+ As we celebrate the Second of Advent today we are amazed at the great love and excitement that was found bubbling forth from the heart of God the Father as he conceived the plan to send forth a redeemer to reconcile his wayward children. The Prophet Baruch tells us in the first reading that God was more than enthusiastic about gathering his errant people from east to west so that he could name them his "justice" and the" glory of his worship" forever!
This is quite a vocation that the people of Israel had. And symbolically God ordered that every lofty mountain be made low, and that age-old depths and gorges be filled to level ground so that Israel could advance straight and secure in the glory of God and at last see their salvation: the fulfillment of their vocation!
The gospel passage today takes up the same theme: as the time of the arrival of the fulfillment of the prophecies, the Messiah is near, and John the Baptist is chosen by God to fulfill the prophecy of Baruch and literally cry out: Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths. He is very near! You have waited for him, and now he comes! Fill in the valleys of your stubbornness causing you to hang on to your own sorrows and afflictions, make low the mountains of your pride and selfishness, make straight the winding roads of your restlessness and willful wanderings, make smooth the roughness of your manner and demeanor! Smile! Relax! Rejoice! Your God cares for you! – and he cares for you too, for you are born, by your baptism, from the faith-stock of the Israelites!
One way for you to determine how tuned-in you are to the real Spirit of the Holidays is, as St. Paul told the Philippians, (having first decided to take care of any detrimental matters mentioned above) to measure your readiness by how truly loving you are: how willing you are to share the riches God gives you to share: how willing you are to go over and above what you might feel comfortable saying and doing to upbuild and help others: how willing you are to be prophets(spokesmen for God), in order to bring others to Jesus!
If each good thought, word and deed were a piece of straw: would you (in the course of the next three weeks) be able to acquire and save enough of them, and place them in the manger of your heart to be ready to receive the little Lord Jesus, away in that manger, on Christmas Eve?
Prepare the way of the Lord: make him a manger full of your good words spoken, and good deeds done, because you love him, you understand what his birthday means, and you understand that the love that flows at this time of the year begins with God but is now dependent upon you in order for the world to understand what Christmas is all about!
No comments:
Post a Comment