The WORD in ADVENT - Living the Reign here and now #10

Choose to Surrender to the Shepherd

Tuesday, 2nd week in Advent, 2016

Is 40:1-11; Mt 18: 12-14

Living the Reign here and now means living a way of life that is worthy of the King! The imagery that is  common to both the readings  today is that of the Shepherd.  The shepherd who is promised by the Lord through Isaiah and the Shepherd who is presented as a model by Jesus. 

The promise is  the Shepherd will carry you... I was reminded of that icon we have been seeing for one whole year in 2016... the icon of the year of mercy, where  Christ the Shepherd carried Adam on His shoulder. Explaining its significance the Holy Father had said: the Shepherd is ready and willing to carry us;  are we willing to allow ourselves to be carried?

The message to Israel through Isaiah and to us  today is the same:  allow yourself to be carried.  From drudgery of life to fullness of life;  from a world of compromises to a world of true convictions; from a culture of death to an experience of resurrection... allow yourself to be carried. 

Allowing myself to be carried is to go where the shepherd wants me to and not to go where he does not want me to; it is to do what he wants and not to do what he wishes I don't; it is to live the way he wants me to and avoid anything that would bear a counter witness to his person! But all this the Shepherd never forces on me, it my choice! It is my choice to go, to do, to live the way my Shepherd wants; it is my choice to be his sheep or not; it is my choice to surrender to the Shepherd... and when I dare to make that choice, I begin to live the Reign here and now!