Because of the Cross, the gap that separated us from God has been filled thanks to the Resurrection, now Jesus lives in us, transforming us, and, allowing us to be united with Him, shares His nature with us, making us all sons and daughters in Him. Because Jesus was fully human and divine, He was the only one able and capable of achieving this “plan” that God wanted to realize for us since the days of Creation. We have become His first-born because of the actions of Jesus Christ, our High-Priest. Our way back must be shaped by this reality: God wants to be our father, and He wants us to consider ourselves as His first-born, who had a very special place in the father’s heart and household. Yes, we too today hear these words being spoken to us God wants to return to Him. And then we hear the explosive News: “For I am a father to Israel, Ephraim is my first-born.” Jeremiah’s words should fill our hearts: “I, - it is God who is speaking through the prophet – will console them and guide them I will lead them to brooks of water, on level road, so that none shall stumble.” God appears as a loving Father who is willing to do whatever it takes to make our journey home to Him easier. Now, they are able to return so that Salvation History may continue, and God’s salvific actions become available to all the peoples of the earth. They had been taken away from it by invaders who, taking advantage of Israel’s infidelity towards God – which always creates weakness in us, both individually and as His people, brought them all away, to the North. The Liturgy of the Word breaks down this Good News for us, today the first reading, from Jeremiah, tells us clearly that “the Lord has delivered His people.” We can hear happiness in Jeremiah’s voice: he can now proclaim the joy that comes from the Good News: a remnant, thought small, is returning to the homeland, the Land that belongs to God.
The prayer helps us by “praying for us” the way to make this happen: we want to love what God commands us, so that our Faith, Hope, and Love may increase in us.” And the more they increase in us, the more we love what God commands and the more we love what God commands – and do it, the more these Great Things become a Reality in us.
We must say “yes” to what God wants to accomplish in us through the Holy Spirit. It means that these great things are available to us, but we must respond. The Collect also helps us this week we want to merit, we said to the Lord, what He has promised. We have proclaimed it as a reponsorial-ly as the Psalm was proclaimed to us: “The Lord has done great things for us we are filled with joy.” When we meditate on these great things, we rejoice because we know that while they happened in the past for other people, they are sacramentally made it available for us and to us today. But in every challenge, the Word reminds us that there is always Good News. This means that the Word of God makes us face part of our lives that we tend to keep it hidden in the closet. As we move closer to the end of this liturgical year, our journey intensifies.
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