Scripture:
Reflection:
Welcoming Jesus
A wonderful experience in my life was kneeling at the altar in the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth, where Jesus took on our nature. Written under the altar in Latin is “Verbum caro hic factum est” The Word was made flesh here. Tomorrow’s feast of the Annunciation celebrates and reminds us of the most wonderful event ever to happen in the whole galactic universe! Mary’s yes to God to receive and welcome the Father’s Son in our human nature was the moment of the incarnation of God. God loved us so much that He became the size of a pinhead, a zygote! Our awesome God Who creates and empowers trillions of galaxies comes to us.
The most important and amazing thing in our life is to welcome Him! Today’s Gospel tells us that Jesus after living 30 years in the then small village of about 300 people, he was not welcomed home! They missed the time of their life! “They rose up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong. But he passed through the midst of them and went away.” The inspired Greek text used a very strong and violent word for drive out “exballo” (throw out). One of the saddest words in the New Testament is “He went away” (poreuō)
Do we welcome Jesus? He has been with many of us for a lot more than 30 years. There are 11 words for welcome in the NT. The one used in today’s Gospel is dexomai is used 56 times. We can see how important it is to welcome or receive Him in our lives. Many times each day we must pause even for a minute to welcome Him! He is very close to us 24/7. Pray to Holy Spirit to help us to be like Mary. No human being ever welcomed Jesus like our Blessed Mother! Don’t walk away from Him and lose the opportunity of your life to be with Him.
Fr. Bob Weiss, C.P., preaches Parish Missions and is a member of the Passionist Community in Louisville, Kentucky.