Keys to the Kingdom: To hope without limits

THE WORD IN ADVENT - December 19 

Judges 13: 2-7, 24-25; Luke 1: 5-25  

Two women, considered and categorised as 'barren', miraculously bear their firstborns, dedicate them to the Lord! The two newborns even before they were conceived were meant to be God's messengers! Let us say we have clear cut examples of - 'I chose you before you were born, from your mother's womb, when you were being formed in there!'

What the world considers impossible, the Lord proves possible; what the world cannot even think of, the Lord has planned from eternity and executes in God's own time. The coming of the Lord towards which we are preparing ourselves was punctuated with such events - virgin conceived, name pre-announced, infant saved...how many events we shall be recalling - all of them hope inspiring! The Reign too is a similar perspective of life: that of hope without limits.

When moments seem troublesome and weary, dark and dreary, confusing and out of control... we tend to give up hope, become desperate and fall into the danger of hopelessness! With the sense of desperation, one can miss the most obvious and grand signs of the magnificence of God that appears on a daily basis! 

The key that is offered today is a direct warning against hopelessness or desperation. it is to hope without limits, in the greatness of the Lord. It is Hope that will make the Reign present for a battered world. 

CHRISTMAS NOVENA - DAY 3: O Adonai!

18th December: O Adonai...

O Adonai, and leader of the house of Israel

who appeared to Moses in the fire of the burning bush

and gave him the law on Sinai:

Come and redeem us with an outstretched arm.

Based on Isaiah 11:45 and Isaiah 33:22, the title Adonai, refers to the Lordship of Yahweh, that the people of Israel always stressed on. From a generic universal history that yesterday's "Wisdom" reminded us of, today's "Adonai" comes down to the particular experience of Exodus, the watershed of the Spirituality of the people of Israel.

The Symbols are burning bush, to remind the experience when Moses surrendered to Yahweh and the stone tablets of the commandments, the symbol of Israel's surrender to Yahweh. What is stressed is the Lordship of Yahweh, which is the key to the God-experience of the Israel and our faith-experience today.

The Lord of Israel, our God is Supreme over all beings of the earth or the heavens, the Lord of history and the Lord of the future. This is nothing that God would insist on holding on to, because God stands to gain nothing whether we accept or reject God's losrdship; it is we who stand to gain or lose! When we accept the Lordship of the Creator, we find meaning, significance and purpose in everything that happens in our life; when we do not surrender, every bit of what happens can become a concern and a cause for sadness and dissatisfaction. Hence the call is to Surrender, to the lordship of the Lord.

The prayer today is that of a SURRENDER into the redeeming power of God, to be led by the Lord's hands always - from darkness to light, from folly to wisdom, from death to life!