Aguinaldo 2022 Day 3

Stewardship as Conversion

WORD

Isaiah 7: 10 – 14

Ps 24:1-2, 3-4, 5-6.

Rom 1:1-7

Mt 1:18-24

“Then Isaiah said: Listen, O house of David! Is it not enough for you to weary people, must you also weary my God? Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel.”

(From the First Reading)

“Who can ascend the mountain of the LORD? or who may stand in his holy place? One whose hands are sinless, whose heart is clean, who desires not what is vain. R. Let the Lord enter; he is king of glory.”

(From the Responsorial Psalm)

OBSERVE

1. Isaiah was commanded by the Lord to reproach Ahaz for his evil ways. The king was considered an evil ruler because he has no fear of the Lord. He even set up pagan altars in his kingdom.

He was more afraid of his earthly enemy, the king of Assyria rather than be afraid of the Lord.

2. The Lord in sending Isaiah to Ahaz was supposed to give the king a sign of assurance that the Lord is more powerful than any earthly ruler. The Lord can give him whatever signs Ahaz want.

However, Ahaz was more confident in the power of the earthly ruler rather than with the heavenly ruler, God who is the king of kings.

3. The sign of that the “virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel” in its original context refers to the birth of a king who will be righteous and who will restore the true worship in Jerusalem.

4. Christians, later on, realized that this prophecy refers to Jesus, the Messiah, who came to call us back to God and to assure us that “God is with us.”

RESPOND

Heavenly Father, you have sent your prophets to call us back from our lost ways.

With your compassionate love, you welcome us back into your loving embrace.

May your grace allow us to accept and trust in your wonderful ways,

Help us turn away from our old ways and expand our hearts to become part of your plans.

Touch our hearts and transform it to become like that of Jesus.

Amen.

DISCERN

1. Stewardship is a call to conversion, that it to re-direct our confidence and trust away from our own capacities and power to God.

It is to trust God who provides for our needs. It is to acknowledge that God is the Powerful and Almighty.

2. Nowadays, our society is verging away from God.

It is a society that is becoming more concerned in achieving whatever it wants through its own efforts. God is just Plan B.

It is only when we fail that we turn to God, even then we turn to him to blame him for failures,

3, Stewardship reminds us that everything, all that we have, is God’s grace. Once more we are invited by the Lord to make him the center of our lives in a concrete manner, not in intellectual assent or emotional respite.

By our practice of the spirituality of stewardship, we testify to the power of God’s providence and presence in our lives, he is “Emmanuel” (God with us).