Tuesday of the First Week of Advent
Intention: That the start of this Advent will herald for us a time of prayer and conversion as we return our hearts and our lives to the work of building God’s Kingdom of peace, justice, and love.
Today’s Gospel | Luke 10:21-24
Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I give you praise, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.”
Turning to the disciples in private he said, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I say to you, many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.”
A Reflection for the First Tuesday of Advent
It is one of the tendencies of human nature that we often equate happiness with control. We are suspicious of whatever is unfamiliar or out of the ordinary, even when it holds the promise of fulfillment. For example, we long for God, but insist that he can only be where we expect to find him, in places that are for us appropriate and convenient. And so, for us God is always somehow apart from our world, at a safe distance from our comfort zones. Except that he is not. He always is in our midst, and if his presence startles us, it is because of our own obliviousness. In coming to us, Jesus sought to end how we cripple ourselves and one another with blindness to the truth. The time of Advent is a time for reflecting on the blessing of Emmanuel, and that the real gift of redemption may be that God will always be with us whether or not we want him to be.
Prayer
Eternal Father, we rise every morning but sometimes we remain asleep. Life passes us by and we overlook all of the good that we could have done and all of the fulfillment that we could have known. Light up our eyes and awaken us to your presence before us. Make us come alive to the chances that we have to be one with you in everything that we do and say. May this Advent be for us a time of simplicity and humility, as we prepare our hearts to welcome the coming of your Son. We ask this of you who lives and reigns with your Son and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.