It would be interesting to conduct a poll on our idea of ​​God. The question is not new; different religions have long presented their images of their deities. Let’s see how the Old Testament approaches this topic.

The image of the God of Israel is a particular theme in the Bible. The Ten Commandments contain not only the prohibition of worshiping other gods but also the prohibition of depicting them: “You shall not make for yourself an idol, nor any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth below, or that is in the water under the earth!” (Deuteronomy 5:8 ). In his speech, Moses explains that the prohibition to make an image also applies to the God of Israel: “be very careful, for you did not see any figure when the Lord spoke to you in the midst of the fire on Horeb” (Deuteronomy 4:15). Today’s excerpt from Isaiah can also be read in these intentions.

The prophet asks, “To whom will you liken God? And what form will you set next to him?” (Isaiah 40:18 – Ecumenical translation). This question arises in the context of the Babylonian captivity, a period when the Israelites were exposed to the worship of the god Sin and the cult of the God Marduk, both of which were part of the Babylonian culture. The Babylonians were famous for their astrology and their spectacular celebrations. In this context, the ‘invisibility’ of God serves a dual purpose. On the one hand, it protects God from triumphalism and excessive pride. On the other hand, it creates a crisis (v. 27) about whether God Yahweh is really what he says: mighty (v. 26), eternal and wise creator of all things (v. 28).

The opening rhetorical question about our reading suggests that the God of Israel is not just different from other deities, but incomparable. The term holy (Heb. qadoš) expresses this uniqueness (v. 25) in a way that sets our God apart. The eternal God, or more precisely the God of Eternity, is also the creator of the ends of the earth (v. 28). Eternity conceals all time; the most distant past and the most distant future, and the ends of the world represent all space. Therefore, every moment and place is in God’s power (Berges, 159-160). There is nothing to which He does not give being. We don’t know what God looks like. But it’s not really about his appearance at all. Isaiah directs the readers’ attention elsewhere. God does not lose strength or grow old (v. 28). Time does not rob him of vitality. As is common in other cults, he does not need people to charge him with life energy. Still, he distributes it to exhausted and weak people (v. 29). While natural powers are waning, God is the source of new inexhaustible power (v. 31). The key that opens the door to the source is hope, expectation, and reliance on God. This concept of hope as a source of strength should inspire and empower us all. As we light the candles on the Advent wreath, let our hope and trust in God grow with the increasing light. The Advent season, focusing on the anticipation of Christ’s birth, is a fitting time to reflect on the nature of God as revealed in the biblical text. Let us recognize him when we look into the face of the baby who will be born in a few days in Bethlehem. I add my heartfelt congratulations to Lucia and wish everyone a blessed day.

Let’s stop today at the verb to try, which we heard in the first reading. What does it mean? It can be replaced by the words irritate, anger, anger, worry. It also describes a bit: to tempt. King Ahaz, to Isaiah’s offer to ask for a sign, replies: “I will not ask, I will not tempt the Lord.” All the alternative meanings of the word tempt fit the context and complete the situation. Tempting God means putting his goodness and omnipotence to the test by word or deed.

Ahaz completes the story. King Ahaz of Judah devoted himself to idolatry and even burned his son in sacrifice to Moloch (2 Kings 16, 3). When the Syrian and Ephraim armies entered Judah to depose him, the frightened king sent word to Tiglath-Pileser, the mighty ruler of Assyria. He handed him the treasures from the Jerusalem Temple with a request that sounded like a blasphemous prayer: “I am your servant and your son. Come and save me … “(2 Kr 16.7).

Could such a king accept the offer of God’s help, ask for a sign, pray? Certainly not. That’s why he says that he doesn’t want to tempt God. Therefore, Isaiah gave him a sign in the prophecy: And thus the Lord will provide you with a sign: Behold, a virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and she will call his name Immanuel.” This sign has two meanings. The first was fulfilled in the reign of Ahaz’s son Hezekiah. For the Jews, Hezekiah became a messianic figure, a symbol of God’s affection for his people – and a call to the people to be faithful to Yahweh.

At the same time, this prophecy of Isaiah foreshadows Jesus Christ, God’s Messiah. He was born of a virgin and was called Emmanuel, “God with us”. “Behold, a virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call his name Immanuel, which in translation means: God with us” (Mt 1, 23). He came to save people from something more significant than conquerors. He came to free us from sin and death. God always fulfills what he promised – even after centuries! Jesus assured us that he would always be with us until the end of time, and through the Eucharist, he fulfilled his promise (Mt 28, 20). He is always “God with us.”

