Today’s scriptures call us to build one another up and commit to learning and sharing God’s plan for us individually.

We are barely settled after Christmas, remembering Jesus’ birth, his recognition by Simeon and Anna, the visit of the Magi, and his flight into Egypt. We are also reminded of his visit to Nazareth: his neighbors, stunned by his announcement, will attempt to throw him over a cliff. Fortunately, we also have the joy of Jesus’s message, recalled in today’s psalm and Alleluia verses.

Jesus stunned the people he walked among two thousand years ago, challenging them to “repent and hear the good news.”  He fulfilled his mission dying on the cross, the sacrificial lamb healing the breach of the Garden of Eden—but not before giving himself to us in the Eucharist.  Just as we receive energy from the regular food we eat, we also receive divine energy and grace in the Eucharist, carrying on the mission of calling all people to heaven.

Let us ask:  Do behaviors and choices in our lives demonstrate knowledge of Jesus’ message as we share things that the Nazarenes didn’t understand?  Do we think ourselves better than those to whom Jesus spoke? Let us share contemporary knowledge and contemporary choices with those who hear Jesus today.

Prayer:

Creator God, Father, Son, and Spirit, we recall your gifts to us: forming this planet for us to share in your creative powers, your love in teaching Jesus to be your son and giving us the relationship enabling us to live as your sons and daughters, and finally the opportunities to test, grow and share dreams of fulfilling the experience of living heaven on earth with each other. We are amazed and humbled by your confidence we will love one another, encourage and heal one another, and participate in living such a gift. Help us unite with the saints and martyrs who precede us and offer guidance.