One of the things that caused me to convert from Judaism to Catholicism is the fulfillment of prophecies. In the Old Testament there are over 300 prophecies relating to the Messiah or to the Messianic era. These are very specific prophecies, not some vague concept that if you close your eyes and held it up to the light in a certain way may or may not come true, but very specific prophecies.
In our first reading from Zechariah, we have one such prophecy. Zechariah is known as a “minor” prophet, not because of what he said, but because of the length of his writings. That is the difference between a “major” prophet like Isaiah, and a minor one. Here Zechariah predicts that the messiah will be riding on a colt, the foal of an ass into Jerusalem. This prophecy was written hundreds of years before the birth of our Lord, and of all the animals in the animal kingdom to choose from, this prophet gives a very specific animal and this prophecy is fulfilled on Palm Sunday when our Lord rides into Jerusalem not on a horse, or a camel, or a giraffe, but on a colt. Check out Luke 19:35. You may say “why is this important”? Because there are absolutely no prophecies about Buddha before he was born. No prophecies about Mohammad or Lao Tzu or Confucius or Plato or Socrates. None, zero, zilch, bubkiss. Yet there are over 300 relating to Jesus. This is just one of them. How cool is that!
In our second reading, St. Paul tells us to rise above our flesh and base desires and to let the Spirit of Christ reign in us. We are called to be a super-natural people, to rise above our base natures and live in the Spirit and graces of Christ.
Finally, our Lord tells us that His yoke is easy and His burden light. Once we immerse ourselves in Christ we are no longer slaves to our carnality, but born anew in the blessed fonts of baptism through water and the Holy Spirit. So, this week spend some time reading God’s Word. Ask the Holy Spirit to raise you up out of the baseness of our fallen nature, and finally spend time in prayer for our Lord and Savior simply says to all of us “Come unto me… and I will give you rest”. Now doesn’t that sound good. Something to think about. May God richly bless all of you!