Accepting God's Word

Homily for Thursday of the Third Week in Advent

In today’s first reading, God makes a marriage covenant with Israel. Israel’s God is a God of mercy and love, a God who keeps promises. It is we who either accept or reject God’s plan for our lives.

This reading is followed by a Gospel passage in which the evangelist takes great pains to illustrate who has accepted and who has rejected God.

The theme of divine reversal is a prominent theme in St. Luke’s Gospel. The very first story from this Gospel is the story of the Annunciation of John the Baptist’s coming birth. Elizabeth had been declared barren reminding us of the words spoken by the prophet Elijah in our first reading: “Raise a glad cry, you barren one who did not bear. Break forth in jubilant song, you who were not in labor. . .” This story is followed by the story of the annunciation of Jesus’ birth which is another story of reversal in which a maiden who has had no relations with a man is told that she shall bear a son who will be our Savior.

This theme is continued as St. Luke mentions parenthetically that it was the poor and the tax collectors who listened to John and repented of their sins while the chief priests and elders of Israel rejected John who Jesus calls the greatest man born of a woman. St. Luke’s hastily adds that the least in the Kingdom of God is even greater than John.

How can Jesus say this? Actually, it is easily explained by another theme that is also prominent in St. Luke’s Gospel; namely, that faith comes through hearing. Those who listened to John came to believe. Those who blocked their ears and refused to hear are told that they have already had their consolation in this world. They have nothing to which they can look forward.

How privileged we are to actually hear the word of God each and every day as we come before the table of the Lord and break open the Scriptures just as Jesus did for his disciples.