The Advent Task: Suffer for the Reign
10th December, 2015
Is 41: 13-20; Mt 11: 11-15
The poor and needy ask for water and there is none, their tongue is parched with thirst. These lines from the first reading today, brought to my mind the scenes of flood relief in places around here, when people were in dire need of food and water...looking upto to someone who would come to their aid. Why did they suffer? Due to natural calamity? Yes, but that is only partly true... they suffered due to the human made calamity more than the natural. Lakes were not lakes and ponds were all plots, and the water had nowhere to go but the houses and flats, streets and avenues. The ones who suffer are not merely the greedy and the trespassers, but majority of them are the innocent, the poor and the vulnerable!
You either stay off from being part of the causes of the problem, that is being part of the group of exploiters and oppressors, or be part of those innocent sufferers who is able to experience the salvific fruits of suffering. It is a divine task to learn to suffer for the Reign.