Thursday, May 7th, 2020

St Paul makes a very important point in our first reading today. It doesn’t sound that important though - more like...really boring. “ ‘Men of Israel, and fearers of God, listen! The God of our nation Israel chose our ancestors, and made our people great when they were living as foreigners in Egypt; then by divine power he led them out, and for about forty years took care of them in the wilderness.” And he then goes to list the whole history of the people of Israel. Blah, blah, blah. Except this is a crucial point in understanding who Jesus is. First of all that Jesus is not a newbie out of nowhere: he is already familiar to mankind, for over 2000 years guiding, forming, protecting, teaching and strengthening the people of Israel. And second that he is not an accident, a blip in the history of the world: that Jesus is the origin of the world - that without him, there is no world, there is nothing. Jesus, in other words, is the central axis of all of history. And so turning to him as our saviour - truly, we know we will be saved.

Let us pray:

“O God, who restore human nature

to yet greater dignity than at its beginnings,

look upon the amazing mystery of your loving kindness,

and in those you have chosen to make new

through the wonder of rebirth

may you preserve the gifts

of your enduring grace and blessing.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever.”