Friday of the Second Week of Advent

"If you would hearken to my commandments,
your prosperity would be like a river,
and your vindication like the waves of the sea;
Your descendants would be like the sand,
and those born of your stock like its grains,
Their name never cut off
or blotted out from my presence." Is 48:18-19

There is something that is so very comforting about this promise that God makes to us through the Prophet Isaiah. It's obvious really, so simple; it's something that we repeat time and time again to ourselves and those around us: if we follow the commands that God has given us, we will be eternally rewarded. But, in reality, just to follow is not that simple. Apparently the Church, and in turn God, has quite a sense of humor around this subject.

The Gospel speaks of Jesus addressing the crowds who doubt that he is the Messiah. Mind you, the Jewish people have been waiting for the one that God was to redeem them by for thousands of years. They knew what he was to be, how he was to act, and what he was going to do for the people. They knew it! Yet they didn't know. So many wise and learned men stood toe to toe with Jesus and couldn't see who he was because they were so focused on what they wanted him to be. Jesus was ritually unclean because he associated with the sick and sinners. Culture had taught the Jews to avoid the outsiders. Unfortunately, this resulted in the dehumanizing of those people who were in greatest need of love. Those who did see Jesus for what he truly was were witness to a light beyond all compare. It is through those men and women with open hearts that the world was set ablaze.

Lord, what keeps me from seeing you as you truly are? Do I let what I want Jesus to be stand in the way of how Jesus has revealed himself to me?

"Ite Inflammate Omnia" - St. Ignatius of Loyola

reflected by Matthew Keppel