ATTENTIVE TRANSFORMATION


FRIDAY, SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT

Isa 48:17-119; Ps 1:1-4,6; Mt 11:16-19

Strength from Attention to God

Our attention to God is key to our transformation into his likeness, for the word of God comes to live within us only through our paying attention to God in order to understand his divine will for us. Maintaining our attention on God, whom we do not see, is a very difficult task. It is even more difficult in our multimedia and social media world. We must make a conscious and concerted effort every day to hold onto the word of God. Attention is the heart of prayer and contemplation. So, to continue our spiritual journey to God, we must devise a means of keeping our attention on him and on his word, in order to be directed on our way. We must convince ourselves that there is no other way leading to God less than his word. By presenting himself to us as our way, truth, and life, the Son of Man implied we should focus daily on his life to learn or grasp the mystery of the Father’s will for us. The same will of God, expressed in the word of God, is our truth; he enlightens us and fills our hearts and will with holy desire to do the Father’s will. Eternal life consists in doing the will of the Father. To live and do our own will is to live in vain. Thus, our primary duty in life is to seek out the will of God and do it. Our Lord himself said his food was to do the will of his Father and to accomplish his plan.

The importance of knowing and doing the will of God is expressed in the passage of Isaiah today. “Thus says the Lord, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I, the Lord, your God, teach you what is good for you, I lead you in the way that you must go. If only you had been alert to my commandments, your happiness would have been like a river, your integrity like the waves of the sea.”  As we noted yesterday, our full strength comes from our union and cooperation with God. The word of God has the right manual for our lives. It is by studying the divine word that we come to the fullness of our being and truly become like God. We cannot produce proper human and spiritual fruits without receiving the will of God through his word. The coming of the Eternal Word in human nature is the height of God’s communication of his will to us. It is beyond everything our minds can understand and beyond our human imagination, the goodness of God to us, expressed in the dwelling of the Son of God among us. The mystery of the Incarnation is God holding our human hands to guide us safely along the way. We should resolve to follow the One who is leading us by the hand and not follow the fancies of our senses. We are established in his presence by listening and obeying the Lord daily. “Never would your name have been cut off or blotted out before me.” We live as forgotten when we forget the Lord. But the Lord has us in mind always and desires to establish us in his presence.

The Psalmist teaches us the same lesson, saying: “Happy indeed is the man who follows not the counsel of the wicked; nor lingers in the way of sinners nor sits in the company of scorners, but whose delight is the law of the Lord and who ponders his law, day and night.” To walk the way of happiness is to make it a point of duty to listen and obey the word of God daily. Our Lord accuses the people who heard John the Baptist's testimony and his own words and still remained undecided and unrepentant. They remained obstinate in their sins to the call of wisdom through the Son of Man and John the Baptist. “For John came, neither eating nor drinking, and they say, “He is possessed.” The Son of Ma came, eating and drinking, and they say, “Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.” Yet wisdom has been proved right by her actions.” The Eternal Wisdom himself lives and acts through us whenever we listen to the word of God and put it into practice. The Psalmist describes the one who makes this his practice as a tree planted beside a stream that bears fruit every season. Advent is a time to resolve afresh to embrace the word of God and live in union with him who united our nature to himself for our salvation and eternal glory.

Let us pray: Grant that your people, we pray, almighty God, may be ever watchful for the coming of your Only Begotten Son, that, as the author of our salvation himself has taught us, we may hasten, alert and with lighted lamps, to meet him when he comes. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. 

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