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GOD LOVES YOU BECAUSEGOSPEL TO ALL1. Jesus journeyed to Nazareth to inaugurate his public ministry. As was his faithful practice, he entered the synagogue to pray and proclaim the Word of God. With the Isaiah scroll in hand, he read:
2. Jesus, anointed by the Father, spoke with the power of the Spirit. He intended to proclaim the gospel to all who are impoverished, imprisoned, handicapped, and enslaved. Isaiah’s prophecy of the acceptable year is coincident to God’s eternal kingdom. Moreover, the acceptable year is the outpouring of God’s love upon the world which thirsts for living water, the incomparable gift of God. [cf. Jn 4:10] In Christ, the acceptable year is nothing less than the complete transformation of the world:
"MERCY ON ME"3. God loves you because you are blind. On hearing Jesus’ voice, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, cried out, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" [Mk 10:47] Though he spoke briefly to Bartimaeus, the Lord's answer is complex and instructive to Christians of all generations. To imitate Bartimaeus’ words with solemnity and deep love for Christ is to pray. To pray "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" is to glorify Jesus as the rightful heir to King David and therefore our messiah (Heb. saviour). In communion with those whom the world despises, we confess our sinfulness before God and beseech him to take pity on our helplessness. 4. Silence is necessary and beneficial. But we recoil from the cold and deadly silence of the non-believer who stands before God while refusing to acknowledge him. The year of the Lord is a year of glory, a time in which men and women of faith praise God and celebrate the wonderful things he has done for his people. Solemnity is punctuated by celebration. MATTER OF PRAYER5. Bartimaeus knew Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. He cried out, praying that Christ would hear him. Told to be silent, he called out even louder. "Call him," Jesus said. A messenger came to Bartimaeus and said, "Take heart; rise, he is calling you." [Mk 10:49] How the mortal messenger matters less than the hopeful word he delivers! The blind beggar sprang up with determination and fervor, and hastened to Jesus. This is a lesson in the matter of prayer. 6. When you pray, strive to hear what the Spirit is saying to believers: Take heart, Jesus is calling you! When you thirst for God's mercy and love, do you follow the example of Bartimaeus? Do you persist? "Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For every one who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened." [Mt 7:7-8] MAN WITHOUT FAITH7. With purposeful compassion, Our Lord placed himself in the beggar's hands, asking, "What do you want me to do for you?" [Mk 10:51] The blind man, respectfully addressing Jesus as master, implored, "Let me receive my sight." [Mk 10:51] His personal and heartfelt request was granted. Jesus healed Bartimaeus. He restored the beggar's sight. In return, Jesus commissioned him to engage life to the full, saying, "Go your way". [Mk 10:52] He declared to Bartimaeus that faith and healing are indissoluble in the Kingdom of God: "Your faith has made you well." [Mk 10:52] 8. True blindness is the affliction of a man without faith. Such afflication is unnatural and wholely unnecessary. The person who rejects any impulse to faith has become his own worst enemy. The pain he suffers emerges from the denial of his own humanity and thus is a form of self-mutilation. Nevertheless, whether one's blindess is a matter of the eyes or the soul, Our Lord is drawn to all who suffer. He says to sinner and saint alike, "What do you want me to do for you?" KINGDOM'S CARAVAN9. Suffering is not a natural part of God’s Kingdom any more than Bartimaeus’ blindness was the necessary cause of his healing. Christ does not exalt the suffering of a broken world. Nor does he suggest that affliction is a preferred condition in his Father's Kingdom. Suffering is redemptive because Christ made it redemptive. He subdued the taskmaster and made suffering serve those it formerly had oppressed. Of itself, poverty is an evil. 10. Yet through Christ, poverty has been sanctified in this age. Those who are poor know that the world has passed them by. They know that world cares little for them. In his suffering, mourning, ashes and faint spirit, the poor man is liberated from dependence on the things of this world. Like Bartimaeus, the poor man discovers that the caravan of the Kingdom is passing by. He will not lose the opportunity to gain true wealth in God's Kingdom. BEFORE CONCEPTION11. Our Lord gives the downtrodden a garland, the oil of gladness, and a mantle of praise. [cf. Isa 61:3] Jesus does not exalt the suffering he intends to take away; he goes to the poor because their perseverance makes faith possible. They are ready for the healing touch of the Holy Spirit and the life-changing message of the gospel. The soul who suffers much is disposed to grow in faith; Christ will transform the faithful soul in his own image--as "oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified". [Isa 61:3] 12. God loves you because you are unborn. God loves you because you are unborn. The Lord intends for every unborn child to share intimately in its mother's human emotions as he matures in her womb--contentment, distress, playfulness, even joy. God gives to every child the intimate opportunity to discover his own humanity, his own personhood, indeed a share in his eternal plan of salvation--starting at the moment of conception. That the Lord spoke to Mary before she conceived cannot be ignored. The Lord did not overwhelm Mary with strange and marvelous things, nor did he delay until Jesus' birth before inviting Mary to participate fully in his plan of salvation. HAND OF GOD13. Mary was privileged to assent to God's purpose on behalf of all humanity from the beginning. Her yes to God's plan of salvation is the yes of all men and women of good will in every generation. The angel Gabriel appeared to Mary saying, "And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus." [Lk 1:31] In times past, God called the prophets away from their chosen trades; they dropped their tasks abruptly and intervened in the life of Israel wherever and however as God commanded. Not so with the Christ of God. God did not wait until Jesus was grown before revealing his providential plan. Jesus, himself, was the hand of God writing on Israel in the ages of the ages. 14. Concerning the Father’s only-begotten Son, the angel Gabriel prophesied:
