Word to the Wise
Thursday, December 13, 2007 - St. Lucy, virgin and martyr
[Isaiah 41:13-20 and Matthew 11:11-15]I am the Lord, your God, who grasp your right hand; it is I who say to you, "Fear not, I will help you." Fear not, O worm Jacob, O maggot Israel; I will make of you a threshing sledge, sharp, new, and double-edged, to thresh the mountains and crush them, to make the hills like chaff.
When I was a lad I read comic books like so many my age and I remember well the back page ad for the Charles Atlas muscle building things that promised to transform one from a "90 pound weakling" to a muscle bound "he-man!" All of this was designed to keep the beach bully from kicking sand in one's face and walking away with the girl friend! God promises to take puny Israel by the hand and make it a powerhouse! Of course, the imagery here is rather environmental! God is going to rearrange the landscape with the help of the new powerhouse! Perhaps this contains some of the meaning of Jesus' comment about the Kingdom of heaven suffering violence (cf. today's gospel). Assertive Christian preaching was known in Victorian times as "muscular Christianity!" Faith can offer confidence and strength that can enable one to face and endure considerable adversity - even martyrdom like St. Lucy! Isaiah is trying to lift the spirits of a very small nation surrounded by considerably larger powers. We can find ourselves as individuals in similar circumstances when trying to cope with our own modern challenges: spiritual, moral, emotional, physical! The message is that we don't have to be the 90 pound weakling! AMEN
config
view
logs
3840.0 KB
55 ms
4
