11/21/2014 – Friday of 33rd week in ordinary time – Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary– Revelation 10:8-11

      Several times in Sacred Scripture, prophets are told to eat pages of God’s Holy Word.  This happens to the prophets Ezekiel and Jeremiah in the Old Testament.  But, today, we hear it happen to John in the book of Revelation.  Asking these men to actually eat the pages of God’s word is symbolic of how the word is supposed to become a part of their entire being.  God wants us to digest his Word, for it to become a part of us, and for us to assimilate his Word into our lives entirely.  By eating God’s Word, John acquired a greater understand of it.

      And that is the thing about the Word of God.   If we believe in the truth contained in it, it is more than mere information.   Instead, it is a transformative experience in our lives.  Right now, we are being pressured by our society to accept its version of what is truth, often based upon what is politically correct.  Sometimes God’s Word can be difficult and challenging.  It can make us uncomfortable.  God’s Word sometimes requires us to make sacrifices.   But, if we truly apply God’s Word into our lives, it will transform us and change us.  Then, there will be no turning back.

        Today, we celebrate the presentation of the Virgin Mary in the Temple in our Church’s liturgical calendar.  This event does not have a direct reference in the Gospels, but it can be traced to other first century writings & to tradition in the early Church.  Tradition teaches us that Mary was taken to the Temple in Jerusalem when she was a young girl.  She must have spent a great deal of time in the Temple preparing for her eventual role as the mother of our Lord and the mother of Church.  We can use our imagination and our understanding of Mary from Scripture and from tradition to reflect upon what her childhood and her journey of faith might have been like before the annunciation with the Angel Gabriel.  Although Mary probably spent much time in the Temple and in the study of God’s Word and tradition, she also probably spent a lot of time with St. Anne and St. Joachim, her mother & father, growing up in a loving family who exposed her to the reality of life around her, including the sufferings of the poor.  Like Mary and the prophets, may we allow God’s Word and the calling he gives us to transform our lives and make us truly his disciples.