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.

Directed by "angels"

In today's first reading an angel of the Lord instructs Philip to "get up and head south on the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza, the desert route" (Acts 8: 26-40).  He meets up with "an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, that is, the queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury, who had come to Jerusalem to worship" and on his way back was reading the Scriptures but not understanding a thing he was reading. God's plan was that Philip explain the Scriptures to him. He catches up with his chariot, asks what he is reading and proceeds to proclaim Jesus to him, as all of Scripture is really about God's plan of salvation and the role of Jesus as Messiah, King, and Savior of the entire world.

What would you and I do when, out of the blue, God instructs us to "get up and head south" to "the desert route." When anything "goes south," or when anyone is in a desert, parched, dried up, unable to generate life and be productive, human nature has a tendency to bulk and not want to be a part of that experience.  "It's not my fault that she/he is struggling." "He/she made his/her own bed; let them sleep in it. It's not my problem and I do not want to get involved."  It is easy to dismiss what is problematic in another person's life and stay in our comfort zones. "I don't want to be bothered; I have no time for that foolishness" may be the tune of our rhetoric when hard times strike another person, especially the life of a "eunuch," a man who is regarded as lacking power or effectiveness.

Philip takes no such position. He gets up, catches up with the eunuch's charioteer and takes time to listen. The life of the eunuch is transformed!  Through Philip's generosity, he's found the Lord and continues his way rejoicing in that new found joy.

To whom  is the Lord calling me to listen? In whose life am I being called to make a difference? Will I listen? Will I leave my comfort zone when the Spirit calls?