Integrity... looking up to the Lord
Second Monday in Advent
Is 35: 1-10; Lk 5: 17:20
Cheer up, the Lord told us yesterday. The call continues today to rejoice and exult, not during the days of plenty and peace but even as we find ourselves in the wilderness, in the dry lands and in the wastelands. Because, the Lord is coming! The Lord will turn our sorrow in joy, our suffering into blessing, our trials into treasures. But the question is, will I realise it when the Lord does so?
Integrity is the capacity to look up to the Lord! When good things happen we readily claim the credits for it. When things go in bad taste, we wish to shove the entire responsibility on someone else, beginning with God. The Word invites us today to look up to God, look up to the Lord from whom all good things come. Look, the Lord is coming to save us! Look up to the Lord and be radiant (Ps 34:5).
Integrity is the ability to look up to the Lord when things go wrong, not wailing to ourselves on it. Integrity is also the ability to see when the Lord works on our behalf, not missing it all busy claiming credits to ourselves for them. Integrity is to realise that the good that I am able to do is achieved by God in and through me. It is also the ability to notice the choices and priorities within me that militates against the goodness that God is and the blessing that God wishes to send our way.
When God changes things in our favour, when God saves us from our vale of miseries, we should be able to see it. At times we are not really aware when God does things in our favour. We do not really see the miracles that God sends our way. We are blind and deaf to the goodness that is present all around us sent by God. Integrity consists in being aware of these, because without it we will only see "strange things" (see Lk 5: 20) that the Pharisees and the Scribes saw, when the Lord was doing wonders amidst them.
No comments:
Post a Comment