On Faith

“All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet:
Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel,which means
”God is with us.”
                Matthew 1:22

Happy Fourth Sunday of Advent!

There are only two infancy narratives, one in Luke and one in Matthew; Mark and John apparently did not think an origin story was needed. Luke’s story and Matthew’s story have little in common. Luke, a radically feminist apostle and apparently a pagan Greek convert, centers his story on Mary. Matthew, however, seems to be a Jew who is familiar with Jerusalem. He centers his story on Joseph of the house of David to cement Jesus in the long history of Israel as the longed-for Messiah.

What these stories have in common is the obedience of Joseph in Matthew and Mary in Luke. Both have mystical experiences of being told to do something that required immense amounts of faith: Mary to have a child that she is going to have to explain is divine and Joseph to accept that child as his own. By their faith, God took the form of a human, challenged religious authority, and brought the sins of humanity down upon himself. The God who is love came for all the world.

The Jewish prophets down through Jesus denounced their societies for not caring for the poor. We at St. Therese have a couple of ways to help. The St. Vincent de Paul Society leads our efforts to keep people in their homes. If interested, email Bob Mackin at rmackinatty@yahoo.com, and Catholic Community Services, the largest private social service program in Washington State also needs your support. Please support their efforts at ccsww.org/donatenow.

This is also the time to reflect on our gratitude for our St. Therese Parish and how we can let that be reflected in our giving. Two excellent stewardship reflections were offered in the last two weeks and are available on st-therese.cc here. To pledge your support for your parish, please do so here.