Roman Catholic The Word Among Us Daily Mass Reading & Daily Meditation for Saturday, 20 December 2014

Roman Catholic The Word Among Us Daily Mass Reading & Daily Meditation for Saturday, 20 December 2014
Meditation - Isaiah 7:10-11 God spoke again to Ahaz. This time he said, “Ask for a sign from your God. Ask anything. Be extravagant. Ask for the moon!”
12 But Ahaz said, “I’d never do that. I’d never make demands like that on God!”
13-17 So Isaiah told him, “Then listen to this, government of David! It’s bad enough that you make people tired with your pious, timid hypocrisies, but now you’re making God tired. So the Master is going to give you a sign anyway. Watch for this: A girl who is presently a virgin will get pregnant. She’ll bear a son and name him Immanuel (God-With-Us). By the time the child is twelve years old, able to make moral decisions, the threat of war will be over. Relax, those two kings that have you so worried will be out of the picture. But also be warned: God will bring on you and your people and your government a judgment worse than anything since the time the kingdom split, when Ephraim left Judah. The king of Assyria is coming!”
3rd Week of Advent
I will not ask! (Isaiah 7:12)
Was Ahaz crazy? When a prophet tells you that God wants to give you a sign, it’s like receiving a surprise gift wrapped in colorful paper. Ahaz’s response is like Aladdin finding the magic lamp and then telling the genie he didn’t have any wishes. But God didn’t let Ahaz’s hesitation stop him. He gave the king a sign by way of a prophecy about a young girl conceiving a child who would be “Emmanuel,” God with us!
Of course, God is not a genie in a bottle. But he is a loving, powerful Father who enjoys blessing his children. Despite our reasons for hesitating to ask for a sign, despite our mistaken idea that only the holiest of saints hear God, he wants to speak to us. He wants to bless us. He wants to intervene in our lives every day so that we can look back and say, “I know God spoke to me in this situation.”
God wants to give you signs, too. What kind of sign can you expect? It may be something downright miraculous, like a healing, so don’t hesitate to ask for one. It may also be something more mundane like an unexpected delay in your plans that causes you to avoid a traffic accident. Or it may be something surprising, like an innocent comment from a child that cuts you to the heart with a deeper truth. Sometimes God will speak to you in unexpected, playful, ways. Think of Balaam’s talking donkey or Gideon and his fleece or the sundial being turned back for Hezekiah. The point is that God is always speaking! We just need to be attentive to his voice.
It’s not about measuring up to a certain standard. We don’t have to grit our teeth and work for it. Sometimes he speaks to us even if we don’t specifically ask! Just relax, and open your ears and eyes. Look for surprises. See how God will be part of your life today, and enjoy his embrace!
“Lord, I believe you want to speak to me; I believe you hold me in your embrace. Open my ears to hear your voice. Open my eyes to see your hand in my life!” Amen!
Psalm 24: A David Psalm
1-2 God claims Earth and everything in it,
    God claims World and all who live on it.
He built it on Ocean foundations,
    laid it out on River girders.
3-4 Who can climb Mount God?
    Who can scale the holy north-face?
Only the clean-handed,
    only the pure-hearted;
Men who won’t cheat,
    women who won’t seduce.
5-6 God is at their side;
    with God’s help they make it.
This, Jacob, is what happens
    to God-seekers, God-questers.
Luke 1: A Virgin Conceives
26-28 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to the Galilean village of Nazareth to a virgin engaged to be married to a man descended from David. His name was Joseph, and the virgin’s name, Mary. Upon entering, Gabriel greeted her:
Good morning!
You’re beautiful with God’s beauty,
Beautiful inside and out!
God be with you.
29-33 She was thoroughly shaken, wondering what was behind a greeting like that. But the angel assured her, “Mary, you have nothing to fear. God has a surprise for you: You will become pregnant and give birth to a son and call his name Jesus.
He will be great,
    be called ‘Son of the Highest.’
The Lord God will give him
    the throne of his father David;
He will rule Jacob’s house forever—
    no end, ever, to his kingdom.”
34 Mary said to the angel, “But how? I’ve never slept with a man.”
35 The angel answered,
The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
    the power of the Highest hover over you;
Therefore, the child you bring to birth
    will be called Holy, Son of God.
36-38 “And did you know that your cousin Elizabeth conceived a son, old as she is? Everyone called her barren, and here she is six months pregnant! Nothing, you see, is impossible with God.”
And Mary said,
Yes, I see it all now:
    I’m the Lord’s maid, ready to serve.
Let it be with me
    just as you say.
Then the angel left her.
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