Readings for Feb. 18, 2018: God's goodness and efforts to help us share that goodness (Lectionary 23)

Key:

What these passages tell us about God

What these passages tell us to do
Commentary/observations

Reading 1 GN 9:8-15

God said to Noah and to his sons with him:  "See, I am now establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you:  all the birds, and the various tame and wild animals that were with you and came out of the ark. I will establish my covenant with you,  that never again shall all bodily creatures be destroyed
by the waters of a flood;  there shall not be another flood to devastate the earth."
God added: "This is the sign that I am giving for all ages to come, of the covenant between me and you  and every living creature with you: I set my bow in the clouds to serve as a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth, and the bow appears in the clouds, I will recall the covenant I have made between me and you and all living beings, so that the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all mortal beings."

Responsorial Psalm PS 25:4-5, 6-7, 8-9.

R. (cf. 10) Your ways, O Lord, are love and truth to those who keep your covenant.
Your ways, O LORD, make known to me; teach me your paths, guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my savior.
R. Your ways, O Lord, are love and truth to those who keep your covenant.
Remember that your compassion, O LORD, and your love are from of old.
In your kindness remember me, because of your goodness, O LORD.
R. Your ways, O Lord, are love and truth to those who keep your covenant.
Good and upright is the LORD, thus he shows sinners the way.
He guides the humble to justice, and he teaches the humble his way.
R. Your ways, O Lord, are love and truth to those who keep your covenant.

Reading 2 1 PT 3:18-22

Beloved: Christ suffered for sins once, the righteous for the sake of the unrighteous, that he might lead you to God. Put to death in the flesh, 
he was brought to life in the Spirit. In it he also went to preach to the spirits in prison, who had once been disobedient while God patiently waited in the days of Noah during the building of the ark, in which a few persons, eight in all, were saved through water. This prefigured baptism, which saves you now. It is not a removal of dirt from the body but an appeal to God for a clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers subject to him.

Verse Before The Gospel MT 4:4B

One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.

Gospel MK 1:12-15

The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert, and he remained in the desert for forty days, tempted by Satan. He was among wild beasts, and the angels ministered to him.

After John had been arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God: "This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel."

1.    God is nothing but good. He always has been and always will be.

2.   God has tremendous love for us. He reaches out to us, seeking to bring us into the fullness of His goodness.

3.   God goes to great lengths, exerts tremendous effort, to heal the damage to our relationship with Him, damage that we caused by our sin. He does that even though we, not Him, caused that damage.

4.   How do we respond to that?

A.   By humbly repenting of our sin, turning from it.

B.   By humbly seeking—and implementing—the instruction God provides through His Word

What We Can Learn From Jesus' Nativity: The Flight Into Egypt (Matthew 2:13-23)

Matthew 2:13-23

After they had left, suddenly the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, 'Get up, take the child and his mother with you, and escape into Egypt, and stay there until I tell you, because Herod intends to search for the child and do away with him.' ¹⁴So Joseph got up and, taking the child and his mother with him, left that night for Egypt, ¹⁵where he stayed until Herod was dead. This was to fulfil what the Lord had spoken through the prophet:

 I called my son out of Egypt.

¹⁶Herod was furious on realising that he had been fooled by the wise men, and in Bethlehem and its surrounding district he had all the male children killed who were two years old or less, reckoning by the date he had been careful to ask the wise men. ¹⁷Then were fulfilled the words spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:

¹⁸A voice is heard in Ramah, lamenting and weeping bitterly: it is Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted because they are no more.

¹⁹After Herod's death, suddenly the angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt ²⁰and said, 'Get up, take the child and his mother with you and go back to the land of Israel, for those who wanted to kill the child are dead.' ²¹So Joseph got up and, taking the child and his mother with him, went back to the land of Israel.²²But when he learnt that Archelaus had succeeded his father Herod as ruler of Judaea he was afraid to go there, and being warned in a dream he withdrew to the region of Galilee. ²³There he settled in a town called Nazareth. In this way the words spoken through the prophets were to be fulfilled: He will be called a Nazarene.

