Daily Reflections - Feb 2, 2018

Malachi 3: 1 - 4; Hebrew 2: 14 - 18; Luke 2: 22 - 40.

The creation was created by the Creator through His Word and for the Son who is the Word and hence, it was only through His Word that God did make His plan of Salvation, the Messiah Jesus Christ. It was all planned at the very beginning when sin was brought in through the disobedience of Adam the first of mankind. This sin created the initial rift in the relation between God and his most beloved creation. And it was through God’s unfathomable mercy that the covenant of Salvation was conceived. A plan whose nature was shared through divine providence with all who loved and cherished the Creator. Every person ever born and anointed in God’s Spirit prophesied about this great event that would one day reconcile mankind with God and ensure Salvation to those who endure the struggle against evil to live eternally with God.

The prophet Malachi in his writings verse 3:14, speaks of the coming of Christ, the Messiah and of the preparation for his coming. Malachi sees John the Baptist preparing the way for the Lord and then Malachi prophesies the entry of God into the Temple.

Today in our life, God’s plan of Salvation continues. At the celebration of the Holy Eucharist, the celebrant invokes the call of our salvation through the various prayers at the offering of Holy Mass to prepare us for the entry of the Saviour into the Temple. But now, we are the ’Temple of God’ and we invite Jesus to enter our hearts and be united with us in spirit when we receive Holy Communion. And when we receive the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist we must be spiritually prepared and ritually clean.

For who can stand in haughtiness when the Lord enters the anointed; baptized in Christ? As Malachi writes, the Lord comes into the Temple to purify it and refine it like gold and silver is purified and refined. And as we receive the sacrament of the Eucharist we unite ourselves with God and Christ purifies and refines our spirit with fire and the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak and as God refines our Spirit we must be changed and find our way to purification from the evil of vanity and sin. Then our nature will be pleasing to the Lord.

In the Gospel of Luke 2: 22 - 40, we are brought to understand that Holy men like Simeon and the prophetess Anna of the tribe of Asher put their faith in the prophecy of the prophets of old and they waited faithfully for God to fulfill his covenant of mercy through the children of Abraham. God in His mercy divinely inspired Simeon with the knowledge that he would not die until his eyes saw God’s plan of Salvation for the Jews and the Gentiles. And Simeon knew that the sacrifice of the Messiah was eminent for the Salvation of mankind.Today, the words of Simeon continue to resound in our lives. The Salvation that God promised continues at the Holy Mass and Christ’s holy body and blood continues to be offered at our Altar for the forgiveness of our sins and refining of our lives and Mother Mary’s heart continues to be pained by the sinfulness of mankind and the atrocities that unbelievers hurl at her Sanctity and Holiness.

St Paul in his epistle to the Hebrews 2: 14 - 18 insinuates that it was necessary that the Son of God took on the weak nature of mankind and through an earthly life in the flesh, defeat the evil nature of sin once and for all, so that mankind may have a path to choose to be free from the slavery of sin. It was by being our High Priest that Christ was able to perform the greatest sacrifice for the purification of sin in all of mankind. In His unfathomable mercy, Christ took on the nature of mankind in the flesh, to put himself through immense testing and suffered the greatest of pain unto death on the cross so that through His death on the cross we may find a narrow path to Eternal Life with God.

By Bro. Maryo.