26 March 2012

26 March 2012



"Holocausts or sin-offerings you sought not;
then said I, "Behold I come."


We can see in the obedience of Mary the dawn of what salvation truly means. She is simple.  She does no great things.  She is even afraid.  And yet perfect obedience is first manifest in her.  Throughout the rest of history we clung to the externals of law and sacrifice because we could focus on them and ignore the fact that we couldn't get our hearts right.  We could
never find the words we most wanted to say:


"Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.
May it be done to me according to your word."


We refused to ask the LORD for a sign when he wanted us to ask and yet insisted on it when we desired it as superfluous entertainment.  Even so, the LORD brings forth the sign of signs.  The virgin conceives and gives birth to Emmanuel, God with us.


Both Mary and Jesus together say: "Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will."


Jesus and Mary give the entirety of their very selves since they know that all that they have is from the Father.  We approach oblations and sin-offerings as if they are things of value to God. We treat them like bargaining chips which he is bound to acknowledge. In fact he gives them to us because they are of value to us.  But if his will is not first in our hearts they will never do in our hearts what they are intended to do.  


We need his law to be in our hearts.  We need his obedience in our hearts.  We need his "I come to do your will" in our hearts:


"By this "will," we have been consecrated
through the offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all."


The LORD wants to overshadow all of his people and to fill us all with his Spirit and thereby unite us to the one offering which truly pleases him. He wants us to be brought in fully to the kingdom which shall not end.  Let us not restrain our lips from praising him.  Let us make
no secret of the kindness and truth which have come to set all things right. Finally we will be able to say these words with all sincerity:


"To do your will, O my God, is my delight,
and your law is within my heart!"