The WORD in ADVENT - December 22
The spirit of exultation is in the air, we are close to the celebration of the joyful event of the incaration. The Lord came, in history, to ensure that humanity knew its the image and likeness in which it is made. The Lord comes in every experience and person which acts as the source of meaning to life and life's choices. The Lord shall come wherever and whenever there is a search for signifcance in life, a search that can offer hope to life that is ahead.
The Word made flesh who identified with us - a great reason to rejoice and exult. True joy comes from the fact that we are united in the Lord, from where comes our identity, the real meaning of our life. No success or failure, no social status or title, no accomplishment or lack can define me. It is only the image of God within me that can give me true joy!
This day invites us to contemplate this image of God, made flesh, become human and nourishes as the source and spring of our very being and of its true joy.
The antiphon of the Novena today, the King of nations, based on Isaiah 9:6, 2:4 and 28:16, is a yearning of the people of Israel. They wanted Yahweh to be their king always, even when they had a human king ruling them. That is why they did not give in to the Emperor worship that was so widespread in the dominant cultures of their times. God is the king, forever and over all! The Symbol presented is the crown and the sceptre, that signifies the central place that God has in our personal and universal history; and the authority that rests solely with God.
The prayer today is to save the human kind, from slaveries of sin and death, and to lead to the freedom of the children of God, for that is what we are, children created in the image and likeness of God. It is to grow in this identity and dignity that the coming of the Lord invites us. Let our soul glorify the Lord, forever and ever.