Why are we so disobedient?

Monday, March 20, 2017

Solemnity of Saint Joseph, Husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary - Year 'A2'

Why are we so disobedient?

2 Samuel 7:4-5, 12-14, 16 KING DAVID is at first happy that he will be in charge of building God's Temple. This was all approved by his personal good prophet Nathan. Then "The Lord spoke to Nathan and told him: 'Go and tell my servant David when you die your son Solomon will build my Temple." So what did King David do? He drew plans for the Jews' first, biggest and best Temple the Jews ever had. After he drew the plan, he got his workers to cut down very tall cedar trees. He had them all cut and saved for his son Solomon to oversee. See how sharp King David was. He was sharp as a boy shepherding his father's sheep. He was sharp when he was made king of the Jews, even though the first King was still reigning and trying to kill David. And David was always able to escape. Once David had the opportunity to kill the first King of the Jews, but he refused. When this battle became intense, King David demanded that the first King and his son Jonathan [who was a very close friend of David] not be hurt in anyway by David or his own army. His men did not obey King David, so King David mourned when he was told that the King and his best friend Jonathan were killed in battle.

Romans 4:13, 16 to18 & 22 HERE PAUL WRITES ABOUT "Abraham who believed, hoping against all hope." Paul does this because the Jews in Rome knew they were going to be martyred; and of course they are hoping against all hope not to be martyred. So in this part of his letter Paul talks to these Jewish Christians about "Faith!" And he gives them the example of Abraham, the father and founder of all the Jews. Paul wrote this in his beautiful and powerful way: God made a promise to Abraham that He will be the beginning of a new human race, the Jews! So here Paul writes:"It was not through the law that the promise[God had made with Abraham to become the father of a great nation] was made to Abraham...but through the righteousness that comes from faith." Then Paul writes to the soon to be martyred Jews: "The righteousness that comes from Faith." So Paul wrote that Abraham "believed, hoping against hope, that he would become he father of many [not of just one nation, the Jews] nations." Then Paul writes at the end of this reading in "verse 22" that the Jews like Abraham are fully convinced that "our faith, too will be [fully]reckoned, because we believe in Him who raised from the dead our Lord Jesus, who was handed over to death for our sins and raised to life for our justification."

MATTHEW 1:16, 18 to 21 & 24a THIS READING BEGINS with the end of Mathew's genealogy of Jesus writing: "Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, Of her was born Jesus who is called the Christ." Here we see how our church goes along with our above reading, where now Mary and Joseph share in the agony of parents, whom we the children of our Moms and Dads, grow up toward maturity and independence. This was a very hard task for Mary and Joseph. Both came to know [Mary very quickly and Joseph taking about two or three months longer] that their Son was not the result of human intercourse, but rather as the Son of God. Right here Matthew immediately goes into excellent details about how Mary and Joseph were already married, how they agreed to remain virgins and then in today's Gospel Joseph thinks Mary got pregnant while she was visiting her cousin Elizabeth. Joseph was wise and an obedient man, who could see Mary is pregnant! And Joseph thought, at first, that Mary got pregnant while she was with Elizabeth, helping her to bear a son in her old age.

CONCLUSIONS & EXPLANATIONS: Note well that today's Gospel ends in Mathew 1:24a. And in "Matthew verse 25" Matthew tells us that Mary "gave birth to a son, and he[Joseph] named him Jesus." This is the last part of "verse 24a." Then notice how nicely our Church stops this reading short by simply saying: "Joseph, awoke, he did as the angel had commanded him and took his wife into his home." Just imagine all the problems Joseph had!! Yet he was obedient simply because of a dream! And we are so disobedient not because of dreams but because of our own realities! Why do so many Catholics continue in their disobedience? We have no answer except some people are just crazy or just refuse to believe and accept God's generosity and gentleness to all sinner.

If your Church does not use the Solemnity of Saint Joseph, the following are the readings of the day:

Exodus 32:7 to 14 MOSES HAD BEEN UP THE MOUNTAIN for about 30 days, so the Jews though Moses was gone forever; so his brother "Aaron" told the Jews "strip off all you gold." And from this gold Aaron made a golden calf and told the Jews: "Here is your God!"So God told Moses: "Go down at once;" and Moses went down with the two stone tablets that had the 10 Commandments written on them; and Moses melted the golden calf and made the Jews drink it. "So the Lord relented in the punishment He had threatened to Moses," by which God was going to destroy all the Jews and have Moses start a new generation of Jews.

John 5:31 to 47 JESUS IS ON THE ATTACK AGAINST THE JEWISH LEADERS: So in "verses 31 to 40" Jesus listed the witnesses who supported Him. And in

"verses 41 to 47" Jesus attacks His enemies because of their disbeliefs. So here Jesus mentions John the Baptist, His own many miracles, God His Father who supports Him and then Jesus quotes from various parts of the Old Testament prophets who by their prophesies support Jesus. Despite all this His opponents [the Jewish leaders of the people] refuse to believe Jesus.

CONCLUSION: Jesus in attacking His opponents' unbelief in Him, He underlines their pride in rejecting His glory that ultimately comes from God His Father. So in the final analysis the rejection of Jesus is their rejection of God, since Jesus came in His Father's name.
Peace, Angelo