Christianity is a Good Deal
Saturday, December 23, 2023
by Fr. David M. Knight
View readings for 3rd Saturday of Advent: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings
Lectionary no. 199 (Malachi 3:1-4, 23-24; Psalm 25; Luke 1:57-66)
I am sending my messenger…the messenger of the covenant whom you desire. Malachi 3:1
If you are married, you know what it is to enter into a covenant. And Christianity is a covenant, one we enter into at Baptism, to which we recommit ourselves in every Mass: “This is the Blood of the new and everlasting covenant. It will be poured out for you…”
Is this a “covenant you desire?” Would you prefer to get out of it?
What would you be getting out of? On your part, what have you pledged?
And what has God pledged?
Re-examine your contract. If you were released from it, what’s would you be free to do that you would be proud of? What does it bind you to do now that you are not proud of?
What does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8).
I give you a new commandment… Love one another just as I have loved you… (John 13:34).
For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Galatians 5:14).
Does this covenant have more constraints or more advantages? Do you think you could make a better deal with God?
DAILY PRACTICE: Consciously see everything you do as faithfulness to a covenant you welcome.
ADVENT PRAYER: Lord, put your law within me, and write it on my heart. (Jeremiah 31:33).
Reflections brought to you by the Immersed in Christ Ministry
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