THE WORD IN ADVENT
Second Tuesday in Advent - December 09, 2025
Isaiah 40: 1-11; Matthew 18: 12-14
One of the signs or consequences of daring to behold the Reign, is to grow into the flock of the Reign - challenges the Word today. We see three traits indicated:
The first is the capacity to console... it comes, as St. Paul would say elsewhere (2 Cor 1:4), from the consolation that we have received from God ourselves. The capacity to console those in strife is a special trait of the Reign - that we seek the suffering, the lowly, the weak at heart, the downtrodden - to seek the lost, the least and the last.
The other trait is the capacity is to counter... it is not merely condoning everything merely because someone is suffering that amounts to the Reign. Daring to behold the Reign involves daring to call a spade a spade - to identify all that militates against the Reign and denounce them categorically. Because, with justice he will rule the world, he will judge the peoples with his truth - and his truth and justice can never permit any compromise.
A third is the capacity to collect... or gather into the flock. No compromise does not mean lack of compassion. The categorical choice for truth and justice comes with a incomparable compassion - that is the inimitable style of the Good Shepherd, the most profound revelation of God the Father of Jesus Christ, and our own! A shepherd who goes after the sinners, denounces sin but never the sinner, rejects compromises but never despises the weak. The Reign is all about gathering in the compassion of the Lord, the flock that depends on the Lord and the Lord's compassion.