BEING With The LORD

January 26, 2025 – Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/012625.cfm)

Usually whenever we begin the Eucharist, whenever we proclaim the Gospels, & whenever we partake God’s blessings, we begin by saying the greetings: “The Lord Be with you” with our usual response: “And with your spirit.” Such words of greetings are not only our proclamation of our faith, but moreso our acknowledgement of how blessed we are since the Lord is present upon us.

“The Lord Be With You… and with your spirit.” And so, how are you now?

With such question, easy for us to reply: “Well I’m okay, I’m fine, I’m good.” However, are we not supposed to be more than just feel okay, fine and good, but be happy, glad, thankful and lucky now? Why? Simply because of the good news that the Lord is being present with us now.

Our first reading today calls us “not to be sad and not to weep, but rejoice with the Lord” – because our Joy with Lord must be our Strength. Yes, we sometimes become so familiar with that message that it becomes so ordinary for us that we don’t anymore give value to its importance of how blessed we are for the Lord is with us. We should feel lucky and blessed, as well as be happy, joyful, and thankful because of the good news that the Lord is and be with you and us. REJOICE then for the Lord is with you & me.

“The Lord be with you… and with your spirit”. And so, do you believe in the good news that the Lord is upon us?

Yes, normally it is difficult for us to believe in the good news that the Lord is with us. Easier for us to accept that maybe or perhaps the Lord is with me, him, them, or us, but we at times doubt and ask: how can this be? How can the Lord be with me and us when we experience the world otherwise? Somehow it’s much easier for us to believe that we are possessed, cursed, condemned & unworthy than being blessed & graced God’s presence upon us. Same thing happened with Jesus in our gospel today. When he proclaimed to his townsfolk the message that the Lord is with Him and upon them, people doubt, cannot accept and believe in the message, asking same doubt: “How can this be?”

However, ever since before and until now, Jesus as Immanuel always proclaim to us and the world the same message: “God is with You. God is upon us.” BELIEVE it or not, but the message and reality is still the same: Immanuel, He, the God-with-us, is with Us. Now the question is: Are we with Him?

“The Lord be with you… and with your spirit”. Notice now our response has more conviction now than before. This is because we are now aware of the implications and consequences of this message. If the Lord is with us, what does it mean? As our 2^nd reading reminds us that we are part of one body. The greetings then mean that He is with me and I am with Him – He is part of me, and I am part of Him. In other words, if He is with me, I should and have to BE RESPONSIBLE for Him as much as He has been responsible for me and us (vice-versa).

For the past three Sundays now after Christmas we have been reflecting about the Mystery of the Light or the Luminous Mystery of the Holy Rosary. Here we recognize the public life & ministry of Jesus where it reveals to us how Jesus makes us know God the Father and shows us that through Jesus, God-is-with-us. In the Lord’s baptism, Jesus affirms and reminds us that He is God’s beloved son, as well as that you and I, we are God’s beloved children.

With Jesus, God’s beloved children is our very identity before God. (Ako, ikaw, tayo Anak ng Dios) In the Wedding in Cana, Jesus discloses to us that God continues to bless and perform miracles in the world by the way of the Sacrament of Christian marriage and family life with the Sto. Nino, Holy Child. And today, Jesus proclaims to ever-present Good News that God, through the Lord Jesus, is upon Us – God is with us.

May we always Rejoice, Believe and Be Responsible now for the Good News that God is upon Us, as proclaimed and shared to us by our Lord Jesus Christ.

So May It Be. Amen.