Preparing for Our Savior's Coming

As we are enter the second week of Advent, we continue readings from the book of Isaiah.  Today, Monday, the 11th f Dec., Isaiah again brings us a message of hope:  The desert and the parched land will exalt; the steppe will rejoice and bloom....The glory of Lebanon will be given to them, the splendor of Carol and Sharon; they will see the glory of the Lord, the splendor of our God."  The prophet  asks us to "strengthen the hands that are feeble make firm the knees that are weak, say to those whose hearts are frightened: Be strong, fear not! Here is your God, he does with vindication; with divine recompense he comes to save you."

May our hearts rejoice at the coming of our God, a God as tender and loving as an infant, a God who has the power to melt those parts of us frozen by hatred, greed, or deceitfulness; a God who has the power to turn sin into holiness, a God who is able to transform that within us that which is  enslaved to God substitutes: power, pleasure, and control.  God "comes to save" us from all that causes division and from all that prevents us from loving freely and generously, from all that creates indifference among us.

Let us prepare for the coming of our Savior by taking time to call upon the Lord on a daily basis, reflecting on the Word of God in the Scriptures or in a favorites book that lifts our souls to the Lord in prayerful reflection on the meaning of Advent.

The Coming of Our Lord to Bring about Relationship Changes

In today’s first reading, Malachi 3: 1-4, 23-24, the Lord God says to us: Lo, I will send you Elijah, the prophet, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and terrible day, to turn the hearts of the fathers[mothers]  to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers/[mothers].”   Is it possible that the Lord says this because the root of anger, hostility, and animosity is a father’s/a mother’s rejection and indifference towards the children, a parents’ abuse of their children and one another with harsh, loveless words?  Is that why Malachi says that the Lord sends prophets “to turn the hearts of the father/mother to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers/mothers” and, I would say, to one another?  And, in fact, is God saying that divisions, animosities, hostilities must give way to unity, respect, humility, love, mercy, understanding and forgiveness, starting with a father’s/a mother’s attitude towards children and toward one another; that parents’ authority over children is not to be abusive, oppressive, and/or frightening?

As our models, we can, I believe, take to heart the example of the holy family!

These are my thoughts as I reflect upon Malachi 3: 1-4, 23-24. What are yours? To what is God calling you?

God's Coming in a "Dense Cloud"

In today’s first reading, Exodus 19: 1-2,9-11, 16-20b,  we read:  “I am coming to you in a dense cloud, so that when the people hear me speaking with you, they may always have faith in you also.”  Is it not true that most days God comes to us in “dense clouds?”  Only through faith, do we see and hear God. Many times,  we don’t see him and  don’t hear his voice.  Concerning His speaking to the crowd in parables, Jesus says to His disciples in today’s Gospel (Matthew 13: 10:17):  “This is why I speak to them in parables, because they look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand.”

Is that not true of you and me at times; namely that 1) we look at people but really do not see their beauty and goodness as a child of God and 2) that we hear what they are saying but are not really listening or understanding? Our eyes can be blinded by our prejudices or by whatever preoccupies us. Past hurts that we have suffered from them can cause us to automatically turn them off or prompt us to walk away from them.  Things we heard about them from others can also blind us to their goodness, their beauty, their authentic person-hood.  Our ears hear but we may not be truly listening or understanding anything they are saying, though we may pretend to be listening and understanding.

However, there are also times when the Lord reveals “the mysteries of the Kingdom” through these very people we have blocked out. Our eyes and ears are opened by the Lord’s forgiveness and our own. We see differently. We truly listen, putting our personal issues aside, and understand. O, the grace of Almighty God—each one of us grows into being “hearing, listening, understanding” individuals. Christ in us increases and the ego-self decreases (cf.John 3:30).

Waiting for the Lord in Courage

In today’s first reading, 1 Thes 5: 1-6, 9-11, St. Paul reminds us that “the Lord will come like a thief at night.”  However, he says,  we are “not of the night or of darkness.” Being a child “of the light” and a child  “of the day,” we are capable of being “alert and sober,” at the Lord’s coming.  In fact,  this particular day will be a day of great rejoicing because “God did not destine us for wrath, but to gain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live together with him.”

What awesome promises and capabilities.  By virtue of our redemption in Christ Jesus, we have nothing to fear.  Our destination is God’s welcoming invitation to enter life eternal, where there are no more tears, no more suffering, no more death, no more violence, no more sin.  Pure light and holiness,  total transformation into Christ awaits us. 

With the writer of today’s responsorial psalm, we pray: “I believe that I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living,” and I also “wait for the Lord with courage; [am] stouthearted in my “wait for the Lord.”

What about you?