1st Thursday of Advent
Isaiah 26:1-6; Psalm 118; Matthew 21:24-27
In Psalm 14, there is this verse: “From heaven the Lord looks down…to see if any are wise, if any seek God.” In the first words of today’s Gospel, the Lord tells us clearly who is wise and who really seeks God. “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of My Father in heaven.”
To live God’s will is to embrace and live to our best the great commandments: Love God above all things and love your neighbor as you love yourself. What could be clearer or more definite than that. The word of the Lord Himself challenges our rationalizations, our excuses, our limited ideas, our mediocrity, our denials and of course, teaches us that such love is beyond human ability – it is always a grace, a gift – it is always the power and presence of the Holy Spirit.
To live God’s will is to build on rock and for us this rock is not a something, not a place no matter how sacred but THE DIVINE SOMEONE – how often in the Scriptures and especially the Psalms, we call God, our Rock, our Fortress, our Stronghold. To live His will draws us into Him – we are not perched on this Rock because it is a most unusual one – we are drawn into this Rock – we make our home in it, rather in Him – a relationship that goes beyond friendship, that is an intimacy beyond words.
Someone had made this reflection: There is God, there is the soul, there is eternity…the rest is nothing.
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