WORD 2day: 18th December, 2013

Danger of missing the Lord who comes # 3:

Joseph was a righteous man. His rectitude consisted of an incomparable combination of the Justice of Yahweh, that we see in the first reading and God's predilective love for the poor and the weak, that is exalted in the Responsorial Psalm. The Righteousness of God is an uncompromising stand for the truth, because of which Joseph thinks of divorcing Mary; it is also a unparalleled loved for the poor and the weak, or in Pope Francis' words, love for those in the periphery - that is what makes Joseph search for ways to spare Mary the disgrace! This prophetic righteousness causes a spiritual restlessness within Joseph, in which he is taught to see things from God's perspective. If he were a self centered, egotistic person he would have never learnt to see it that way, he would have done what he wanted and things would have been drastically different. 

The Lord comes to visit us on a daily basis as the Angel came to meet Joseph. We will miss it all, if we are filled with only ourselves, our ideas and our perspectives! Joseph warns us of the third danger of missing the Lord who visits us: and the danger is An Egoistic Perspective.

Novena...Day 3... O Adonai!!!

18th December: O Adonai...

O Adonai, and leader of the house of Israel

who appeared to Moses in the fire of the burning bush

and gave him the law on Sinai:

Come and redeem us with an outstretched arm.

Based on Isaiah 11:45 and Isaiah 33:22, the title Adonai, refers to the Lordship of Yahweh, that the people of Israel always stressed on. From a generic universal history that yesterday's "Wisdom" reminded us of, today's "Adonai" comes down to the experience of Exodus, the watershed of the Spirituality of the people of Israel.

The Symbols are burning bush, to remind the experience when Moses surrendered to Yahweh and the stones of the commandments, the symbol of Israel's surrender to Yahweh.

The prayer is that of a surrender into the redeeming power of God, to be led by the Lord's hands always - from darkness to light, from folly to wisdom, from death to life!