THE WORD IN ADVENT - First Monday
December 2, 2019: Isaiah 4: 2-6; Matthew 8: 5-11
One of the concrete expressions of faith is, total confidence that the Lord has the power to act on my behalf! And not just that, but that the Lord enters my life, my home, to fill me with the grace of salvation! Am I there to receive the Lord?
The readings today explain this reality to us in a splendid manner. Isaiah infuses hope into the people in exile that the Lord will bring back their glory to them, that the Lord will forgive all their iniquities, cleanse them and heal them... the call to go up to the house of the Lord is to become aware of the presence of the Lord, the presence that comes to encounter us in our daily life!
In the first reading Isaiah builds up the people's shattered faith, the faith that Jesus notices in the centurion, a non-Israelite, a 'pagan' according to the Jews... Jesus sees the confidence that the centurion had in Jesus' power to heal that servant at home. With just that, the centurion received the power of Christ in his home!
Work-stress, family problems, personal crises, misunderstandings, relationship issues, daily concerns, discouragements, health issues... when we are faced with these - we need to have an unassailable confidence that Our Lord has the power to act on our behalf. We need to be there, when the power of the Lord comes home to us, to work in us!
Let us pray for the strength of faith, to say as the centurion does today: "Lord, only say a word, and your servant will be healed!" Let us return, for the Lord is coming home!
The readings today explain this reality to us in a splendid manner. Isaiah infuses hope into the people in exile that the Lord will bring back their glory to them, that the Lord will forgive all their iniquities, cleanse them and heal them... the call to go up to the house of the Lord is to become aware of the presence of the Lord, the presence that comes to encounter us in our daily life!
In the first reading Isaiah builds up the people's shattered faith, the faith that Jesus notices in the centurion, a non-Israelite, a 'pagan' according to the Jews... Jesus sees the confidence that the centurion had in Jesus' power to heal that servant at home. With just that, the centurion received the power of Christ in his home!
Work-stress, family problems, personal crises, misunderstandings, relationship issues, daily concerns, discouragements, health issues... when we are faced with these - we need to have an unassailable confidence that Our Lord has the power to act on our behalf. We need to be there, when the power of the Lord comes home to us, to work in us!
Let us pray for the strength of faith, to say as the centurion does today: "Lord, only say a word, and your servant will be healed!" Let us return, for the Lord is coming home!