SAFE PASSAGE15. After a long journey, Mary approached the house of Elizabeth—soon to give birth to Israel’s last prophet. 16. Her elderly cousin rejoiced: "For behold, when the voice of your greeting came to my ears, the babe in my womb leaped for joy." [Lk 1:44] Our merciful Lord grants safe passage to all sinners seeking to be born anew in the Spirit as children of his Father. [cf. Jn 3:3-7] This being so, how can any mother deny safe passage to her unborn in the hour of his birth? A helpless child who awaits, from the moment of his conception, his own divine moment to be baptized in the Spirit and made a citizen of God's Kingdom? GOD'S TENDER CARE17. God loves you because you are newly born. When Elizabeth's husband Zechariah prophesied concerning their newborn son John, he witnessed that world's future is grasped by the hands of its children:
18. Into the darkened world the immortal messiah and the mortal prophet are birthed--"through the tender mercy of our God" [Lk 1:78]--to preserve life, to illumine minds and hearts, and to lead man "to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem". [Heb 12:22] One has only to discern God’s tender care for his own son and his son's herald to realize that he confers "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control" [Gal 5:22-23] upon the whole of his Kingdom and all his children. PERFECT EXPRESSION19. God loves you because you are young. God loves you because you are young. When, in the time before Christ, the prophet Samuel appeared at the home of Jesse to anoint one of his many sons as king, the Lord rejected each of Jesse's seven older sons. To the astonishment of all, Samuel anointed the youngest, a boy, whose name was David: "Now he was ruddy, and had beautiful eyes, and was handsome....and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward." [1Sam 16:12-13] David, as a leader, was Israel’s most perfect expression of priest, prophet and king. From youth, his was an extraordinary love of God. No interaction with other mortals—no matter how close and intimate—could match the height and depth of David's relationship with God. 20. David knew God as a father and strove to be an obedient son. God alone fulfilled the king's yearning to speak and be understood, to listen and to heed. The stories of David’s tender heart and self-reflective nature excel all other examples of humanity in Old Testament literature. He was "skillful in playing (the stringed instrument), a man of valor, a man of war, prudent in speech, and a man of good presence; and the Lord is with him". [1Sam 16:18] David, who slew lion and bear, who brought low the colossus Goliath [cf. 1Sam 17:34-37], set aside exploits, family, and kingdom to gaze into the heavens to praise God. He offered God the hymnody of youth in poetry, music and voice. He offers God the hymnody of youth in poetry, music and voice. NEW NAME21. God loves you because you are strong. One night Jacob encountered a man and wrestled with him. All through the night they struggled until the breaking of dawn. Finally the angel implored Jacob.
22. Thus Jacob, whose life is preserved, took the new name Israel. He was the father of twelve sons who founded the twelve tribes of the Israelite nation. Who is the man with whom Jacob fought if not the Lord himself? God looks kindly on those who contend with him for the sake of faith's salvation. NEVER EMPTIED23. God loves you because you are a widow or orphan. God loves you because you are a widow or orphan. A dreadful famine ravaged the land of ancient Israel in the time before Christ. The Lord sent his prophet Elijah to a widow of Zarephath near Sidon. Facing starvation, she and her young son possessed for their last meal "only a handful of meal in a jar, and a little oil in a cruse". [1Kgs 17:12] Because she placed her trust in God’s messenger, the Lord caused the vessels to pour forth flour and oil. 24. The vessels never emptied until the day the heavens opened, and the rains poured forth upon the barren earth, and the drought was banished. Through Elijah's intercession, the Lord delivered the widow's son from death as a reward for her faith in his prophet. [cf. 1Kgs 17:8-24] In every generation, the Church’s members are nourished by bread consecrated in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Each eucharistic handful is a sign of Christ’s pledge to feed his Church until the day of his return in glory when the dead will rise from their graves. CRY OUT25. God loves you because you are poor. "Blessed are you poor" [Lk 6:20-25] and blessed are the poor in spirit (says the Lord) for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. [Mt 5:3ff] Human poverty and impoverishment are sufficient unto themselves to merit God's love and blessing. Even if one is incapable of articulating his suffering, unable to pray, or powerless to respond to God, the Lord will draw very near to the humble soul who cries, "Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me". 