I am noticing the way a significant life event can really turn on certain Scripture passages that never really spoke much to me before.
Ever since Dad's death, I have found "messages" and assurances in the liturgical readings and especially in the daily psalms. For instance: Wednesday (the day he died), the responsorial psalm response was "The Lord is my light and my salvation" (we used that for his funeral Mass, too). Thursday was the feast of the Dedication of St. John Lateran, and the entrance antiphon was "I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven"; the opening prayer was "God our Father, from living stones, your chosen people, you built an eternal temple to your glory" and the Communion antiphon was "Like living stones let yourselves be built on Christ as a spiritual house, a holy priesthood." Friday's Psalm was "Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord" (but we had the funeral Mass that day and did not go to the parish Mass). On Saturday the parish used the "proper" readings for St. Martin of Tours, and the first reading was from Isaiah: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me...to comfort those who mourn" and the Gospel was "Come, Blessed of my Father: Inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world!" Sunday's second reading was from Hebrews:"Christ did not enter into a sanctuary made by hands, a copy of the true one, but heaven itself..." (and the parish sang as an opening hymn "They who do justice shall live in the presence of God," which is going through my head right now). Yesterday, the Psalm was "Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face." Today, the latter part of the first reading is from Titus, and is the same as the second reading for Christmas: "The grace of God has appeared, saving all and training us to...live termperately, justly and devoutly in this age, as we await the blessed hope" and the response is "The salvation of the just comes from the Lord."
I don't want to give this exaggerated significance, but it really does seem to be mysteriously appropriate for Dad: encouragement, consolation and a call all wrapped together in this scriptural package.
3 comments:
God does speak to us in so many ways as do our loved ones who've moved to the next chapter of life.
Lisa sounds like someone who has experienced such communication. I hope that I recognize that reality.
Give it the significance - it is WHAT it is! None are so blind as those who will not see. Every good thing comes from God. He is intimately involved in YOUR life, MY life, EACH PERSON's life. Believe it, because HE SAYS it: "Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they?", Matthew 6:26. -- Jon White
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