GOD SENT THE PROPHETS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT, JESUS SENT HIS MOTHER IN THE NEW TESTAMENT.

"JERUSALEM, JERUSALEM, YOU THAT KILL THE PROPHETS AND STONE THOSE WHO ARE SENT TO YOU. HOW OFTEN HAVE I LONGED TO GATHER YOUR CHILDREN TOGETHER, AS A HEN GATHERS HER CHICKS UNDER HER WINGS AND YOU REFUSED.  LOOK1  YOUR HOUSE WILL BE DESERTED, FOR I PROMISE YOU SHALL NOT SEE ME ANY MORE UNTIL YOU SAY 'BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD"

 These words are spoken by Jesus as he looks down on the city of Jerusalem before he enters it to be mocked and crucified.   His lament spoke of the many times when the Jewish people were deciding that the laws of God and His righteousness were too difficult for the choices they had made in their lives.  When their evil spread God would send a prophet to try and lead them back to His laws and His  Commandments.    Yet they were, as Jesus said, killed and stoned for proclaiming His words.   Their leaders saw themselves as the wise ones and perhaps they ' did not want to turn the clock back'

When Jesus established His Church he had great hopes for the spread of his Kingdom of God upon earth.     The Peace we sing of at Christmas that the birth of Jesus heralded.   His followers would be the light of the world, and the saintliness and love of God and neighbour would attract the world like a moth to a flame.   But like  those in the Old Testament - we refused.   We went our own ways and discovered our own versions of Jesus and what a world we have fashioned from our unfaithfulness.   Wars and killings in every part  of the world, the misery brought about by the destruction of family life, crime and assaults, the killing of unborn children, and the power of the Church to intervene is impotent because we have made such a mess.  

Jesus was the last of the prophets, so what did he do to remind us of Him and His teachings?  He sent His mother Mary to three little children at Fatima and worked a Miracle which was at least as great as the parting of the Red Sea.  "Surely they will listen to my mother, surely they will let her gather them as chicks under her wing?  But so far we have refused and can truly be compared to the unfaithful Jews of the Old Testament.   Yes, we have our idea of Church- we need no guidance.   If we just gather on a Sunday morning and ask no questions then all will be well.   We would do well to remember that the words of Our Lord were spoken before the destruction of Jerusalem.

Let us pray that Mary will be honoured  and loved in the way God wants her to be honoured and loved.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Translation of Luke 1: 28 in the Latin Vulgate by St Jerome.

.......et ingressus angelus ad eam dixit have gratia plena Dominus tecum benedicta tu in mulieribus..... If indeed we are to have a Year of the Bible and indeed praise St Jerome, as indeed he deserves to be praised, for translating the texts approved by the Church into Latin, the language of the Mass, then surely we should check what the Latin says according to St Jerome before we rush into translating into other languages.    In this case translating  from the Gospel of Luke, St Jerome wrote the above, which translates  "..and entering the angel said to her 'Hail full of grace the Lord is with you and blessed are you among women".   Now you do not have to be a scholar to realise that this means much more than 'highly favoured'.   So why I ask myself does the translation we read in our Catholic Church at the gospel read 'highly favoured' rather than 'full of grace'  Why is this important?   Because if she was born 'full of grace' t
Read more

FAIR AS THE MOON, BRIGHT AS THE SUN, TERRIBLE AS AN ARMY SET IN BATTLE ARRAY

'Who is she that comes forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in battle array'. The above quote will be familiar to only a few Catholics today,   It was once on the lips of members of the Legion of Mary which was present in many parishes.    Fair as the moon and bright as the sun certainly describes Our Lady of Fatima but who exactly is meant by 'terrible as an army set in battle array?'   Certainly Our Lady appeared to ask us to pray for the conversion of sinners many of who were going to Hell for their sins as forewarned by her Son Jesus when he preachedHis Gospel.  Often we are trying and feel we are succeeding in living good lives when suddenly everything goes wrong  Like St Paul we often do the things we do not want to do rather than those that we want to do.   It is because we are involved in a war between Good and Evil and we are the children of Mary that the red Dragon wishes to devour in Revelations 12    We
Read more

The meaning of 'virgo Immaculata'

Image
As you will see from the stained glass window the name given to the image is Virgo Immaculata.   Mary was the virgin who remained sinless and spotless.  Yes she would have been tempted by Satan, but as the image shows she kept close to God in prayer and all the wiles of Satan, the forbidden fruit he offered, depictdd by the apple, ended up stuck in his throat while the right foot of Mary crushed his head. "I will put enmity between Thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed", God tole the serpent in Genesis   Satan was no match for Jesus who was God made Man but he had overcome a mere mortal before in Eve, What a triumph it would have been to destroy she whom Jesus loved above al others - his mother.   But Mary kept close to Jesus and to God, the new Eve, and mother of the new children that the death of Jesus brought into being.    And as Revelations 12 tells us having failed to destroy the birth of Jesus Satan  went after her other children - us.       When
Read more