HIS COMING WILL SET US FREE

WEDNESDAY, SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT

Isa 40:25-31; Ps 103:1-4,8,10; Mt 11:28-30

Jesus Comes to free us from our Prison

Aristotle, the ancient Greek philosopher, teaches us that everything has its own natural motion and natural place. Every natural thing moves naturally when the motion is according to its nature. The nature of each thing is an intrinsic principle of its motion and rest. Man, as a thing of nature, has his natural motion that is according to his rational nature, different from animals that are not rational. A thing of nature undergoes a forced motion when some agent causes it to move in a way different or contrary to its nature. To move a thing contrary to its nature is to move it externally and not through its internal principles. When a man is forced to move against his internal principles of motion, namely, his intellect/mind and his will/heart, we say he is compelled to move. That is the nature of punishment or suffering; punishment or suffering usually takes the form of forced motion or action. Since God created all things, he can move everything according to its nature and contrary to its nature. “‘To whom could you liken me and who could be my equal?’ says the Holy One. Lift your eyes and look. Who made these stars if not he who drills them like an army, calling each one by name? So mighty is his power, so great his strength, that not one fails to answer.” The fact that he calls each of his creatures by name and it answers implies he moves them by their respective natures, for a name stands for the nature of a thing.

While every creature in the material universe responds to God’s call, man fails to respond very often. This misunderstanding is because of the violence introduced into man by sin. By following the evil one, man moved his nature contrary to his rational principle and imprisoned himself in darkness. Thus, his power to be moved interiorly and naturally by truth and goodness was weakened by his fall. This weakness is the cause of Jacob’s difficulty in following or responding to God’s call. It is the cause of our inability to hear and answer God’s call as other creatures. God complains of this challenge of man through the prophet: “How can you say, Jacob, how can you insist, Israel, ‘My destiny is hidden from the Lord, my rights are ignored by my God’? Did you not know? Had you not heard? The Lord is an everlasting God, he created the boundaries of the earth.” Because we do not know our nature again, imprisoned by sin in ignorance of eternal truths, we do not hear our names when God calls us. Thus, we respond to creatures instead of responding to God. This disorientation is the effect of the demonic imprisonment of our nature through sin. But God introduces himself to us as the all-powerful and infinitely wise God, able to break man free from his imprisonment and chains. “He does not grow tired or weary, his understanding is beyond fathoming. He gives strength to the wearied, he strengthens the powerless.” The salvation God offers us in Jesus is crafted in his eternal wisdom.

Even though man's fall into sin has weakened him, God promises salvation to him, which means finding a suitable way to communicate with man to bring him out of his sinful prison. He sent his Begotten Son, the Eternal Word, in human nature, so that our nature imprisoned through the sensible things will be set free by what we received sensibly as given to us. Hence, by calling us in our nature, the Son frees and leads us to answer the original and eternal vocation we have received from the Father. By hearing and answering his call in our fallen nature, we receive a new nature by which we participate in God’s life. Our Lord invites us to this freedom in the Gospel passage. “Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light.” By sharing in our nature, God makes it possible for us to answer his call naturally and without coercion, to attain the freedom of God’s sons through our obedience of faith. This transformation from our weak and sinful earthly nature to a spiritual nature is the journey into the mystery of Jesus Christ. It involves dying in the nature that is enslaved to sin and living in the nature that responds freely to God in the fullness of life and peace. Jesus Christ freely shares this death with us so that we may share his own life. The burden of dying is easy to carry because it consists of saying yes to him as he says yes to the Father, which is our natural motion.

Let us pray: Almighty God, who command us to prepare for Christ the Lord, grant in your kindness, we pray, that no infirmity may weary us as we long for the comforting presence of our heavenly physician. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.