PRAYER: “O GOD, ETERNAL MAJESTY, WHOSE INEFFABLE WORD THE IMMACULATE VIRGIN RECEIVED THROUGH THE MESSAGE OF AN ANGEL AND SO BECAME THE DWELLING-PLACE OF DIVINITY, FILLED WITH THE LIGHT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, GRANT, WE PRAY, THAT BY HER EXAMPLE WE MAY IN HUMILITY HOLD FAST TO YOUR WILL. THROUGH OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, YOUR SON, WHO LIVES AND REIGNS WITH YOU IN THE UNITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, GOD, FOR EVER AND EVER. AMEN”.
Is 7:10-14; Ps 23:1-6 and Lk 1:26-38.
Faith in God is paramount for our salvation. Faith, indeed, is God’s gift, but we also must nurture it and let it grow in us. Today’s scriptures put before us a strong contrast: The lack of faith shown by King Ahaz, the ‘headstrong’ Davidic young King, in saying ‘NO’ when he is told to ask for a sign, is more than counterbalanced by Mary’s faith in saying ‘YES’ to the Lord when she is told by the Angel that ‘she will conceive in her womb and bear a son, and name him Jesus’.
It must, however, be noted that whatever God plans to do can never be thwarted, frustrated or destroyed by the devil and his associates. Ahaz's refusal to ask for a sign from God, the birth of the Messiah through a virgin, still came to pass.
There is this popular saying that, “God created us without us, but he cannot save us without us. In other words, God did not need us, nor did he consult us or ask us to do anything before he could create us or bring us to life. In any case, we were not even there when he was creating us, let alone consulting us in order to create us.
Therefore, in order to be saved by God, we need to cooperate and collaborate with him. We need, so to speak, to permit God to save us. We have that freedom or freewill to choose to either allow him to save us, or not to. However, all of us have fallen short of God’s grace because of our sinful deeds, and therefore, we need God’s salvation and redemption. The Dagaare proverb that: “Ninzie soba buora vuu” (“The owner of fresh/row meat has to look for fire”), or “Daare daana mang zele O dare ka ba song’O k’O tuo” (“The owner of a bundle of firewood will have to lift it so that someone may help him/her to carry it”), must be applied here. We are the ones who need salvation and therefore, we need to do something, cooperate with God to save us.
Having strong faith in him and trusting or relying on him is the cooperation he needs from us to do whatever we want from him. God needed King Ahaz’s cooperation to deliver him and his people from the hands of their enemies, the Assyrians. Unfortunately, King Ahaz refused to cooperate with God.
Mary, on the other hand, solidly and wholeheartedly cooperated with God, not only for her salvation, but for the salvation of the whole of sinful humanity. Indeed, Mary’s faith is expressed in belief in, trust in and commitment to God, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word” (Lk 1:38).
We all know our weaknesses and frailties. God wants to save and deliver us. However, he cannot force us. He rather needs our individual cooperation and permission to do that. He also wants to use us as his instruments for his salvific work on earth.
Once again, he will not force any of us to use him/her, rather, he needs our voluntary cooperation and permission. Let us not be like King Ahaz, the headstrong young Davidic King. Let us rather be like Mary, the Mother of our Saviour, and our own Mother, who cooperated with God and permitted him to use her to save the world. Let us pray that Mary may obtain for each of us a strong faith, modelled on hers. Stay blessed.
WE MEDITATE TODAY, SATURDAY, ON THE JOYFUL MYSTERIES: ‘THE ANNUNCIATION, THE VISITATION, THE BIRTH OF JESUS, THE PRESENTATION IN THE TEMPLE AND THE FINDING OF THE CHILD JESUS IN THE TEMPLE’. (LET US PRAY FOR HUMILITY, LOVE OF NEIGHBOUR, POVERTY IN SPIRIT, OBEDIENCE AND JOY IN FINDING JESUS) “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you, blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus: Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us, sinners, now and at the hour of our death, Amen.
PRAYER: “GRANT DIVINE PROTECTION, O LORD, TO THOSE YOU RENEW WITH THIS HEAVENLY GIFT, THAT TO THOSE WHO DELIGHT IN YOUR MYSTERIES YOU MAY GIVE THE JOY OF TRUE PEACE. THROUGH CHRIST OUR LORD. AMEN”.
Rev. Fr. Aloysius Kpiebaya, Catholic Diocese of Wa, UW/R, Ghana. (00233) 0207867239/0545462863. Email: aloybaya20@yahoo.com
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