Mercy Triumphs: Weekly Homilies of a Catholic Priest

I’m sure we’ve heard people say that they love a person but they don’t like them because of whatever wrong they’ve done. Well, that’s not true for God: Even in the messiness of our sin, God not only loves you, He delights in you. You are God‘s delight. We hear that in the first reading from Isaiah, “The LORD delights in you.” Got delights in you. Imagine that. …And we give gifts to people we delight in, right? Well, in the second reading from Saint Paul, Paul lists a number of spiritual gifts that God gave and were exhibited in the church at Corinth. And, remember, Corinth was simply a city with a community of Christians, just like Elma/W. Seneca is a town with a community of Christians. There wasn’t anything special about Corinth. And, in this community of Christians who happened to live in Corinth, Paul is pointing out numerous gifts that these ordinary Christians were exhibiting: Supernatural gifts of wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, mighty deeds, prophecy, discernment, tongues, i...

In the first reading, we hear that dromedaries, which is a type of camel, will bring gold and frankincense to a reestablished and glorified city of Jerusalem. Jerusalem had been conquered; the people from Jerusalem were kicked out but, now, God promises to bring them back and, as a consolation to those who suffered exile, He's making Jerusalem far more beautiful than it ever was. And it says that the dromedaries, carrying these tremendous gifts to Jerusalem, are from Midian and Ephah. What’s the significance of these two cities: Midian and Ephah? Well, in the Book of Genesis, Midian and Ephah were sons of Abraham, and it was the descendants of Midian who became enemies to the Israelites: the Midianites who lived east of Israel, were dreaded by the Israelites. So, what God is saying through Isaiah about gifts coming from Midian and Ephah is that Jerusalem is going to be such an amazing city that even its non-Jewish enemies will come to honor it. Which is a foreshadowing of ...