THE STOCK OF JESSE

19 DECEMBER

Judges 13:2-7,24-25; Ps 71:3-6,16-17; Lk 1:5-25

Extraordinary Conceptions aided by Grace

The two readings we have today are similar in their contents; both are stories of extraordinary conceptions of babies through interventions of God. The story in the Old Testament is from the Book of Judges. It is about the conception of Samson during the time the children of Israel were suffering persecution at the hands of the Philistines. They moaned and cried to God for help. We must note that God allowed them to be in that situation of oppression by the Philistines because of their unfaithfulness to the covenant and commandments of God. Those who enter into a covenant relationship with God come under the enemy's attack when they fail to fulfil their role in the covenant agreement, for God always remembers his covenant. The word of God, which spells out the terms of the covenant, watches over those who keep their covenant with God to protect and rescue them. We fall away from the watchful care of God when we neglect his words and do our own will.  That was the cause of the situation the children of Israel found themselves when God intervened to rescue them from the oppressive hands of the Philistines. What God permits to befall us when we go wrong helps to bring us back to the right path. Hence, the unsavoury condition, our discomfort and prayers to God, and his deliverance all constitute one act of God’s providential care for us.

Secondly, God intervened in his people's situation by stretching nature to accommodate a supernatural intervention in the life of Manoah and his wife. The barrenness of the couple was part of God’s preparation for nature to receive supernatural intervention. “There was a man of Zorah of the tribe of Dan, called Manoah. His wife was barren, she had borne no children. The angel of the Lord appeared to this woman and said to her, ‘You are barren and have had no child. But from now on take great care. Take no wine or strong drink, and eat nothing unclean. For you will conceive and bear a son.” the Gospel describes a similar situation at the time of John the Baptist’s conception. Zechariah was a priest who descended from Aaron with his wife, Elizabeth. The scripture describes the upright life of this couple. “Both were worthy in the sight of God and scrupulously observed all the commandments and observances of the Lord. But they were childless: Elizabeth was barren and they were both getting on in years.” There is no gainsaying the moral, religious, and political situation of the people of Israel at the time of God's intervention through the birth of John the Baptist. The two interventions of God were in similar conditions of oppression and decadence.

One important note we must make in the two interventions, which is common in all of God's interventions in human history, is that he uses those who are conformed to his will to bring about saving interventions. He equally uses those far removed from his will, as it were, to intervene punitively in the lives of his people. These couples God used in the Old and New Testaments, respectively, to bring about saving intervention in the life of his people were upright before God. Their barrenness was due to God stretching nature to accommodate supernatural grace given by God for the salvation of his people. We must never be discouraged by the slight discomforts or crosses God sends our way when we do our best in his worship. Though neither of these couples is from the tribe of Judah, from where the ultimate Saviour came, they contributed to the salvation of Israel by their steadfastness to the covenant and communion with God. God chose the tribe of Judah, not in exclusion of other tribes. God calls every person in all the tribes who remained upright before God and lived in a covenant relationship with him. He uses the contributions of all for the ultimate fulfilment of his plan for his people. The same applies to us, each of us, by remaining faithful to the graces God gives us daily, steadfast in meditation and contemplation of God’s word, fervent in prayer, contributes to the success of the salvific mission of Jesus Christ and his Church on earth. Just as graces come from the faithful for the good of God’s people, trials and crosses would always come from the unfaithful.

Let us pray: O God, who through the child-bearing of the holy Virgin graciously revealed the radiance of your glory to the world, grant, we pray, that we may venerate with integrity of faith the mystery of so wondrous an Incarnation and always celebrate it with due reverence. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.