1.    Those greatly used by God must accept great disruption of their plans/expectations. Consider the changes Mary and Joseph had been through since Jesus came into their lives. Mary gave up her expectations of a normal life pattern, probably endured significant stigma because of her seemingly illegitimate pregnancy, and had to have her first child while homeless in a strange city. Joseph also gave up his expectations of a normal married life, also likely endured aspersions because of the circumstances of Mary’s pregnancy, and now had to become a refugee to avoid his family’s slaughter.  They are not unique in going through that pattern. Abraham, Joseph (son of Jacob), Moses, David, Nehemiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Daniel, and Paul all had to have their lives turned upside down to accomplish the great things God called them to. Perhaps that’s why God’s word repeatedly tells us that we must cede control to Him in order to realize all the fruit He wants for and from us. See, Genesis 12:1-2,  Matthew 10:39, Matthew 16:25,   Mark 8:34-35, Luke 9:24, Luke 14:26, Luke 17:33, John 12:24-25, John 21:18,  Philippians 3:7-8, Hebrews 11:8.

2.    Although God does indeed push those who serve Him, He gives them helps along the way. In this instance, He gave (via the wise men, Matthew 2:11) the means to finance the Holy Family’s unexpected journey and a safe place to escape the danger that made the journey necessary. That sounds a lot like the dynamic discussed in Deuteronomy 8:2-4 and 1 Corinthians 10:13.  Further, God knows how much we can take and, at some point, gives us a break. For example, after all Joseph went through God eventually allowed him to get “settled in a town called Nazareth” (emphasis added). That  too sounds a lot like the dynamic described in 1 Corinthians 10:13.  

3.    God enlists temporal, earthly, institutions to accomplish His eternal, divine, purposes. Here he used the jurisdictional division between Egypt and Herod’s kingdom to provide the Holy Family refuge. In Acts he used the Roman judicial/administrative system to protect St. Paul, to get him to Rome, and to give him multiple opportunities to spread the Gospel along the way.

4.    This passage is another illustration of the dynamic described in Genesis 50:20 and Romans 8:28: that God is able to turn all things, even evil things, to the good. Here he used the Herods’ dysfunctions/oppressions as foils to fulfill prophecy and hence draw more folks to an understanding of Jesus’ nature.  See Matthew 2:13-15, 22-23.  That does not eliminate or minimize the harm that comes from evil, but does show that God can bring good out of the worst of things.

5.    Joseph’s very prompt response to the angel’s directions illustrates another principle we see in scripture: alacrity in doing what God tells us to do. The language of Matthew 2:13-14 and 21 indicates that Joseph acted immediately upon receiving the angel’s instructions; the Greek word translated here as "got up" means to be roused from sleep, and v. 14 tells us that Joseph and family left that very night. Genesis 22:3 tells us that Abraham was similarly prompt in obeying God’s directions about the putative sacrifice of Isaac.  Matthew 25:16 points out that the good servant got right to work on the task given him.

6. Jesus and His family became refugees. We ought to see Him in today’s refugees and respond to them as we would to Him. See, Matthew 25:31-46.  We ought to, at a minimum, pray about what we and our leaders can do to help today’s refugees, and then take whatever action God shows us. Some good materials for guiding our prayers can be found in  the MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS FOR THE WORLD DAY OF MIGRANTS AND REFUGEES (2014)  Migrants And Refugees: Towards A Better World, the  MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI FOR THE 92nd WORLD DAY OF MIGRANTS AND REFUGEES (2006)  "Migrations:  a sign of the times' and the scriptures collected in Wisdom Principles: Caring For the Weak & Vulnerable

Other meditations on Jesus’ nativity are collected at What We Can Learn from Jesus' Nativity: The Annunciation through Simeon & Anna