A Compassionate God    

December 4, Saturday

FIRST WEEK OF ADVENT

         God is compassionate. He cannot let his people suffer. This compassion of God has become visible in the person of Christ.

         The Old Testament text, perhaps an elaboration on Isaiah’s thoughts by a later author, promises restoration to God’s people after their conversion. God will take pity on his people. He promises freedom from evil, sickness, famine, violence, and injustice, provided that people will realize their own poverty and inability to live as they should by their own powers. God will work these things in people and with people.

In the New Testament, Jesus will go out to encounter us and to help us out. He sends out his Church, even today, to encounter people in their miseries and to alleviate all suffering.

 

First Reading: Isaiah 30:19-21,23-26

Oh yes, people of Zion, citizens of Jerusalem, your time of tears is over. Cry for help and you’ll find it’s grace and more grace. The moment he hears, he’ll answer. Just as the Master kept you alive during the hard times, he’ll keep your teacher alive and present among you. Your teacher will be right there, local and on the job, urging you on whenever you wander left or right: “This is the right road. Walk down this road.” You’ll scrap your expensive and fashionable god-images.

God will provide rain for the seeds you sow. The grain that grows will be abundant. Your cattle will range far and wide. Oblivious to war and earthquake, the oxen and donkeys you use for hauling and plowing will be fed well near running brooks that flow freely from mountains and hills. Better yet, on the Day God heals his people of the wounds and bruises from the time of punishment, moonlight will flare into sunlight, and sunlight, like a whole week of sunshine at once, will flood the land.

 

Gospel: Matthew 9:35–10:1,6-8

Then Jesus made a circuit of all the towns and villages. He taught in their meeting places, reported kingdom news, and healed their diseased bodies, healed their bruised and hurt lives. When he looked out over the crowds, his heart broke. So confused and aimless they were, like sheep with no shepherd. “What a huge harvest!” he said to his disciples. “How few workers! On your knees and pray for harvest hands!”

The prayer was no sooner prayed than it was answered. Jesus called twelve of his followers and sent them into the ripe fields.

Go to the lost, confused people right here in the neighborhood. Tell them that the kingdom is here. Bring health to the sick. Raise the dead. Touch the untouchables. Kick out the demons. You have been treated generously, so live generously.

 

Prayer

God of mercy and compassion,
in your Son, Jesus Christ,
you have revealed yourself
as a God of people.
Turn our empty hearts to you,
give us eyes to see the depth of our poverty
and our inability to build a better world
with our own resources,
and then come and build it with us
through your Son and our Savior,
Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

 

Reflection:

Your woundedness is your qualification to be a healer

One thing about which we can be certain, and from which we might draw hope, is that God is a healer.  “He heals the broken-hearted and binds up their wounds.”  (Ps. 147:3) Jesus understands the pains of being wounded from his own experience of the woundedness he endured. Therefore, “Heal the sick” – is a mission mandate of Christ to his disciples. He sent out his apostles on a Mission: their first task was to preach – proclaim the message – that the Kingdom of Heaven is near.”

Then, the Lord gives a list of tasks they must carryout: but all those tasks are all about healing – raising the dead; cleansing the lepers, drive out demons – all these assignments are about healing the sick. Jesus, moved with compassion for the suffering he witnessed, expanded the reach of his healing touch by commissioning his disciples with the mission of bringing people back to health. Thus, physical, emotional and spiritual health of our brothers and sisters is a responsibility of a disciple of Jesus.

A disciple may have his own brokenness, but that does not and must not prevent him/her from carrying out the task of ‘healing the sick.’ Still have some excuses for not getting involved in the Mission of the Church, such as you are not good enough or not worthy enough? Ask the twelve apostles for their competency for taking up the task of preaching the Gospel! They got selected not because of their merits or proficiencies. Perhaps, the Lord chose them for their woundedness in order to heal the wounds of the world. That is why we call the Church a wounded healer.

As we wait for the Lord this Advent season while also waiting for an end to this pandemic, may we all find comfort in the knowledge that Christ meets us in and through our woundedness. 

 

Video available on Youtube: Your woundedness is your qualification to be a healer