Amos 9:11-15
Psalm 85:9-14
Matthew 9:14-17
My Beloved, all this week we have heard the prophet Amos speak of sin, destruction, doom, gloom and the righteous anger of a just God against His people. We have heard God vowing to be avenged for the wrongs done by those who profess to belong to Him and call themselves His people. But as this book closes we see how good the Father is. He relents. He cannot remain angry too long and He will not destroy His poor, weak, sinful creatures whom He created in love. What He does instead is vow to save every miserable, wretched, sinful creature.
Only God could come up with such a plan of salvation. He allowed Himself to become vulnerable for all time by sending You, His one and only most Beloved Son to become Incarnate of the Virgin Mary through the power of the most Holy Spirit and by the overshadowing of the Almighty upon her. The Father gave You up into the hands of sinners. He asked You to be the means by which sin and death are destroyed forever. You are victorious having overcome and destroyed every obstacle and barrier that separated us from God. We can now ascend the mountain to the the New Jerusalem and there we can be nourished at the Banquet of Love which is the Eucharist. We are fed on Your Body and our thirst is quenched by Your Blood. We are washed and robed in garments made white by the Blood of the Lamb who made expiation for our sins and restored us to the inheritance that was lost through disobedience and pride. Thank You.
We have been saved Beloved. You who are the Justice of God came down from heaven and lowered Yourself to the very gates of hell and to death itself and You raised us up to new life in You.
A just and righteous God cannot condone sin and close His eyes to evil. The wages of sin is death. But God is also Love and His faithfulness has to find a means by which His perfect justice would be satisfied. Reparation had to be made for our disobedience. You my Beloved who are perfect love and are perfectly faithful, permitted Yourself to be nailed on the Cross. This Cross planted on earth reached out to heaven and formed a bridge by which we could make our way back to the Father. Justice stooped low over the earth and embraced Your wayward children through the perfect sacrifice of the Lamb without sin, stain or blemish. The spotless Lamb took upon Himself our inquity, cleansed us from our sins and found a way to lead us back to our jubilant Daddy God. Justice was satisfied through the Sacrifice of Love on the Cross.
My Beloved, our fasts are absolutely useless if we do not fast in the right spirit. There is no value in fasting for the sake of fasting. We do not become more righteous by anything we do. You are the Bridegroom, the Son of God, Heir to the Kingom and You adorn Your bride with beauty and You pour out rich treasures on her. You grant us the treasure of the Holy Spirit to live in us and this is the new wine. We cannot cling to the past and to old ways of thinking.
You are the New Covenant between God and man and together with Your Holy Spirit You make us a new creation. The old law served its purpose before You came into the world to redeem us and give us the new law of love. We are saved, redeemed and sanctified through You. We now live gloriously free lives through the love that God has poured on us through You and You in turn have generously poured out Your Spirit into each one of us. We, Your brothers and sisters, have been grafted on to You in Baptism and we are sustained by You in the frequent reception of the Sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist.
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