Tuesday, First Week in Advent

Tuesday, December 3, 2024

Memorial of Saint Francis Xavier, Priest

Is 11:1-10/Lk 10:21-24 (Lectionary #176)

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The Responsorial gives us the assurance and source of fulfillment: “Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace forever” (Psalm 72).

Justice shall flourish because Isaiah 11:1-10 tells us, “A shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse [Jesus’ ancestor] …. The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him…. He shall judge the poor with justice and decide aright for the land’s afflicted…. There shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the Lord as water covers the sea.”

The root and beginning of all justice and peace, all renewal of Church, government and society, is the knowledge of Jesus: our intimate knowledge of him as a person, our acceptance of the knowledge he shares with us as Light of the world. If we want our lives to have meaning and value on earth, we have to begin by getting to know Jesus, understanding his mind and heart.

This gives fulfillment, “life to the full.” Jesus said, “This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3).

Luke 10: 21-24 tells us that only through Jesus can we know the Father as he is, and only through the Holy Spirit can we truly know Jesus: “No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son.” But he adds — “and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.” Because we have become “sons and daughters in the Son” by Baptism, true children of God, we can know the Father as the Son does: “God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” (Galatians 4:6). Through the Spirit poured out in our hearts, through the Word of God made flesh, and through the words of God in Scripture we can know God. In this knowledge, if we act on it, is our fulfillment and the renewal of the world.

We don’t have to be super-smart or super-educated to know God. What is “hidden from the wise and the intelligent” God reveals even to little children — and to all who come to him with the openness of children. We just have to come to him.

So set aside a daily time to get to know Jesus. Choose a place where you can be quiet. Read his words; ask what they tell you about God’s mind and heart, what meaning they have for your life, how you can live them out in practice. Let yourself be “filled with knowledge of the Lord as water covers the sea.”

Advent is an invitation to do this so that “Justice will flourish in our time, and fullness of peace forever.” This is the path to fulfillment.

Initiative: If you seek success, seek it where it can be found: in Christ.