The Lord God Keeps Faith Forever
Dear Friend,
Peace and all good be yours!
“The Lord God keeps faith forever” - these words from the responsorial psalm this week awaken me to the fact that every time I come to liturgy I “enter,” so to speak, God’s faithfulness. Said another way, I enter God’s presence and covenant and God’s desire to uphold and strengthen all of us in our time of emotional, physical, or spiritual unsettledness.
Last week I met up with a friend I hadn’t seen in a long time. You’re here, we’re together! We hugged … and it felt so good. He’d been dealing with a disturbing medical diagnosis that involved trips to the doctor and inconclusive results. For us as friends, it was time to stick together!
Being present to God’s faithfulness is so much of what our Sunday Eucharist is all about. I’m coming to see that my capacity to experience God’s faithfulness is directly related to my willingness and ability to be present to others, especially friends.
Three great figures of Advent - the prophet Isaiah, John the Baptist, and of course, Mary of Nazareth - each in their own way call to me and show me the dimensions of God’s promise and faithfulness. For Isaiah (“Be strong!,” he says) entering the promise can dispel fear - or at least get us to the other side of it. John the Baptist’s call from the desert enacts the memory that God walked with the displaced people of Israel during their darkest hours. In Mary - especially during these days of Guadalupe celebrations - what comes to the fore is the joy of God’s embrace and its life-giving power.
As I pray the Mass this weekend, I rejoice, like Mary, in the power of God’s embrace, God’s faithfulness!
Gratefully,
Fr. Dan ofm, Pastor