House of Prayer and House for all!

The WORD in ADVENT - 16th December, 2022

Christmas Novena - Day 1: Come, Lord, with your Peace!

Isaiah 56: 1-3, 6-8; John 5: 33-36

My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples! It comes easier for us to emphasise this assertion from the Lord. But unwittingly we focus on the first part and leave the second as if it does not matter as much. But the Word today poses us precisely that as a challenge. 

The Lord is making a house of prayer, and not just that... a house for all. Foreigners, outcasts, others... these are no more relevant terms within this frame of thinking, about the house of the Lord. Because, it is a house of prayer for all, for all invariable of their creed or colour or category of social stratification. The Lord is calling our attention to the identity that we are given in the Lord who comes to visit us... in Christ, we are made one, one family, one brotherhood and sisterhood. We are One house of the Lord, a house of prayer, a house for all. 

It becomes so difficult for the world in practice to live this oneness - within the Church, within the faith communities, and even within Religious communities! It is not a fact to be taken for granted. Migration and openness to the realities caused by it seems so attractive a topic to discuss and debate, but when it comes to concrete decisions to make, it remains still a thorn in the flesh for the human community at large. The coming of the Lord challenges us towards this - that we see our oneness in the Lord. 

As we begin today the second phase of the Advent preparation, we begin the great tradition of the Church today - the Christmas novena. And within this novena... leaving out the first day and the last day... there are 7 verses from the prophecies from the Old Testament (Isaiah) which announce the coming of the Lord's Messiah... they are named "O" Antiphons, each of these antiphons, so meaningful and beautiful, with reaching meaning and challenge. 

Today the novena invites us to call upon the mercy of the Lord to grant us peace, a peace that comes from solidarity, when we are bulit up into one house, one house of prayer, one house for all.