Advent 2024: A Pilgrimage of Hope
towards Peace - the Journey Explained!
Second Saturday in Advent - December 14, 2024
Ecclesiasticus 48: 1-4, 9-12; Matthew 17: 10-13
We are on the last day of this second week of Advent and tomorrow we shall already be solemnising the Gaudete Sunday, our call to rejoice and repose. We are prepared being prepared already for the week ahead, by the Word. We began this week with the promise of the coming of the prophet, and tomorrow we shall encounter that person. It was about him, elsewhere (Mtt 11:7), that Jesus asked: what did you go out to see in the wilderness – reed swayed by the wind? Even today, the person of John fills us with awe, simply because of his total dedication to the mission of the Reign.
Where do we see this dedication manifested – in his capacity to let go, and to let God’s plan come alive. In fact, it is this attitude that makes John special – he was single minded in his dedication, letting go of even the most ordinary things that one could have in life; and he did that not to prove anything to anyone, but to let God be seen and expressed in history. When we let go and let God, we shall experience a special peace, which no one would understand and no one can take away from us.