When God Speaks, We Need to Listen And Take Action.

 

History teaches us that change is a norm not an anomaly.  Whether that history comes to us in nature, from humans or by God, all of them have the power to give, take or create a future that we desire or do not want.  What we do with it becomes the very life with which we live and die.

Change is not only necessary, but Essential to Follow God

 Our Gospel and both readings for this Sunday illustrate three different ways God urgently appeals to His creation to change their lives to accept His ways rather than the worlds.  What we are missing, especially in the first reading for example, is the back story which gives us an insight how we as humans need to understand and sometimes find it difficult to accept God in our lives.

Listening to God’s Call Provides Insight into His Ways

God has always provided me with a questioning mind.  Sometimes that is a blessing and at other times a curse, especially when others don’t understand why I am doing it.  To them, the matter about which I am asking seems obvious.  The whispered comments I sometimes hear are that I am wasting time and is he that dense?  And at rare times it can be argumentative.  It is not that I don’t often understand, it is that I am looking beyond what the “obvious” is.

God and Man Together Offer Promise for Salvation

 

Jesus’ Baptism by his cousin, John the Baptist, establishes our first Sacrament and sets us on our life’s path to be a disciple toward salvation for ourselves and all who we touch on our journey.  It is the perfect relationship between divine and human because of the recognition of purpose for Jesus’ visit to earth and our acceptance that His sacrifice will allow us to be free of sin and death for life everlasting.  So why is it so difficult for humans, created by God, to recognize we are called by God to fulfill a prophecy of love, faith and hope no matter what is happening in our world?

Epiphany: Hope Revealed

 

Can you hear it: The happy sigh of 2020 being over and the beginning of 2021 just a few days ago?  It is the sound of Hope Revealed just like Epiphany is the revelation of the Savior, Jesus, who brings hope to the world.