This weekend is one of two that prepare us for the feast of the Nativity of Christ – the incarnation of God in the Person of Jesus. It is called the weekend of the Forefathers of Christ according to the flesh. The Patriarch Abraham is commemorated since it was to him that God’s promise was first given – given some two thousand years before Christ and when Abraham was seventy-five years of age, according to Tradition. We pray today:
Through faith, O Christ, You justified the Patriarchs, for through them You made a commitment to a church with gentiles. These Saints are glorified because from them descends the Virgin who gave You birth. Through their prayers, O Christ our God, have mercy on us.
Our first reading is taken from Paul’s letter to the Colossians. In this letter he urges the Colossians and us to “put on a new man, one who grows in knowledge as he is formed anew in the image of his Creator’. This is the same call that Christ gives us. Let us, as we prepare to celebrate these feasts, grow in our knowledge of the revelation God has given us through His incarnation as a hu-man being. If we do, we will strive to grow in our “likeness” of Jesus, God’s revelation of how human beings should live in order to achieve the purpose and meaning of their lives.
Our second reading, taken from Luke’s Gospel, retells the parable of the dinner party that all invited guests refused to attend. It is meant to remind us that, like Abraham, we have been invited to embrace a certain way of living.
For us Christians, the way of living that we are called to embrace is that modeled by the Person of Jesus. God doesn’t force us to embrace the Jesus-way-of-living, but has shown us that this particular way of living will help us to spiritually grow. That is the primary purpose of this present earthly life – to spiritually grow so that we will be more like Jesus – be a child of our Heavenly Father.
We can accept the invitation given to us to become like Jesus and fulfill the purpose and meaning of our lives, or we can reject it. If we do refuse, we are the ones who loose what God has promised awaits us in the next life. It’s our choice.