is much leaving in a human life, we know it.

We leave our house for another as we want better accommodation.
We leave a means of transport choosing another more efficient one.
We leave perhaps our job having been offered a better salary somewhere else
We leave some old clothes, looking for more appropriate ones.
We leave, of course, this old software for a more up-to-date one.

It is hard to imagine the situation described by the 1st reading which shows Abram told plainly and simply: “Leave your country…” (Gn.12:1-4).
And for which country? He is not told, he only receives the promise that he will be shown where to go when the time comes.
Other promises are given to him but everything is expressed in the future tense…

Yet, when God stops speaking, the next sentence says: “Abram went as the Lord had told him.”
No doubting, no questioning, no hesitation – he leaves.
The writer of the letter to the Hebrews will say: “It was by faith that Abraham set out… that he set out without knowing where he was going” (He.11:8).

 We may leave… with difficulty perhaps, some old habits, some cherished customs.
We may leave… with hesitation probably, some traditions favoured by people around us.
We may leave… or do we? Our long-held beliefs, our pseudo-values…

But perhaps the ‘country’ we are to leave is our… ‘old self’ – the selfish, arrogant, narrow-minded self, the one needing to be transformed by the One who, himself, has been transfigured.

LENT time, a time of setting out, of moving, of LEAVING all that prevents us from being the person God meant us to be. Indeed!

Source: Images: WordPress.com; Pixabay