Keys to the Kingdom: Behold God as God

THE WORD IN ADVENT - December 20

Isaiah 7: 10-14; Luke 1: 26-38

When troubles surround or challenges abound, we try to manage our lives with our own strength or seeking those who can give a solution, notwithstanding the fact that they themselves are persons with similar problems and puzzles. This is what it means by blind leading the blind... and there are scores and scores who manipulate this to their advantage.

Fortune predictions, numerical calculations, geographical adjustments, material omens, magical powers, supernatural promises... how many substitutes we run to! The outcome - those substitutes get to exist, grow stronger, become richer and more and more adept at exploiting. How many examples we see in our world today!

When finally nothing else works, we turn to the Lord, instead of right from the beginning surrendering ourselves to the Lord almighty who alone has the ultimate power! God remains a stand by, when nothing else works! Ahaz represents that world which reduces the Lord God to our thinking, our calculations and our predictions! 

It is against this background that Mary stands out, a model for silent acceptance of the marvels of God which are beyond any of our imagination, even at the most trying moment of our lives. She surrendered right from the first instant - did not wait for more clarity and did not look for back-ups and other alternatives! That was an instant and total surrender because, she saw as God, she encountered God as God, not as some means to well being or an instrument to goodness!

The readings today warn us against reducing God to some magical powers or an ATM of grace... no, God is God - almighty, all powerful, all-knowing... and above all, all Love! Let us behold God as God and enjoy the splendour and wonder of God's presence.

CHRISTMAS NOVENA - DAY 4: O Root of Jesse!

19th December: O Root of Jesse

O Root of Jesse, standing as a sign among the peoples; 

before you kings will shut their mouths,

to you the nations will make their prayer:

Come and deliver us, and delay no longer.

Based on  Isaiah 11:1, Isaiah 11:10, the title Root of Jesse, refers to the promise of the Lord to raise the Messiah from the line of David (the son of Jesse). It is a promise of deliverance that the Lord gives the people of Israel, and to everyone who believes in the Lord. 

The Symbol is that of the shoot flowering... signalling the hope that the Lord offers in times when everything seems dark and dead. Look at the exodus event, the miracles in the desert, the water from the rock, the guidance by day and night - everyone of these was a sign of God's promises being fulfilled. The final fulfillment and the pinnacle of everything was - Incarnation, that which we are preparing to celebrate.

Promises of the Lord will never fail... it may look like it, but things will change. There may be enemies plotting around, there may be situations that go out of control and there may be evil all around me - I will give up and compromise when I think there is no hope. But when here is hope, when I stand on the promises of the Lord,  I will never give up!

The prayer today is to reinforce that HOPE...that we may always look forward to the deliverance that the Lord can offer! Note that the readings of the liturgy too relate to the same sense of hope in the Lord who accomplishes marvels for us! Never let anyone rob you of your hope, reminds our Holy Father.