No Fast-Forward Button

This week’s readings:

Numbers 6:22–27

Psalm 67:2–3, 5, 6, 8

Galatians 4:4–7

Luke 2:16–21 and also consulted

Jeremiah 29:11

The LORD bless you and keep you!
The LORD let his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you!
The LORD look upon you kindly and give you peace!

Numbers 23-25, New American Bible

I’m beginning this post with the verses from Numbers because I can’t think of a better New Year’s blessing.

The psalm expands the message of the Old Testament blessing. It might be helpful to make a note of these verses for those times when you need a pick-me-up throughout the year. If you look up the psalm verses listed above, it might also be helpful to remember that when we read or hear that we should fear God, it’s a reminder to guard against arrogance, to maintain openness to God’s desires and to recognize our dependence on God. God’s nature isn’t to harm us. For evidence of this statement, Jeremiah 29:11.

The epistle (the third reading) refers to the New Testament events we’ve been and will be revisiting. It also brings to mind the words of the Lord’s Prayer and the events of Pentecost.

The New Testament reading offers the blessing from Numbers using more than words. The shepherds find exactly what the angel promised they would. God’s glory has shined on them not only through the presence of the angels but through the little face of the baby Jesus.

Looking at the Old Testament reading and the New Testament reading together made me wonder why it seems so much easier for the shepherds to see the fulfillment of God’s promises than it does for me? Then I remembered some things:

The shepherds play important supporting roles in a unique event. It’s understandable that they might need more clarity to play the parts God was inviting them to play. On the other hand, for me to grow spiritually it might be necessary to look for God’s presence without the help of the clear signage the angel gives the shepherds. I say the signage was clear, but as I write this, it strikes me that the angel doesn’t say where in Bethlehem the manger cradling Jesus; therefore,

The shepherds probably had to take more time and effort to get from the fields to the manger than I realize.

The shepherds had been waiting for the Messiah their whole lives, however long that had been, and their ancestors had been waiting their whole lives, as had the people who came before that generation. This was true going back thousands of years.

In short, I find it helpful to remember that the characters in the Bible didn’t get to fast-forward to the parts of their stories that I know. There was undoubtedly a lot of waiting, and struggling, and struggling to wait in those segments of their lives that haven’t been handed down to us.

The New Testament passage gives some hints about what I can do while I wait to better understand what’s unfolding in my life. Luke 2:19 says “Mary kept all these things, [the unique events she’s playing a central role in] reflecting on them in her heart (New American Bible Revised Edition). Perhaps “reflecting on [these events] in her heart” describes a process of taking note of what she’s experienced, considering what the experiences have taught her, and of reminding herself of those lessons frequently over time (Luke 2:19). Perhaps this process results in the lessons becoming part of her so that she can then reflect them, and in doing so, him can bless the lives that intersect with her own. She and the shepherds can live their lives “glorifying and praising God for all they [have] seen and heard, just as it [has] been told to them” (Luke 2:20).

Will their praise always look and sound glorious to those around them? Will their praise look and sound as extraordinary as God coming into the world as a baby boy? Not necessarily. Right after Luke tells us how the shepherds responded to finding Jesus, the book tells us that Mary and Joseph did what other Jewish parents of a newborn son did. They circumcised Jesus and announced his name, the name Gabriel had given him (Luke 2:21). These ordinary acts of faith and of honoring those who came before are as much fulfillment of what had been foretold as our the angelic appearances and the miraculous conception.

Maybe these readings invite me to take note of and to reflect in my own heart on God’s promises and presence so that I can reflect both. Lord, help me to accept this invitation and challenge. Help me to trust in Your promises and to discern and to surrender to Your will more often. Amen.

Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc. “Sunday July, 2 2023: Readings at Mass.” The New American Bible, 2001. Universalis for Windows, Version 2.179, Universalis Publishing Ltd., 26 Feb. 2023, https://universalis.com/n-app-windows.htm

The Bible. The New American Bible Revised Edition, Kindle edition, Fairbrother, 2011.

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