Sunday 20A, 2008 Print print this page                 

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A house of prayer for all peoples; 600 years before Jesus.
Jesus: I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.
St Paul: apostle of the pagans

God –as we know him - revealed himself to Abraham – about 2000 years before Jesus - and explained to him that he was the only true and living God, who made heaven and earth, all that is seen and unseen; and that Abraham was chosen to be the recipient of a special favour.
God also spoke to Abraham’s son and grandson, then after a long interval to Moses to whom he said that he chose the people of Israel to be his own people of all the nations on the face of the earth; he would be their God and they would be his people.
This happened about 1500 years before Jesus.

Then about 900 years later God announced through the prophet Isaiah –as we heard in the first reading – that anybody, not just the Jews but anybody who wanted to belong to God’s people would be welcome if they observed the covenant.
So at first the Chosen People were exclusively the Israelites but later people from other nations were invited as well.

In the Gospel we heard that this process was repeated by Jesus;
at first he declared that his mission was only to the lost sheep of Israel.

Later he revealed that he came to save all mankind. br /> Finally, before his ascension to heaven he instructed to apostles to baptise all nations and pass onto them his teaching and commandments.
St. Paul writing to the Romans explains that the Jews are still the Chosen People, even if they reject Jesus for the time being.

W We who are living now have entered this salvation history and can live our life as Christians.
There is a massive wealth of information and human experience available to us about the revelations of God.
We can see that things change and develop even in God’s relationship with people.

Therefore we must be open to change and development.

We must never believe that we know everything there is to know about God and life.
God is infinite, there is always another surprise for tomorrow if we keep our eyes, ears and heart open.

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