11/02/2022

 The Old Testament makes it clear that God's first revelation was to the Jews. He supports and punishes them throughout their history. They are still God's Chosen People even though they have made it quite clear that they are more concerned with themselves than with following God's revelation to them and later to us. Jesus humanity is ultimately from Adam, as are we all, but Jesus is from the line of David that in the first reading of today is torn off from the descendants of Israel. Mary, the chosen womb for the incarnation, is from this line as is made clear in the genealogies. So the Jews are always with God in a very special way.

Jesus' Mother is the Perfect Woman. Created to bear the Incarnate Son, she is without sin and the first witness to the Glory of God present in our world. She requests the first miracle out of concerns for the social embarassment of her acquaintances. Jesus reveals himself to friends and neighbours to prevent not his crucifixion, but social embarassment. Wow!!! He is completely a Good Neighbour.

Our Lady knows Jesus as no other of us can. She bears his torture and death with the horror of a mother. Her sufferings can still be seen in the faces of images from war. She with the other Maries and John weep at the foot of the cross and together inspire the Love that is the reason for the Church, to be carried out of Jerusalem into their  world and our time.

Dear Lord, I pray today as always, that I might grow better with age and not worse. That I can recognise neighbourliness as next to Godliness and that I not stupidly take pleasure in my own words but always know that Father Son and Holy Spirit can bring me to my true self and open room for me in the Eternity that is Now. Our Lady of Lourdes pray for the poor in spirit who reach out for healing and forgivenss and for me..