Jan Didakus /Juan Diego/ Cuauhtlatoatzin

John Didacus

CURRICULUM VITAE

He came from an Indian tribe in Mexico. Raised in paganism, he lived according to his conscience, and after the arrival of the Franciscans, he accepted the faith with his wife. He became a sincere Christian, and from December 9 to 12, 1531, he experienced four encounters with the Virgin Mary, who demanded the construction of a church on Tepeyac Hill. She sent flowers for the bishop as a sign and created an extraordinary, breathtaking image on his mantle. After completing the task, he became a churchwarden in the new church, a witness to the faith, and a model of Marian worship.

CV FOR MEDITATION

SERVANT OF OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE

He was born around 1474 in Cuautitlán, 20 km from Mexico City. He was initially named Cuauhtlatoatzin – Talking Eagle (“the one who speaks the language of an eagle”). His upbringing followed Aztec principles focused on self-control and preparation for battle. As a boy, he graduated from a kind of Aztec military academy. Here, he learned how to lead battles and capture the enemy so that he could be a living sacrifice to the god Huitzilopochtli. As an adult, he married the Indian Maintain – “venerable pasture”.

In 1524, when the first Franciscans began to operate in the region, he went to Tenochtitlan, two miles away, to follow them and accept Christian teachings about God. Turibius of Benedetto baptized him and his wife. At the same time, he took the new name Jan Didakus (in the local language, Juan Diego) and his wife Malintzin-Maria Lucia. After five years, she became seriously ill and died. Jan Didakus then moved to his uncle Jan Bernardino in Tolpetlac, where he was much closer to the church in Tlatelolco (the original name was probably Tlatilolco). Every Saturday and Sunday, he set out barefoot on a three-hour journey to attend Holy Mass. At that time, only Aztecs of the upper social classes wore sandals. He went out into the cold morning dressed in a tilma woven from the fibers of the agave plant.

He was 57 when he left so early on December 9, 1531. That day, near a hill called Tepeyac, he heard a sweet, unusual song, which, at first, he thought was a bird’s song. Suddenly, it was replaced by a voice calling his name. On the hill, he found a very beautifully dressed girl and was amazed at the radiance and charm of the one who addressed him in his dialect.

She presented herself to him as the perpetual Virgin and Mother of the true God, the Author of life, who created and sustains all things. She told him she longed for a temple to be built where she had shown him. There, she wanted to show her love, favor, help, and protection because she was the kind Mother of all. She promised that there she would listen attentively to the cries of those who came to her, show them favor in their need, and bring relief in every distress.

For this reason, she sent him to Bishop John of Zumarrága, and both were to participate in realizing her wish. The bishop listened to him, but he found Didaku’s words untrustworthy. He invited him to come again so that he would think about his wish for the time being, but at the same time, he made it clear that he was not serious about the matter. That very day, John Didakus went to the place of the apparition to complain to the Queen of Heaven about his failure and ask her to send someone more suitable in his place. However, she had a reason for choosing him, a small peasant.

On Sunday, he went to the bishop again, and the bishop got rid of him by demanding a sign. At the same time, he had him followed, but below the hill of Tepeyac, Jan Didakus disappeared from the pursuers’ eyes. At the top, Didakus presented the bishop’s request to the Mother of God, and she told him to come the next day for the desired sign.

Didakus had to go home and, the next day, first called a doctor for his sick uncle. When Didakus brought him in, the doctor discovered the seriousness of the illness and declared that he was helpless. The dying uncle expressed his desire for Holy Confession and urged Jan to go and get a priest for him on the night of Monday to Tuesday the 12th. John Didacus was, therefore, in a great hurry and wanted to miss the place of the apparition, so he went a little lower. However, the Virgin Mary blocked his way. She revealed to him that she knew the situation well and showed herself as the one who had the power to protect her servants and help them. She emphasized that he should not be discouraged by anything and did not need to worry about his uncle’s illness. She said: “Am I not here, your Mother? Am I not the source of life? … He will not die from the illness he suffers from; be assured in your heart that he is already healed.” (The sudden healing was later proven.) John believed her words, even when she sent him to the top for flowers, where otherwise only cacti grew and perhaps even snow lay. Nevertheless, he picked beautiful, fragrant Castilian roses and other flowers there to serve as a sign to the bishop. An even greater sign was the image that the Mother of God caused to appear on John’s tilma – an agave cloak – when it was opened before the bishop. This image provided later amazing revelations, described in the monument to P. Mary 12. 12. The bishop believed him and decided to build. He kept John until the next day and then sent him with an escort to Tepeyac, where the Virgin Mary appeared to him 4 times. Since he also spoke to his uncle, the escort accompanied him. He testified that the Virgin Mary suddenly healed him at the time above when she also appeared to his nephew (December 12), and added that he must go to the bishop to tell him everything he had seen, how he had been miraculously healed, and that they should call that sublime image Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Since the completion of the shrine of the “Lady of Heaven” (1533), Jan Didakus took care of this small church with great love and righteousness as a churchwarden and bore witness to the pilgrims who came and encouraged them with the example of his life. His life force was the Eucharist, which Bishop Zumarraga allowed him to receive thrice a week, although this was unusual. He deeply revered the Mother of Jesus in prayer and penance. He was not attracted to earthly things, and he showed significant manifestations of faith, hope, love, humility, and obedience to spiritual shepherds. Furthermore, he took care of the shrine until the end of his life and, according to tradition, died at the end of May 1548. However, the anniversary of his meeting with the Virgin Mary is also given, on which the Pope established his memorial and inclusion in the church calendar in 2002.

