On this first Monday of Advent, we turn to the Lord seeking His mercy and sanctification. Friends, our entire life, with its ups and downs, with all the sacrifices we need to make and with all the hardships we endure, is simply a school of purification and sanctification. In today’s readings, this is what the Lord comes to do: to purify, to purge. It is His initiative. And Advent, therefore, is not so much about what we do, but about what the Lord is doing.
Our response, for sure, is vital—how we respond to His grace and to what He is doing in our lives. That is a big part of the equation. But the initiative is His.
We hear from the prophet Isaiah, and once again this prophet will be prominent in this year’s Cycle A of the liturgical calendar. He says: “When the Lord washes away the filth of the daughters of Zion and purges Jerusalem’s blood from her midst with a blast of searing judgment, then the Lord will create over the whole site of Mount Zion and over her place of assembly a smoking cloud by day and a light of flaming fire by night. For over all, the Lord’s glory will be shelter and protection—shade from the parching heat of day, refuge and cover from storm and rain.”
So we see from this reading that before the Lord provides us with protection, He purifies us. He purges us. He gets rid of the enemy from within. For it is useless to build a shelter, to build safe ground, and yet have the enemy lurking within.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus shows that this protection and this sanctifying grace of God are extended to all people. “I say to you, 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.” So our Lord is saying to us that entrance into heaven is not automatically given just because we are Catholic, but is based on faith in the goodness that He has provided.
And that is why Jesus says: “This is the will of the Father, that whoever sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life.” The gift is given by God. We see it, and then we either reject it or embrace it.
And so this Advent season, we can ask ourselves: have I embraced the gift that God has given? Am I like the centurion in today’s Gospel in Capernaum, who not only heard about Jesus, but truly believed that what He was saying was true—that he could ask anything in His name? Because Jesus has the authority and the power to effect a change, to effect a healing in his servant who was lying at home paralyzed and suffering dreadfully, he went to Jesus. He approached Him. He appealed to Him.
The powerful imagery here is that the Romans lorded it over the Jews. For a centurion to go up to a Jewish man and implore Him—taking on the semblance of a beggar before someone he technically governed—would have been a shocking sight indeed. And yet this is exactly what he does.
And Jesus is pleasantly astounded. “Amen, I say to you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith.” What kind of faith does the Lord see in me?
Lord, help us, through the intercession of Your Most Holy Mother, to increase our faith and our trust in You, in what You have said and in what You have promised. For just as in the Old Testament You promised Your people that You would come to them and You kept Your word, so too everything that You have promised us You will fulfill in our lives and in our eternity.
And please bless anyone who is listening to this, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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