O Adonai - 'O Antiphon' for the 18th of December
Was is
St Thomas Aquinas who observed that the Law and the commandments laid down for
the people of Israel, and even the new law of the Gospel, would kill, if it had
not been for the grace and the mercy of God, revealed in and by Jesus?
The Gospel
passage we heard this morning at Mass, of Joseph’s intention to quietly divorce
Mary so as not to draw down scandal – and even death – upon her, seems to make
this observation a startlingly real fact – it seems to manifest the logical
consequence of transgressing the law, or of rigidly observing it.
Thank
God for the angel of mercy who visited Joseph as he slept, and for Joseph’s
faith without ever having really seen the face of the Lord, Who was calling him
to follow Him – for his courage to follow Him and to trust Him.
O
Ruler of the House of Israel
Who
gave the law to Moses on Sinai
come
and saveA us with outstretched arm.
The
Lord – Adonai – is for us a Leader whom we have never seen ... and when we look
around us at the leaders we can see, we are bound to agree with the prophecy of
Isaiah:
“...to whom can you compare me, equate me,
To whom claim I am similar, or comparable...?”
Yet,
it seems, that we have always had an instinct for the kind of qualities a
leader should have, for the kind of leader who cares for us and saves us,
despite all the ways we fail to understand His plan for us, and even might be
tempted to think we pass unnoticed by His gaze.
As was
written in the Epistle to Diognetus, our Adonai, our Leader, our God –
“has always been, and is still, and ever shall be:
merciful, kind, slow to anger and true.”
All
our leaders fall short of our expectations and our need, and God so far
surpasses them that we could never even have hoped for such mercy, had He not
come down to us and given Himself to us.
It is
almost beyond belief that our Father should know what we would make of the Law
He gave Moses on Sinai and that we would need more from Him, than precepts to
live by:- and that in His mercy, kindness and patience He should offer us His Son,
the face of Truth, to suffer and die for us in love.
May
our celebration again this year of the Lord’s nativity re-awaken us to this
wonder; re-kindle our gratitude for His gift of faith; and renew our commitment
to follow Him ever more closely.
“I look
to the Lord; I will await the God who saves me.”
There are no reviews yet.