The dawning movement disturbs nothing.

The doorway to the Blessed Virgin’s home in Nazareth is the threshold between eternity and time: An angel on one side, the Blessed Virgin on the other.

The angel crosses. The silence only deepens, the expansive moment opens wide without ever losing its quality of near and almost practical imperceptibility.

This event is at once so honestly luminous, radiant, and real that it has a name: Gabriel.

“He entered Jericho & was passing through it. A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector & was rich” (Lk 19).

St Cyril of Alexandria says this means Zacchaeus was completely consumed by greed. This is the type of greed St Paul refers to as idolatry (Col 3:5). Despite his wealth, Zacchaeus found something attractive about the love of the Lord.

St Bonaventure says that the eagerness of Zacchaeus arises from prevenient grace, that grace that comes to us prior to any effort or meritorious action of our own will, draws us to the Lord.

As the Lord enters the city of Nain, He encounters a funeral procession approaching the city gate.

In one sense the gate that the procession approaches is the Lord Himself.

He is the gate to life (Jn 10: 9), the gate of the heavenly city, the narrow gate (Mt 7: 14; Lk 13: 24). In some way every death passes by the Lord.

At Nain, a young man, the only son of his widowed mother, is being carried forth from the city.

The scene is strikingly similar to Good Friday.

“Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” (Jn 8).

Even 1st year law students could have told you it was an open & shut case. The finest trial lawyer in the country couldn’t have gotten her out of this one.

She was caught in flagrante delicto: caught in the act.

The scribes & Pharisees have all they need: a crime, a defendant, witnesses, a law, proof ... and now all they needed was a judge & trial.

The account of Noah parallels creation:

The Lord sends the dove over the waters, as the spirit hovered over the waters at creation.

Noah’s opening the window of the ark parallels the creation of light.

Releasing the birds from the window parallels the creation of the sky. The return of the olive branch to Noah reminds us of the creation of land and plants.

The Lord establishing seedtime and harvest after the flood can be compared to the lights that divide the day and seasons in creation.

The Lord then reestablishes the animal world.

Fear is not meant to be a roadblock or a cliff. Fear is a path.

St. Bonaventure & St. Thomas Aquinas taught there are 4 types of fear:

1) worldly fear
2) servile fear
3) initial fear
4) filial fear

The Christian grows from one fear to the next, aiming for filial fear - awe. At first, believers find themselves surrounded by the ways of the world:

-fascination with power
-pursuit of pleasure
-fixation on getting one’s own way
-broken promises
-deceit in business
-short-term thrills
-useless worries.

These fears wound & quickly fill our thoughts.