December 3, 2024

Luke 10:21-24

Today when I sit down, I’m aware of my distracted, unfocused, imperfect self, “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.”  Making the sign of the cross to start, I feel like I’m sanctifying on top of this imperfect human mess.  God knows who and how we are, yet we are given the means to sanctify ourselves.  Both are true at the same time.

In today’s reading, Jesus rejoices in the Holy Spirit, who in the previous days his disciples have found so powerful to defeat the forces of evil in his name.  He is confirmed in his growing understanding and realization that his bond with the Father is exclusive and unique.  He sees that God has chosen, through Jesus, to reveal himself to the humble and uneducated, “the childlike,” those who have open hearts and minds free of the pride of great scholarly knowledge, which is so efficient at categorizing, judging, accepting and rejecting, and setting up all kinds of false boundaries that God never intended.  God’s “gracious will” is to be available to all people and all beings through Christ.  How blessed are those disciples who dropped everything and followed him, blessed to meet the Messiah and Son of God who the wealthy, learned, and religious have wanted and aspired and tried so hard to meet.  But there in the dusty land of Israel, among the fishermen and ordinary workers, Jesus began to teach and manifest the word and the power of God and the joy of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.