Scripture:
Ask a sign of the LORD your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven. Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel.
Isaiah 7:11,14
Meditation:
Today’s reading once again reminds us of the prophetic tradition that is so much a part of Hebrew and Christian traditions. Isaiah’s vision of a woman who will bear a son to be called Emmanuel, or God With Us, brings us back to Advent and the person of Mary.
Why was this selection part of today’s Lectionary readings? I think it was to remind us, in the midst of Jesus’s hard journey in the wilderness of Lent, that Jesus still remains for us a living, breathing human being, born to a young unmarried woman. He will live in us forever and we must not lose sight of that gift to us, even as he approaches the suffering of the cross.
Prayer:
Dear Lord: Help us to remember the path of your life, hold its beauty and its suffering in our hearts.
LO