The Advent Task: To see what God makes you see
14th December, 2015
Num 24: 2-7,15-17; Mt 21: 23-37
A prophet is someone different from the rest of the crowd because he not only sees what everyone sees, but sees what God makes him see. That is the experience of Balaam that is referred to in the first reading today. And that is the call that we are given by the Word today: to see what God wants us to see.
We fail to see it many a times because we are busy seeing only what we want to see. Worse still we refuse to see it at times, because it causes inconvenience to our regular way of life. In some other cases we deny that we have seen it because it demands a change on our part, a new way of thinking and a new way of acting. My mind is still in the experience of the floods in our city...we could observe all the above three categories of response from people...who failed to see the suffering, who refused to see beyond themselves, who denied to themselves even that they have seen so much of need and suffering around them!
Jesus is trying to educate such groups in the Gospel today, but finds himself at a loss! He will not give up so easily, He goes on. He extends that invitation even today - to us! To see what God makes you see. Are we willing?