Living for Restoration

 

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today resonate with our imagination of coming to see the face of Jesus in our action as Christians.

Working for restoration 

The reading from the First Letter of John identifies choices we make not to do the will of God. Psalm 96 praises God Who comes in judgement. In the Gospel of Luke, the Holy Family returns to Nazareth after an encounter with Anna. Larry Gillick, S.J. suggests that having Twenty-twenty vision is not actually perfect. We cannot see around corners or actually far, far away people or things. Looking backward these last days of this year, we may still not be able to see what the virus gave us or took from us. As with Jesus, we have had to live a bit of the “Hidden-Life” ourselves and perhaps as with Jesus, we, “grew strong, filled with wisdom…”. Don Schwager quotes “Jesus, though rich, became poor for us,” by Ambrose of Milan, 339-397 A.D. The Word Among Us Meditation on Luke 2:36-40 comments that even Anna’s age is significant. She is eighty-four years old, which represents the number twelve—for the twelve tribes of Israel—multiplied by the number seven, which signifies completeness. Luke includes Anna’s age to remind us that God’s revelation of himself in Jesus was the completion of all his promises. It’s Luke’s way of telling us that seeing Jesus is to see his faithfulness. Seeing Jesus is the remarkable realization that God doesn’t want to be worshipped from afar; he wants to be with us in the most tangible, personal way. Friar Jude Winkler shares a reflection on the texts today (https://soundcloud.com/user-863663632/december-30-2020) Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, shares that Sister Simone Campbell, SSS is someone who truly lives out her commitment to the contemplative path by her actions in the world. She has served as the executive director of NETWORK, the Lobby for Catholic Social Justice, since 2004. She is known as one of the Nuns on the Bus. Our choice to live in accord with the will of God is action on our journey of restoration.