A significant miracle for the beatification process was the sudden change in the life of drug addict Juan José Silva Barragán three days after an injury that was incompatible with life. The perfect recovery occurred in the intensive care unit in Durango, Mexico City, after the prayers of John Didacus.

Pope John Paul II elevated him to the veneration of the altar on May 6, 1990. He proclaimed his canonization on July 31, 2002, in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in the presence of 12,000 people, with another 30,000 people watching the ceremony on giant screens around the sanctuary.

RESOLUTION, PRAYER

We are all to bear some witness of trust in God’s love, especially where it is lacking. After reflecting on how much of this trust has been evident in my life, I will prayerfully decide to take a concrete step of correction.

O God, in Saint John Didacus’s life, you have shown the love of the Most Holy Virgin Mary for your people. Grant us, through his intercession, that we may be obedient to the warnings that this our Mother gave us in Guadalupe, and may we always strive to do your will. Through your Son Jesus Christ, our Lord lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, a world without end. 

The evangelist Luke already describes what the prophet Isaiah predicts in the distant future as a present, currently unfolding story. It also speaks to our reality. The prophecy is fulfilled: Jesus heals two blind men. How can we recognize ourselves in this story as it relates to us? Even if someone doesn’t need prescription glasses, they will understand that we all have more or less severe vision impairments. It is the spiritual quality of our outlook. A person can be blind or blinded by pride. He may be blinded by passion or anger. He may be dazzled by someone or something that prevents him from seeing properly.

He can be myopic if he cannot see beyond his worries and troubles and the narrow horizon of his interests. Likewise, he can be spiritually far-sighted if he sees the big goal clearly, but he stumbles over small everyday obstacles he cannot see. He can also live in a “gray haze” when egoism dulls and clouds the vision, so he sees his fellow man, the world, and nature blurred, distorted, or obscured. The disease of correct spiritual vision is also a deceptive view in black or perhaps in pink colors.

To see, to truly see, means to see with Christ’s gaze through the lens of his heart. If the famous writer (Saint-Exupéry) said that “we see correctly only with the heart,” this is only part of the truth. More precisely, we see rightly only with a pure heart, and we see best with the heart of Christ. Only those who meet him in living prayer, in the sacraments of the Church, and the Scriptures gradually adopt his way of seeing, understanding, and evaluating everything around us and ourselves. Scripture also speaks in many places about the human heart, and even characterizes it as deceitful, twisted, hardened, stubborn, etc.

He speaks of it as a place from which even evil things emanate. It is not good to idealize the human heart. Only a heart renewed by God and his grace, a heart that loves God, discovers its true power of goodness. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Yes, Lord, we, too, are blinding, and we need to encounter your healing love. May our eyes be opened, and we see. May even our hearts in their deepest core be constantly renewed in you. May it also be fulfilled so we can see correctly, clearly, and distinctly.

Life wisdom teaches us all that prevention is better than cure. We know how complicated the healing process can be. 

Today’s celebration of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary is the most striking example of God’s extraordinary preventive help, as the angel said: “Full of grace.”

On December 8, the entire Western Church celebrates the feast of the Virgin Mary c, received without the stain of original /today t, the term original/ sin is more commonly used. Many believers believe the Immaculate Conception refers to how the Virgin Mary conceived Jesus. However, this is a mistake – this is how the Virgin Mary herself was conceived. That is why the Immaculate Conception is also celebrated precisely 9 months before the feast of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, which is commemorated every year on September 8. The Church’s teaching on the Immaculate Conception results from many centuries of prayer and theological development, during which the understanding of the Virgin Mary’s role in the history of salvation has continued to grow. 

