What's in a dream?

December 18, 2019, Simbang Gabi

Matthew 1:18-24 

The message of the first reading is that it's a matter of looking back at history from the first moment God led Israel out of the land of Egypt to leading back the dispersed sons back home to Israel.

Joseph is part of that life history; he who contains the leniage of David in his blood.  He is a true Israelite as Jesus would also be.

I'm going to dwell on the dream, becuase that dream changed his mind. It could also change ours.

When was the last time we dreamt or even thought of spiritual things?  How will the spiritual enter our lives?  

I am not discounting sickness, death, or accident.  But these are sometimes the only things we ever had encounters of the spiritual.  When did we encounter the spiritual in our daily lives - the presence of our religious parents who never wearied in their obligation to show us God's presence?

And if ever they have failed, how about the presence of churches and the times we have been taught about the faith?  What about the time when we were children when our catechists would emphasize that we go to confession at least once a year, but now, we haven't gone to confession since grade 3?

If if that still fails, it would be totally impossible for us not to encounter a person who once invited us to go to church, or to join church organizations.  We must have been so calloused and insensitive not to respond to them.  Then how could we believe if the Lord would enter in our world even through a dream?

The point is, since our baptism, we have been endowed with the gift to detect even a tinge of goodness and admit that it was the Lord calling us.  We just need to harness that sensitivity and not just be wallowed by the materialistic world we're living in.

Second, we just need to explore more what lies beyond the dream.  What does the message imply to me?  What is the Lord trying to communicate to me?  He communicates love, an alternative to selfish living. 

Third, grant that we may respond affirmatively.  We have said no for so long.  The manifestation is the presence of evil by which we are consciously or unconsciously proliferating.  Why not succumb to the Divine call, and for once, change the world for good?

Now, apply it this Christmas.  Would it be just a fleeting moment that Christ was born; or would be a life-changing experience for us that we allowed Christ to be born in our hearts and changed us to be more active in serving him?  Follow our hearts.  They always lead us to God.