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4th Sunday of Advent, Year A – 2022-2023

16 décembre 2022
Nicole Gregoire
Aucun commentaire
Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: biblical matters, God's Spirit, Luke 1:26-38, Matthew 1:18-24, spiritual reflections, theology, woman of our race

“God needs help!”
If you saw this caption in a magazine about spiritual reflections, or biblical matters, you may smile and…
turn the page, saying this is not serious.
Yet, it is truly deep theology, authentic understanding of who God is indeed.

The gospel texts of Luke and Matthew bear witness to this very clearly.

When, in his wisdom, God decided to reach us in becoming one of us, he needed the help of a woman of our race.
He chose a young Jewish woman, Mary of Nazareth, and asked her to become the mother of his Son (Luke 1:26-38).

When God needed someone to stand visibly for his own Spirit giving life to the child in the womb of that young woman, 
he asked Joseph to take on this responsibility (Matthew 1:18-24).

Some people would say that being all-powerful, God should not need help.
But who are we to say what God should be doing?
His choices are beyond our understanding.

Beyond our understanding, yes, but they express God’s desire to share with us what he wants to do for us, human beings.
He wants our help to achieve what is best for us!

Is this not absolutely wonderful?
We sometimes elaborate subtle theories about God, we use abstract concepts to speak about him.
And we forget this: God has chosen us to collaborate with him for what is best for us!

As we are busy preparing for Christmas – the celebration, the gifts, the guestlist…
it may be good to remember that God may need us to make Christmas a happy occasion for some people who would not manage on their own to make it so…
 

Note: Another text is available on a different theme, in French at: https://image-i-nations.com/4e-dimanche-de-lavent-annee-a-2022-2023/

 

Source: Images: Pinterest    Born of Wonder

 

5th Sunday of Year B

1 février 2018
Nicole Gregoire
Aucun commentaire
Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: comfort, consolation, God's help, hope, Jb.7:1-4, Jb.7:6-7, problems, Remember, suffering, theology, trials, troubles

It is practically every day that we are told:
“Don’t forget – don’t forget to go there, to buy this, to call so-and-so.”
Or, more positively expressed: REMEMBER – remember to do this, to collect that, to pay the bills, etc.

Yes, people around us repeatedly call our attention to the things they want us to remember.
They want to make sure that certain things will be taken care of without fail!

Strangely enough, we have somehow transferred this attitude… to God!
Yes, as if HE could forget!
Well, could he not?…
All through history, this human attitude of calling on God to REMEMBER has been part of our… spiritual DNA!

We see it in Job whom we meet in today’s 1st reading (5th Sunday of Year B – Jb.7:1-4,6-7).
He tells God in no uncertain terms:
“REMEMBER that my life is but a breath
and that my eyes will never again see joy.”

Of course, Job is having more than his share of troubles and pain.
His suffering is continual and he is hard-pressed to keep on hoping.
His fellow-human beings have proved unable to help him or comfort him.
So, he turns to God as he is desperately in need of strength and consolation.

Many of us can easily sympathize with him for we know what he is going through.
Our own problems and suffering may be of a different kind.
Of different shades and intensity, yes, but just as real and trying.
And we, too, desperately need God’s help.

But will he remember US?
Can he remember ME?…
We need a personalized divine intervention, nothing less!

One day, with much conviction, a professor of theology was saying:
“If you remember anything at all in theology, remember that God loves you.”

After all… WE may be the ones who need to REMEMBER!

Source: Images: Clipart Library   loudcanvas.com   Deacons Wife

Note: Another reflection is available on a different theme at: https://image-i-nations.com/5e-dimanche-de-lannee-b/

 

 

 

2nd Sunday of Advent, Year B

7 décembre 2017
Nicole Gregoire
Aucun commentaire
Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: God's ways, human experience, mountains, philosophy, psychology, theology, understanding, valleys, waiting

Some theologians have said that philosophy is the handmaid of theology.
In other words, some philosophical reflection can lead to a deeper understanding of some aspects of the faith.

I personally think that the same can be said of psychology.
Again, I am inclined to believe that a better knowledge of our human ways of thinking, of acting and reacting,
can help us to understand God’s ways!
Of course, there is an amazing difference – a divine one!
Yet, since God made himself a human being, there must be some similarities.

I say this especially as we live – yes, LIVE – this period of Advent.
Everyone repeats that it is a season of waiting, awaiting the coming of someone, Someone with a capital S.
If we look at our human experience of WAITING, we may understand better what this season is about.

  • A wife waiting for the return of a husband gone for a long period on a research trip;
  • parents awaiting the return of a child who had been away roaming the world;
  • a mother-to-be waiting for 9 long months for the birth of her first-born;
  • a student waiting for the exam results that will mean the open door to further studies.

All of them know well what it means to wait – this desire, this longing for the event to take place.
The anxious thought that… perhaps there will be a delay, a change of plan, an accident, a failure…
The anticipation of what will take place when it does finally happen.
There is already a taste of the joy to come – the joy of being together again.

Has this human experience anything to say to our waiting for God?
A word of caution here: it is not a question of putting Baby Jesus back in the Crib – NO!
Oh, we may do this as a teaching aid to help young children understand what Christmas is about.
We do it and it is appropriate for this situation and for that reason.
But many adults protest – and rightly so – that this is not the deep meaning of Christmas NOW.

Simply said: Christmas in our time is NOT putting Baby Jesus back in the Crib –
it is allowing God to take his place at the heart of our human experience – nothing less.

And this takes some practice… it takes some preparing to accept God as God in all the areas of our daily life –
“the mountains and the valleys, the cliffs and the ridges” of which Isaiah speaks about.
This is why there is and ADVENT Season … and more, to do this!

Source: Image: commons.wikipedia.org

Note: Another reflection on different themes is available in French at: https://image-i-nations.com/2e-dimanche-de-lavent-annee-b/

and a video presentation is also offered at: https://image-i-nations.com/2e-dimanche-de-lavent-ghislaine-parle/