St. Mary's Church Elizabeth, IL

2/16

"See that you do not refuse the one who is speaking."

                                                                      Hebrews 12:55

Do not be afraid

READ HEBREWS, CHAPTER 12, VERSES 14 TO 29

When Hebrews was written, we were just one generation away from the public ministry and preaching of Jesus and of the missionary speeches of the Apostles.  Yet, we gather from what the author now says to his community that the threats of weariness, luke-warmness, defilement, rejection of the word of God, and even apostasy are all to real.  So, the author multiplies his appeals to alertness, vigilance, and revival.

But his main argument to the community comes from the contrast he draws between the setting and tone of God's spectacular and frightening revelation on Mount Sinai (Exodus 19-24), and the setting and tone of God's revelation through the life, teaching, and death of Jesus.  The "new covenant" mediated through Jesus drives away fear and introduces a radically new way of approaching the divine and of receiving God's revelation.

At the center of ancient Israel's faith was the event of God delivering them from bondage in Egypt and of the covenant he made with them at Sinai.  No matter how central this was, however , it was fit for "that time."  But the word of God is a living promise and is always geared toward the future, not the past: "but now he (God) has promised, "Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heaven." If"indeed our God is a consuming fire," it pertains to us, follwers of Jesus, to read Scripture, Old and New Testaments, as words that were written THEN ("at that time") and to actualize them NOW, looking ahead "to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.

->How can I entertain the consuming fire of the word of God in my life?  In my community life?

Prayer Starter:  Lord, may your word be a consuming fire in our hearts and mauke us yearn fo rthe heavenly kingdom you have promised and prepared for us.

Fr. Joachim