People and events are agents of salvation: heaven and earth cooperate, but ultimately it is God who saves through people. In the first reading, through the prophet, God addresses Cyrus the Great, who let the Jews return from exile. He was an instrument of God to bring liberation to the Jews. Thus, also pagans are
People chosen by God for a special mission in his plan of salvation are constantly presented in the Bible as chosen and loved before birth, with their birth announced in a special way; they are moved by the Spirit of God; their mission demands sacrifices. Witness the call of Samson in his folkloric saga, or
When the kings of God’s people had not fulfilled their mission of guiding the people to God, the prophet Jeremiah announces that God would do away with them and become himself the shepherd of his people. But he will make this new beginning through a human, a virtuous shoot of the house of David. Through
The liturgical readings of today call our attention to Christ in his human reality: human like us in everything – except for sin, clarifies St Paul – a descendant of sinners, who, as Church Fathers stress, are even singled out in Matthew’s family tree of Christ, a man born of a woman, a baby in
God had spoken continually to his people in words and deeds, yet they did not listen. But among them a remnant of poor people will return to God. With them, all the pagan, sinful nations will come to serve God. Sinners who recognize their poverty, are perhaps more open to God than those who boast
“We want to be liberated from those illusions, frustrations, injustices and repression to which the modern world has subjected us in violation of its promises – this is what the young are saying, the disinherited, the automatons of modern technology: we want to be free persons, real persons, people rescued from hunger and from the
There Shall Be No Poor Among You Joy in the Lord’s Coming Greeting (From the Entrance Antiphon) Rejoice in the Lord always: the Lord is near. He is here among us. May the Lord Jesus always be with you. R/ And also with you. Introduction by the Celebrant There Shall Be No Poor Among
In the Old Testament, the prophet Elijah is the “prophet of fire,” a fiery, zealous personality who makes fire come down on the enemies of God. He wanted to prepare the hearts of the people to accept God. In the New Testament, the “prophet of fire”, the new Elijah, was John the Baptist. Full of
Saint Lucy, the virgin and martyr from Syracuse in Sicily, is greatly honoured in the Roman Church because of her faith and great courage. As the young man who proposed marriage to her was not a Christian, she rejected his marriage proposal. He denounced her to the authorities as a Christian, and she was cruelly
“If you had only paid attention to what I have said,” complains the Lord through the prophet, for God wants our own good. Jesus complains that there are people who behave in a childish way when John the Baptist preaches repentance in preparation for the coming of the Messiah: they are like girls who refuse
