Quick Summary:

In the language of opera and film it’s called a LEITMOTIF—a musical theme that recurs again and again, with a rhythm and melody connected to a particular person, idea, or emotion. Within the pages of Scripture there are leitmotifs, too—themes that resound throughout the long saga of God’s unfolding salvation story. And today one of those themes is before us, linking our first reading with the gospel. We first hear this theme in Genesis when Sarah comes on the scene, and it repeats itself in subsequent generations—with Rebekah and then with Rachel. It reverberates again in the book of Judges. And this morning we hear it once more in the poignant, personal story of Hannah: God makes a way where there is no way.

In the gospel, Jesus picks up the theme as he lives out his final days in Jerusalem and warns his disciples about chaos that is to come. THESE, he says, ARE NOT THE END BUT THE BIRTHPANGS.