Malachi 3:1-4 Hebrews 2:14-18 Luke 2:22-40

Because of the emphasis the Church puts on the First Reading and the Gospel every Sunday, we don’t usually get to hear as much about the Second Reading. But, today I want to take you there. Today’s Second Reading (from Hebrews) contains a gem of wisdom that bears further attention and reflection.
It all has to do with the empathy of God. As Christians, we acknowledge that Jesus is both fully divine and fully human. Personally, over the years I have probably spent more time thinking about the divinity of Jesus Christ than about his humanity. However, his complete humanity is also vitally important for understanding who he is…who God is. In order to fully understand what it means to be a human being, God deemed it necessary to become one of us, in the person of Jesus. God wanted to experience the thoughts, emotions, joys and challenges; the moments of elation and of suffering - all the attributes of a human being, except, of course, sinfulness. All of these experiences gave him the ability to understand, from a human perspective, what it means to be human.
So, it seems to me that God has “complete empathy”. God understands both the heights of our joy and the depths of our suffering with absolute clarity. God is actually the only one who can say with complete honesty: “I know exactly how you feel”! This very special attribute contributes to God’s ability to love each one of us like no one else can possibly love us.
The next time I am tempted to think: “No one understands my pain and suffering”, I hope I will remember that there is one who understands me perfectly, and loves me un-con-di-tion-al-ly!
Whenever we are praying, whatever we are praying about, we will be aided by remembering that we are praying to the one who understands us better than anyone else and loves us more than anyone else. I think that is a great place from which to begin any prayer to our wonderful, empathetic God.
by: Bill Miller
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