The Church provides a liturgy of Blessing for this 24th December:
Benedictus Deus!
Blessed be God for blessing King David,
who in the First Reading (2 Sam 7) is given the promise
“The Lord will make you great;
the Lord will make you a House …
Your throne will be established forever”
through the birth of his “offspring.”
He was "set free" from building a "house" for God!
The Word of God makes us free.
And Zechariah blesses God in the Gospel (Lk 1:67-79)
with the birth of his son, John the Baptist,
for he realises God intervenes in history,
and God fulfills promises.
We are freed from anxiety that destroys us:
The Word of God makes us free.
What “new birth” in your life are you asking today
of the newborn Jesus tomorrow,
with which you can bless God and be set "free"?
The Word of God makes us free.
We are all part of David’s blessing, by adoption through Christ.
His inheritance becomes ours.
“You will be made great.”
What new birth do I need to be “great” in the eyes of God?
We are the Zechariah’s of our time:
doubting, being struck dumb,
and then almost suddenly we understand
when a “new birth” of faith, intuition, grace,
and wisdom enters our life.
It is the entrance of God into our lives.
It is the arrival of the newborn Jesus into our souls.
May that Word be reborn in us because
The Word of God makes us free.
When a cold front passes over the country,
we expect clouds with heavy rain...
On the ground, we could have doubted. Then it arrives.
Were we prepared?
Be prepared for a celebration
of the arrival of Jesus tonight.
Speak out,
like God through the prophet Nathan in the First Reading,
and like Zechariah in the Gospel.
Ask for “a House.”
Ask for a capacity to speak again
such that God will be blessed through the events in your life
when you understand the Will of God in your own history.
Yes, what “new birth” in your life are you asking today
of the newborn Jesus of tomorrow,
with which you can bless God… and be free?
The Word of God makes us free.
Be prepared to be blessed again this Christmas?
Prepare for "peace"
- in your life, in your family, in your country?
I immediately think of Chiara Lubich, when she wrote:
"Peace is a fruit of the spirit.
But to obtain it we must do our part;
that is, we must turn our suffering, our anguish,
the heart –rending cries of the soul,
our times of aridity, of troubles and temptations,
into occasions to love God."
The Word of God makes us free.
G
[pic:
top: I took this pic in St. Peter’s whilst on a Conference in Rome, 2001'
lower: cropped:
http://www.die.net/earth/?zoom=2 ]
[ The Word of God makes us free.
La Parola di Dio ci rende liberi
A Palavra de Deus nos torna livres
La Parole de Dieu nous rend libres
La Palabra nos hace libres
Gottes Wort macht uns frei
Het Woord van God maakt ons vrij ]