26. Cry out loudly in the midst of your distress. But cry out to God! Did our saviour do less on the cross? Unite your suffering to Christ's passion on the cross; it will plead pardon for you before God as a reparation for sins. When your will is crushed, and your heart seems ready to break, God will swathe your shoulders with his fatherly blessing. He will clothe you in a "mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit". [Isa 61:3] "FEWEST OF ALL"27. God loves you because you are weak. In ancient times, God chose the Hebrews to be his intimate possession. [cf. Mal 3:17] It was not because they were the strongest, or most numerous tribe that the "Lord set his love upon them". [Deu 7:7] He chose the Hebrews because they were the "fewest of all peoples". [cf. Deu 7:7] They became God’s people when once they were no people. [cf. Deu 32:21] To the Hebrews, Egypt was a land of no mercy; to this day their deliverance from slavery testifies that God delivers the oppressed from servitude to evil. From the wounds of Christ, the Father’s mercy pours out upon mankind to exalt those who tithe to him from their poverty and serve him in their infirmity. 28. God loves you because you are sick. King Hezekiah, a descendent of David, became terminally ill at a crucial time in Israel's history. He was a good king, perhaps the finest ruler of Judah since the time of David's son, Solomon. Hezekiah’s leadership was desperately needed, for the nation of Judah was beset on all sides by enemies:
RESTORED POWERS29. The Lord heard the just king weeping bitterly, and directing his prophet Isaiah to console him, said, "I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; behold, I will add fifteen years to your life." [Isa 38:5] Hezekiah rose from his sickbed, and God spared Judah and its capitol Jerusalem from the Assyrian invaders. The king understood that God delivers his people to reveal his glory to the world. For his part, man must devote his restored powers and freedom to the praise of God. 30. God loves you because you are old. At the time God visited Abraham by the oaks of Mamre [cf. Gen 18:1-15], he was one-hundred years old, and his wife Sarah was ninety. To their great sorrow, they had no children of their own. Not possessing knowledge of the mysteries of heaven, they believed life-after-death was possible only in the context of begetting direct descendents. DIVINE PROOF31. Thus they perceived their failure to have children, particularly sons, as a reproach from God. The angels of the Lord visited Abraham where he pitched his tents to announce that Sarah would give birth to a son. Sarah laughed, thinking to herself, "I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I have pleasure?" [Gen 18:12] The Lord, in the form of the angels, asked Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh?" Sarah responded, not without apprehension, "I did not laugh." [Gen 18:13-15] The Lord, who knew Sarah’s doubting heart, gently reproached her as a proof of his divinity: "No, but you did laugh." [Gen 18:15] 32. Abraham remained silent as Sarah struggled to reinterpret the meaning of her advanced years. Perhaps he recalled that his own laughter revealed a lack of self-confidence and trust in the Lord [cf. Gen 17:17]:
DO NOT DELAY33. What does the Hebrew name Isaac signify but one who laughs! [Gen 21:3] Abraham and Sarah laughed to think that they, in their advanced age, could be fruitful in body or spirit. They laughed and rejoiced to learn that all things are possible in the Lord. 34. God loves you because you are who you are. The Lord has called you to experience salvation's sacred story from the moment of your conception to the hour of your last breath. If you want to share in eternal glory, be alert to God’s voice. Do not delay in answering him! SACRED MEMOIRS35. Grasp your spiritual future; set your sights on the things of heaven; contend for your faith. Tithe to God and serve his people. Praise God at all times. Laugh and rejoice always! Be gentle like a mother who nurses and cares for her little ones. Share God's glad tidings and your very lives with each other, for the "least one shall become a clan, and the smallest one a mighty nation; I am the Lord; in its time I will hasten it". [Isa 60:22] 36. The stories from Sacred Scripture are as fascinating and complex as the characters they portray. They offer a spiritual and historical panorama of life and love, failure and victory, oppression and deliverance, doubt and laughter. As sacred memoirs of life and love, each one of them mysteriously illustrates your own spiritual narrative. MIGHTY DEEDS37. God summoned your ancestors to mighty deeds of faith. He called you by name long before earth and sky were created. [cf. Isa 43:1] Within your soul and the soul of every human being born of woman, God plants the seed of all these stories and more. 38. God loves you because you are blind. He loves you because you are unborn or newly-born. God loves you because you are young or strong. He loves you because you are a widow, an orphan—you are poor, or weak, sick or old. God loves you because you are who you are. GOD'S HOUSEHOLD39. Those whom the world passes by, those whom the privileged and powerful scorn, those who are abused and forgotten--the blind, the unborn and newly-born, the young and strong, the widow and orphan, the poor, weak, sick or old--are not overlooked by God. They are invited first—in Christ’s name—to become children of God’s household. 40. Our Lord lifted them up in the sight of the skeptical world and said, "Whoever receives this child in my name receives me." [Lk 9:48] Indeed, if one wishes to receive the Father who sends his Son, he must welcome the marginalized whom the Son attended with genuine hospitality and affection: "He who is least among you all is the one who is great." [Lk 9:48]
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