Daily Retreat 12/01/08
2008 Dec 1 Mon: Advent Weekday
Is 2: 1-5/ Ps 121(122): 1-2. 3-4b. 4cd-5. 6-7. 8-9/ Mt 8: 5-11
From today’s readings: “Come, let us climb the LORD’s mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, that He may instruct us in His ways, and we may walk in His paths.... Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.... Many will come from the east and the west, and will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the banquet in the Kingdom of Heaven....”
Coming in Both Ways
“Advent” means coming, since, throughout this season, we prepare for the comings of Christ: His coming long ago at Bethlehem, His coming today into our hearts and our lives as we make Him welcome, and His coming in glory at the end of time. But today’s readings lead us to realize that Advent is not just about the past, present, and future comings of Christ - it’s also about our own past, present, and future comings to Christ!
In the first reading, Isaiah prophesies about Zion, the Lord’s holy mountain, which will become a beacon of evangelization, guiding and inspiring the whole world with the word of the Lord and His instruction. Now, if there were a radio or television station or internet site which broadcast God speaking to us, everyone in the world would tune in! But in His plan of salvation, God wasn’t willing to wait for those 20th century technologies, so long before such inventions, He entrusted His divine word to human expression in the words of His prophets and other proclaimers and writers of Sacred Scripture. Thus, we come to Christ by attentively tuning in and hearing, reading, and studying the Word of the Lord spoken in the past and faithfully recorded in the Bible.
But the living Word of God was never confined to the musty pages of an ancient book, buried in the past, and inaccessible to the illiterate and unlearned. No, for God’s word has always and ever been heralded anew in the sacred assembly of His people. Thus, we come to Christ not just as separate individuals drawn by His past words, but also as God’s own family invited and united in the Lord’s house on the Lord’s day in the Lord’s way, as the responsorial psalm calls us together today in thanksgiving and prayer: “Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord!”
And remember, our coming to the Lord is not just for a single day, nor even just for every day of our limited lives - in fact, our coming to God will only be complete at the eschatological fulfillment of Christ’s own words, when “many will come from the east and the west, and will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the banquet in the Kingdom of Heaven.”
Come, Lord Jesus, and help us come to You!
Is 2: 1-5/ Ps 121(122): 1-2. 3-4b. 4cd-5. 6-7. 8-9/ Mt 8: 5-11
From today’s readings: “Come, let us climb the LORD’s mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, that He may instruct us in His ways, and we may walk in His paths.... Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.... Many will come from the east and the west, and will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the banquet in the Kingdom of Heaven....”
Coming in Both Ways
“Advent” means coming, since, throughout this season, we prepare for the comings of Christ: His coming long ago at Bethlehem, His coming today into our hearts and our lives as we make Him welcome, and His coming in glory at the end of time. But today’s readings lead us to realize that Advent is not just about the past, present, and future comings of Christ - it’s also about our own past, present, and future comings to Christ!
In the first reading, Isaiah prophesies about Zion, the Lord’s holy mountain, which will become a beacon of evangelization, guiding and inspiring the whole world with the word of the Lord and His instruction. Now, if there were a radio or television station or internet site which broadcast God speaking to us, everyone in the world would tune in! But in His plan of salvation, God wasn’t willing to wait for those 20th century technologies, so long before such inventions, He entrusted His divine word to human expression in the words of His prophets and other proclaimers and writers of Sacred Scripture. Thus, we come to Christ by attentively tuning in and hearing, reading, and studying the Word of the Lord spoken in the past and faithfully recorded in the Bible.
But the living Word of God was never confined to the musty pages of an ancient book, buried in the past, and inaccessible to the illiterate and unlearned. No, for God’s word has always and ever been heralded anew in the sacred assembly of His people. Thus, we come to Christ not just as separate individuals drawn by His past words, but also as God’s own family invited and united in the Lord’s house on the Lord’s day in the Lord’s way, as the responsorial psalm calls us together today in thanksgiving and prayer: “Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord!”
And remember, our coming to the Lord is not just for a single day, nor even just for every day of our limited lives - in fact, our coming to God will only be complete at the eschatological fulfillment of Christ’s own words, when “many will come from the east and the west, and will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the banquet in the Kingdom of Heaven.”
Come, Lord Jesus, and help us come to You!
posted by FrPitstick | 11/30/2008
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