Date: August 27th 2007
| This Is the Final Week to Register! |
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Click here to learn all about our 11-week Scripture class on the Book of Revelation and to register online. |
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We Have a New Director of Adult Faith Formation. |
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Shaun Terry has replaced Carson Weber as our parish Dir. of Adult Faith Formation & Evangelization. Shaun is the father of seven children and has spent the past four years serving at Faith Mission here in Brenham. He is very excited to continue the good work Carson has brought to our parish. |
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The Heart of Divine Discipline |
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In the Old Testament, God made many promises to Israel, a nation consisting of twelve tribes. As a God of faithfulness, he would remain true to these promises not just to one or two, but to all twelve tribes.
However, God is not interested solely in Israel. He did not elect (choose) Israel for Israel’s sake. God chose Israel as his covenant people for the sake of the rest of humanity: every nation from the east to the west. Israel was to serve as God’s messenger, to bring every nation to God through sacrificial service. But something terrible went wrong. It seemed as if God’s plan had gone askew. Israel had committed the terrible sin of idolatry. If you read the First and Second Books of Kings, you will see how every one of the 12 tribes of Israel became idolatrous. No tribe was exempt from taking upon itself the worship of the false gods of Israel’s neighbors. Instead of Israel having converted the nations, the nations converted Israel! (Does this sound familiar in our own age?) Due to his covenant with Israel, God had to punish Israel’s idolatry with the covenant curses Israel agreed to undergo should it ever forsake its covenant Lord. In the 8th century B.C., 10 of the tribes were conquered by foreign armies and sent into exile. In the 6th century B.C., the other 2 tribes were punished in the very same manner. God would turn his punishment into good, and we are told today just how he would do that. We are given the words of Isaiah 66:18-21, which tells of how God will gather nations of every language, and in doing so, these nations will bring within them the fugitive Israelites. During the exile, Israelites and Gentiles intermarried, and so their children’s children eventually lost their Israelite identity, even when these descendants were truly part-Israelite. So, when we are told in the Gospel today (Luke 13:22-30) by Jesus that “people will come from the east and the west and from the north and the south and will recline at table in the kingdom of God,” he is telling us how Isaiah’s great prophesy will be fulfilled. When non-Israelites (Gentiles) enter the Church (which is the kingdom of God) through the sacrament of baptism and recline at table in the Eucharistic liturgy, some of these converts are part-Israelite. Thus, God’s promise to redeem all of Israel finds fulfillment! In order for all 12 tribes to be saved, the Gentiles must be saved, for most of Israel is now Gentile. God’s discipline, his punishment, is always redemptive because of his loving providence. This is the heart of today’s second reading (Heb 12:5-7, 11-13): “do not disdain the discipline of the Lord or lose heart when reproved by him; for whom he loves, he disciplines.” |
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