Breaking the Word

12^th Week in Ord. Time, Monday – 26^th June 2023 – Genesis 12,1-9; Mt 7,1-5

Promise of Great Blessings

The first reading from the book of Genesis presents Yahweh’s first great promise of Abram. God’s original blessing on all mankind would be restored and fulfilled through Abram and his offspring in various ways and degrees. At first, Abram hears the Lord’s call to leave his homeland and journey to a new land which God will show him. God, then, will not only bless Abram and his descendants, but he will be a source of blessing for many other people and nations. Altogether the word “bless/blessing” occurs five times in this promise of Yahweh. God has chosen Abram. He responds in obedience and therefore is blessed even more abundantly. Blessings flow to others because of Abram’s response to God’s blessing. Thus, God makes a triple promise: land, descendants, and source of blessings for others as he shares what he has with others. This triple promise is repeated four times (Gen 12,2-7; 13,2-3.15-16; 15,5-8; 17,4-8). These promises were re-affirmed to Abram, Isaac, and Moses. To fully experience these blessings, Abram has to be faithful (full of faith) and share that faith with others. God wants to bless all people through the faith which Abraham demonstrated – a willingness to respond to God’s call and do what God asks.

The Nativity of John the Baptist, Saturday – 24^th June 2023 — Gospel: Lk 1, 57-60.80

Experiences of the Fullness of Time

John’s birth marks the beginning of the great events of salvation.  His birthday advanced Jesus birth by six months and heralded Jesus by proclaiming His coming. Luke, the evangelist, describes that “When the time for Elizabeth had become full she bore her son John” (Lk 1,57). Henri Nouwen in reference to this special time wrote, Patience dispels clock time and reveals a new time, the time of salvation. It is not the time measured by the abstract objects: units of the clock, the watch, or the calendar, but rather the time lived from within and experienced as full time… All the great events of the Gospel occurred in the fullness of time. John’s birth took place when Elizabeth’s time became full. It is this full time, pregnant with new life that can be found through the disciple of patience. As long as we are the slaves of the clock and the calendar, our time remains empty and nothing really happens. Thus, we miss the moment of grace and salvation. But when patience prevents us from running away from the painful moments and in the false hope of finding our treasure elsewhere, then we can slowly begin to see that fullness of time is already here and that salvation is already taking place. Like John the Baptist and Elizabeth, each Christian is called to proclaim Christ as present and working among us saying: “Now is the acceptable time, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor 6,2).