Tuesday, December 17, 2024

The Joy of Integrity of the Reign!

Advent 2024: A Pilgrimage of Hope towards Peace with Joy - the Nature of the Journey!

Third Wednesday in Advent - December 18, 2024

Jeremiah 23: 5-8; Matthew 1: 18-24

 

The Lord-our-Integrity is a profound title we see given to the Lord in the experience of the Old Testament people; it is today correlated to another title – Emmanuel, God-with-us. The first reading and the Gospel together present to us a great grace that God offers us and a challenge that accompanies that.

The grace is that the Lord-our-integrity is with us! When we see the times that are so treacherous and unpredictable, value stripped and sometimes even malicious, if we still live with out faith and hope, we thank the Lord, the Lord of integrity, who is with us and who strengthens us. With that grace alone can we go ahead and remain sane and grow saintly.

The challenge is that the Lord-our-integrity is with us, and we are challenged to live up to the presence of the Lord, in righteousness and justice, nobility and integrity. The presence of the Lord-with-us is not conditioned by the Lord in anyway, because it is an unconditional presence, by the very fact of the covenant and the choice of the Lord to come amidst us. It is conditioned by our choices – like Joseph, are we ready to do what the Lord wants us to do? If not, we create a condition where the Lord cannot be with us, because we choose to be away from the Lord and the Lord’s ways.

O Adonai, Ruler of Israel, we call out to the Lord in the O Antiphon of the Novena, declaring the Lordship of our Saviour who wishes to come and be with us. Do we mean that declaration?

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