ABBA::: WEDNESDAY OF THE 27TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

 Year A

Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary 

Galatians 2:1-2.7-14

Psalm 117:1bc.2

Luke 11:1-4

ABBA

The feast of Our Lady of the Rosary was instituted to honor Mary for the Christian victory over the Turks at Lepanto on October 7, 1571. Pope St. Pius V and all Christians had prayed the Rosary for victory. This victory saved Europe from being overrun by the forces of Islam.

Lepanto, perhaps the most complete victory ever gained over the Ottoman Empire, on October 7, 1571, is commemorated by the invocation "Help of Christians," inserted in the Litany of Loretto. At Belgrade the Turks were defeated on the Feast of Our Lady ad Nives in 1716.   

A second victory gained that year on the Octave of the Assumption determined Pope Clement XI to command the Feast of the Rosary to be celebrated by the universal Church. Leo XIII added the invocation "Queen of the most Holy Rosary, pray for us," to the Litany of Loretto. 

The Feast is in reality a great festival of thanksgiving for the signal and countless benefits bestowed on Christendom through the Rosary of our blessed Queen. The Rosary, or the Psalter of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is one of the best prayers to Mary, the Mother of God.

When we call on Mary she does not come alone, she brings angels with her, not just one 

or two, for she is the Queen of angels, so choirs of angels come with her. And she and Jesus 

are joined at the heart and cannot be separated so she brings Jesus with her. And Jesus

cannot be separated from the Trinity so He brings the Father and the Holy Spirit with Him.

With this let's reflect on today's readings. 

ABBA

Imagine if you or the world just came into existence without any explanation or cause for your or the world's existence.  Some people may say the world came into existence by Chance. By attributing Chance as the cause of the world, although they are running away from the fact that a Supreme Being is the explanation of all that is, they still say that there is an explanation or cause for the existence of the world. 

That is, to them Chance is the explanation of the world's existence, and this simply means Chance caused the world to exist. Thus without Chance the world will not have come into being. But the problem with chance is that, without someone doing something, the possibility outcomes will not be.  Thus chance itself although is randomness, it triggered by something. 

Take the game of dice for instance, Chance is at play because the one playing the game does not know the outcome but evidently without this person the chances will not come. All games of chance depend on a person's influence.  Chance cannot be in Isolation and can not be the ultimate cause of the world. 

Chance itself must be cleared away from the picture of the Creation of the world, for God is all knowing and cannot rely on possible outcomes to create the world. This is actually funny if you think about it, How can an all knowing Being, not know what he is doing and the outcome of it already.  If God as his name suggests is the Being that everything that exists comes from, then there is no chance in him.

But then who is God to us since our natures are completely different; God nature is different from humans nature. God as the Creator of all things is the Father of all things.  But this does not mean God is personal to us. I can make a table and have no attachment to the table. On the other hand I can be attached to the table depending on how I put my all into making the table. 

God put his all into creating the world because he created the world with his Word, who as God's knowledge of himself is God. The affection between God and his creation is so great in this regard and hence God deserves to be called Father. 

With the same Love that he created the world where through his Word he called things into being and his Spirit fills them so that all creation will testify the glory of God (cf. Psalm 19), he created humans as Masters of all that he has created. First of all he is the Lord of all creation and to make us the master, he imprinted his image and likeness on us. Thus his affection for us humans is great, and because of this he has given us a great task, to look after what he created. 

After the fall, he came to restore the authority and task he has given us by coming in the form of man, to redeem us on the Cross. On the Cross the living water flowing is God the Holy Spirit (cf. Revelation 22:1), who through Baptism incorporate us into the body of Christ (cf. Acts 9:4). Now our sonship in God stems from the fact that we are made part of the body of Christ.  

The reason why God by becoming man has given us the opportunity to become divine is this;

John 3:13

And no man hath ascended into heaven, but he that descended from heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven. 

It is clear that in John's gospel Jesus Christ is God who tent among us, but why is it that he is saying the "Son of man who is in heaven". I think here we see clearly that the two natures of Christ Jesus were inseparable, and that since God is Triune and wherever One of the Persons are the Others are, when the Son was here on earth to redeem us, the Father and the Spirit were with him, and us they were in heaven, he was also with them. Thus in his person we see that he has really bridged the gap between God and Man.

So God is with us on Earth while he is in heaven, and if we are his sons and daughters, we are shares of his divine nature too.

By Sylvester Amakye-Quayson