THE MYSTERY OF OUR LIFE OF GRACE


THURSDAY, SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT

Isa 41:13-20; Ps 145:1,9-13; Mt 11:11-15

A New Presence of God within Man

God’s attempts to move men to work with him by the many and various promises he made to them is what characterised the whole time of the Old Testament. The promises started at the very moment of the fall of Adam and Eve when God immediately promised salvation to man and woman through the woman and her offspring, who would be in complete enmity with the serpent, who is the cause of the fall of the human race. God prepared the fulfilment of his promised salvation when he made new and definite promises to Abraham, among which was the promise that he would inherit God. God promised himself to Abraham. The subsequent promises of God to various people throughout salvation history either reinforce this promise or accompany it. By these promises, God leads man by hand, as it were, through his words. His words given through the prophet Isaiah confirm this. “I, the Lord, your God, I am holding you by the right hand; I tell you, ‘Do not be afraid, I will help you.’ Do not be afraid, Jacob, poor worm, Israel, puny mite. I will help you—it is the Lord who speaks—the Holy One of Israel is your redeemer.” It is difficult for man to believe in God because he does not know his true nature, which is known only through and in God. Only God can light up the whole nature of man, made in the divine image.

Subsequently, God reveals what he can accomplish through man by holding his hands. “See, I turn you into a threshing-sled, new, with doubled teeth; you shall thresh and crush the mountains, and turn the hills to chaff. You shall winnow them and the wind will blow them away, the gale will scatter them. But you yourself will rejoice in the Lord, and glory in the Holy One of Israel.” God can achieve many things by holding our right hand, but our cooperation was not yet perfect and natural. He moves man from without and not by an inherent nature. God moved man as an instrument by holding his right hand. Man does not own the activities as an instrument, for the instrument moves insofar as the agent moves it. God understands that working with man in this manner does not satisfy man’s inherent quest to live God’s life, which is why he made us. “The poor and needy ask for water, and there is none, their tongue is parched with thirst. I, the Lord, will answer them, I, the God of Israel, will not abandon them. I will make rivers well up on barren heights, and fountains in the midst of valleys; turn the wilderness into a lake, and dry ground into water spring.” God knows the deep hunger and thirst of man's heart while leading man by the right hand, for he made us for himself.

All the patriarchs and prophets of the Old Testament felt and expressed the unsatisfactory relationship between God and man. Abraham died in expectation; Moses, the beloved of God, pleaded with God to show him his divine countenance but only received the vision of God’s behind, whatever that meant. Jesus confirmed they all wanted to see his day but did not have the opportunity. John the Baptist was more privileged than all of them, as testified by our Lord in the Gospel. “I tell you solemnly, of all the children born of women, a greater than John the Baptist has never been seen; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he is.” John the Baptist ended the old dispensation during which God led man by hand through the promise of his word. By the gift of his Beloved Son, God has started a new relationship with us by giving divine life to man. God has taken us back to himself in principle, whom he made for himself. God moves man now by his renewed nature and no more by holding him by the right hand. God is in the redeemed as their natural principle of motion and rest. We journey each day into this deep meaning of the mystery of Jesus Christ with faith, hope, and charity, united with the Holy Spirit. The depth of the mystery of our life of grace in Jesus Christ is unfathomable, even by the angels. The new presence of God in the souls of the redeemed is the source of the new song of praise to God. “All your creatures shall thank you, O Lord, and your friends shall repeat their blessing.”

Let us pray: Stir up our hearts, O Lord, to make ready the paths of your Only Begotten Son, that through his coming, we may be found worthy to serve you with minds made pure. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. 

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