The Coming of the Lord

Today’s first reading, Malachi 3: 1-4, 23-24, opens with the statement “Lo, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me; and suddenly there will come to the temple the Lord whom you seek.”  We can apply that message to ourselves.  Today in each of its events and encounters, the Lord sends a messenger to prepare you and me for His coming. Every day, God does this.  Does God find me sleeping, inattentive, distracted?  We are told by the prophet Malachi that “[s]uddenly there will come to the temple the Lord whom you seek.”  Suddenly the Lord, whom we seek and for whom we long, will come to the temples of our bodies in the host consecrated at every Catholic Liturgy and received in Holy Communion.  This Christmas we celebrate God coming on earth as a living, gentle, smiling, dependent infant.

God also comes to us in a whisper of hope,  a touch of caring love, as an inspiring thought,  a gentle reminder, as a spring rain or softly falling snow whitening the ground , flowers opening/revealing their beauty in the spring of the year,  as sunrises and sunsets bursting with bright light across the horizon. Am I awake to the Lord’s coming? Am I aware? Am I seeking the Lord in all of the events of the day, in the changing of the seasons, in the awakening of the dawn and the approach of darkness? Or am I too full of selfishness, too busy with projects, too angry and resentful or anxious over worldly cares to notice?  When that is so, Lord, I ask for forgiveness and healing, mercy and love so that I may see you each day, working quietly and lovingly in my midst.