Already, the Fathers of the first century were developing the theology of Mary as the new Eve. It begins around the beginning of the fifth century, mainly thanks to St. Augustine, to more precisely formulate the doctrine of hereditary /original/ sin. Of course, the theologians immediately began to ask themselves how it was with the original sin in Mary. Was she subjected to him, too? The Franciscan Bl also asked this question. John Duns Scotus. He taught that, according to him, Mary, due to her natural origin, was subject to the law of sin like any other person. She, too, needed redemption, just like all humans. However, by God’s special preventive intervention, she was saved from the stains of any sin, so she entered earthly life already in a state of grace. Therefore full of grace. She, too, was redeemed by Christ, but in a more perfect way than other people, because she was freed from sin in advance, that is, preventive, while others are freed from the injury of the already existing one. This way of redemption is a unique privilege that God granted as an undeserved gift only to Mary because she was to become the mother of the Redeemer. 

To understand this secret, let’s use an analogy: Imagine a person who falls into a bottomless pit. Someone else walks by and pulls him out of the pit. He will free him. That man was saved from the pit. Let’s imagine then that another woman is walking around. She, too, is about to fall into the pit, but just then, someone else catches her so she doesn’t fall into the pit. She was also saved from the pit, but obviously in a better – preventive way: she was not only subsequently pulled out of the pit, but someone prevented her from falling into it and getting injured by the fall. Christians have used this simile for centuries to explain how Christ saved Mary. By receiving Christ’s grace at her conception, she received this grace before it could be defiled by original sin and guilt. So, even here, prevention is better than subsequent treatment and strenuous recovery.

On this day, we also remember that life has been sacred from conception. That is why we Christian believers are against abortion. This well-known example from history also strengthens our conviction.

 A professor at a well-known medical school presented an ethical problem to the students: “The father suffers from a venereal disease, and the mother has tuberculosis. Four children were born to them – the first was visually impaired, the second died, the third became deaf, and the fourth inherited tuberculosis. However, the mother became pregnant again and together with the father, she would come to you for advice. If they were considering an abortion, what advice would you give them?” Students formed consultation groups and consulted. Finally, they all decided to recommend abortion. “Congratulations,” said the professor. “You just killed Beethoven.” Even if someone objected that this is a popularized and exaggerated story, the fact remains that Beethoven’s mother was very poor and sickly, worked as an ordinary maid, and his father – although a musician – was a notorious alcoholic, an obscene and cruel person. Nevertheless, the mother accepted each child, and thanks to this, we can listen to many of his musical works. Life is sacred because it comes from God.

Only one thing really destroys a person’s life—sin. Even today’s holiday shows us that God wants to help us in every possible way to break free from the slavery of sin. It’s hard work. He gives us his whole life. He gives us all the means for this, including the intercession of the spiritual mother, Mary. Let’s use these means to save ourselves. 

Beloved,today we gather  to  reflect  on a profound  passage from the  book of  Isaiah, specifically ,  This  scripture offers  chapter 25 verses 6-10 This  scripture offers a vision of hope and  divibe promise in  the face  of human despair. As we  delve into these verses, let  us  open our  hearts  to  the  message, of God*s grace  and  the  celebration of His  eternal kinngdom.

Isaiah begins  with a vivid metaphor, a feast prepared by  the Lord  on  His  holy mountain. This ist  no ordinary banquet.It  is  a gathering for  all  peoples, symbolizing inactivity in God’s kingdom. Imagine the  richness of  the food, the  aged wine,  and  the  best of  meats- elements of  joy , celebration, and  abudance. This  imagery invites us to envision a future where God’s  presence brings nourishment, satisfaction. and unity.

In verses  7 and 8 we see the promise of  God’s  transformative power. He will destroy  the  shroud that covers  all nations a metaphor for the  sorrow, death and  despair that weigh heaavily  on humanity. The  promise  that  Go  will ,, swallow up death forever” offers profound  hope. It  reminds us  that through Christ, death is  the  end  but  a passage to  eternal  life. The  tears we  shed  in grief and  the shame  we  carry  will be  wiped  away  by  our  loving God. This  is  the heart of  the Gospel the  assurance  that  is  intimately  involved  in our suffering  a  committed to our healing.

Verse 9 invites  us  into an active response. Surely this  is  our  God. WE trusted  in him, and  he  saved  us. Trust  is  a fundamental  aspect of  our  relationship with  God. In a world filled  with  uncertainty   and  fear. God calls  us  to  place our faith in Him. This  trust is not passive. It is  a declaration  of  our  belief  in His   promises. When  we  acknowledge God’s  sovereignty  and  faitfulness we  are  empowerd to rejoice in  His salvation,