Advent 2024: A Pilgrimage of Hope towards Peace with Joy - the Nature of the Journey!
Third Monday in Advent - December 16, 2024
Numbers 24: 2-7, 15-17; Matthew 21: 23-27
If the first week of this Advent pilgrimage that we began, commissioned the journey of hope and the second explained it to us as a journey to peace, this week shall impress on us the nature of the journey we are called to take – a journey with joy.
The Word
today highlights the joy of seeing, the joy of seeing what the Lord wants us to
see! The oracle of Balaam which praises the far-seeing eyes, thanks the Lord
for making us see, and looks forward to see the scepter that arises from Israel,
is the objective of the advent journey. This is what we are called to train
ourselves towards, to develop the capacity to see.
The Gospel
presents to us the unfortunate scenario of those who lack this capacity to see.
It is not because they are not given the faculty to see, but because they refuse
to use that grace that the Lord has given to see. They were stuck somewhere,
and no matter what effort Jesus put in, they were unable to grow out of their obstinacy.
And this is the challenge that the Word has to post to us, today!
If we have
to begin to see the Reign, we need to begin to see what the Lord makes us see!
As Balaam makes us reflect, blessed are those eyes that learn to see what the
Lord wants them to see. It is in seeing that, we shall behold the Reign
wherever we are. We begin the Novena to Christmas today, and the antiphon
before Gospel, is a perfect fit to this thought. Let our today be: let us see
your Mercy, O Lord!
No comments:
Post a Comment