“Mission and prayer”

 Saturday 18^th December 2021

           (Jeremiah 23:5-8); (St. Mathew 1:18-25)

“Mission and prayer”

Dear broths and sisters in Christ, today as we have listened to the Word of God from the Sacred Scripture, we are reminded as we draw ever nearer to Christmas, of how the Lord has fulfilled his promise to us and showed us His  love by sending His begotten Son who appeared in the Flesh, in our midst.  Son of God Most High and the Son of Man, brought into the life of Mary and  St. Joseph, His earthly father and turning into the Heir and Son of David, King of Israel. Today we have a great example of St. Joseph a humble servant of God, who adopted Jesus and Mary and played a vital role in the mission of God. He endured all sorts of sufferings and faced various difficulties in order to save the life of Mother Mary and Jesus Christ.

As we heard from our first reading today from the Book of the prophet Jeremiah, God assured His people that He would come to bring them freedom and salvation from their many humiliations. Furthermore as God has uncovered to them all through the previous history, through numerous prophets and messengers, He would send His deliverer, the Savior to come as the decedent of David, sending His only begotten Son to be the One to lead every one of His cherished ones out of the weakness and into the Light of His salvation and truth.

God didn't abandon all of us, His dear ones and He did all that He could to accumulate us all in, dispersed all through this obscured world loaded with wrongdoing and wickedness. He has connected all of the time to us, approaching every one of us to get back to Him and to track down our direction to His essence. He needs to excuse us every one of our transgressions, and that is the reason, He gave us so extraordinary a redemption and a Deliverer through Christ, Who came to us by the force of the Holy Spirit, living in Mary, His Mother, as told by the Angel of the Lord to St. Joseph, Mary's legitimate spouse.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, in the excess time we have in this period of Advent, as we are coming nearer and nearer to Christmas, let every one of us invest a few time to consider how we see and plan to celebrate this Christmas. It is without a doubt right and appropriate for us to celebrate in Christmas as we ought to. Nonetheless, we need to celebrate it with appropriate arrangement and enthusiasm for God's love for us made obvious and clear in the Flesh, through Christ His Son.

In the Holy Gospel we find that St. Joseph was described as a “righteous man.” Why? The Law of Moses calls for the stoning of a woman who is brought to her husband’s house and found not to be a virgin. (Deut. 22:20-21).

St. Joseph decided to leave her quietly, so that she may be saved from insults. He discovers that his wife is pregnant and he being a just man does not want her to be exposed to the dictates of the law. It appears that he does not want to do anything in a hurry, confusion or anger so Joseph decides to take this disturbing matter to God in prayer. God in turn blesses him with a dream in which He reveals His plan and assures Joseph that it is by the Holy Spirit that Mary has conceived and the child to be born is the blessing to him with a unique role in the salvation history of human kind.

Being a righteous person Joseph does not doubt the message of the angel but obeys God places himself at the service of Mary and Jesus. God has entrusted us a mission. He has assigned us for specific tasks according to our abilities. God gives us the necessary graces to fulfil His mission.

Today’s generation has become so intolerant and acts in an impulsive way. Nobody loses a chance to label, condemn and expose a person who has done wrong in their perspective. Hardly anyone take time today to understand and learn what made the other do what or why he/she did in his/her life.

Joseph took time to discern and God Himself assisted him to arrive at a decision and make a choice in his life. It was hard and yet he trusted in the Lord. Let us be assured that God will not leave us alone in our trials and difficulties but will journey with us to help us to reach our destination.  Therefore we need to be gentle, humble and responsible like St. Joseph in order to be the part of the mission of God. We need to reflect and be strong in our prayer life. Because Prayer is a personal relationship with God; in this personal relationship there is nothing that God will not grant to the person in relationship with Him. Through prayer we are strengthen and cherished to fulfil the mission of God. Jesus Himself prayed before He began His mission. Jesus admonished His disciple and today He instructs us too to persevere in our vocation and pray unceasingly.

 

Let every one of us give a fearless effort to rouse each other to reestablish our Advent contemplation and reflection, so we might come nearer and nearer to more prominent appreciation and comprehension of God's work of salvation and love for us, in all that He had accomplished for the good of us. Let every one of us to turn towards Him with absolute love and dedication, and do what we can to carry on with a decent and reliable Christian life, so that in anything we say and do, we will constantly endeavor to genuinely deserve God, regardless, and qualified to invite Him into our souls and our lives, as we ought to do, this Christmas. May God favor every one of us and be with us generally, presently and forevermore.