Monday, First Week of Advent

Monday, December 2, 2024

First Week of Advent

Is 2:1-5/Mt 8:5-11 (Lectionary #175)

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The Responsorial Psalm is a key to the readings: "Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord” (Psalm 122).

Isaiah 2: 1-5 tells us how Jesus is going to save the world through his Church in fulfillment of his promises to Israel: “All nations shall stream toward it…. that [God] may instruct us in his ways.” If people listen and do what God teaches, “one nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again.”

The violent history of nominally Christian Europe and the Americas proves that we have not listened, learned or lived the teaching of Jesus as we should. Few Christians, Catholic or Protestant, read the Bible deeply. Even fewer spend significant time reflecting on it or discussing its meaning. Nevertheless, whether we are looking at it or not, the light is in the Church, and Advent invites us to seek it: “Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord….  Let us walk in the light of the Lord!”

But we have to “go.” In Matthew 8:5-11 the centurion had to approach Jesus, who healed his servant only after the centurion interacted with him. We must not only ask for Jesus’ help but also accept it by interacting thoughtfully with his mind, cultivating his desires, doing his will.

Like the centurion’s servant, we may feel that something in us is “lying paralyzed.” Certainly our country is “in terrible distress” in many ways. And distressing others. But still there is complacency, and a widespread paralysis of social action. Problems go unaddressed.

If we have not been looking at reality with eyes of faith, Advent calls us into the light. If we don’t feel hope, Advent presents God’s promise. If we are not sufficiently motivated by love, Advent invites us to look at God’s love.

The Scripture invites us to believe in Jesus as the “Son of David” who brings all of God’s promises to fulfillment. We do not have to lie paralyzed in the presence of evil, or live lives of mediocre joy. If we give Jesus an active part in all we do, we can bring healing hope and joyful love to everything we are involved in, regardless of what others do. And we will be able to bring others with us to a higher level of life and love if we just let Jesus act with us, act in us, act through us as the Savior that he is. This is something to believe in and to strive for during Advent. “Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.”

Initiative: Decide to believe in Jesus as Savior. Say the “WIT prayer” before every action, “Lord, do this with me, do this in me, do this through me.”