Thursday of the First Week of Advent(Click here for readings)
Jesus said to his disciples: "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."
The Will of my Father. And what exactly is the Will of the Father?
Recently, I had a discussion with an atheist. The person said to me, "I am not tolerant with those who are intolerant." Now this isn't the first time I hear something like this - and not just from atheists but from secularists and believers as well. In reply, I said, "Well, there's nothing special about that. It just makes you like a lot of other people in this world. And that's the problem with our world."
What is the will of the Father? "Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. But it did not collapse."
Listen and act. Jesus is so different from the rest of us. He knows how to work with the tolerant as well as the intolerant, to convert great sinners into great saints. He knows how to get someone off their high-horse and make them humble! His secret? He knows how to love, love unconditionally.
This is His foundation.
And though the rains fell, the floods came and the winds blew and buffeted the house, He did not collapse.
In other words, though He was stripped of His human dignity, stripped of His skin and crucified on a piece of wood, the Lord remained the King of Israel and the King of us all.
Yes, the Lord's body suffered and collapsed, but His reputation, His name, His honor and dignity never suffered or collapsed. If anything, it only grew taller, firmer and stronger.
Love conquers all things! This is an important lesson for all of us to learn.
Is it any wonder why our hearts swelled when we saw that most beautiful picture of an African-American boy hugging a white police officer? Is this something special? Of course it is! It's the Word of God becoming flesh and blood.
"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."
"And What is the Will of the Father?"
ReplyDeleteThe will of the Father is for us to be another Christ. We are made for love, justice, peace. We are made in the image and likeness of God. But we are, as St. Augustine states, wandering in land of "dissimlitude" - the unlikeness of God. We are living in a fallen world. We cannot change our condition through an act of will because our will is perverted in the first place.
How then can we change? We can change only through Jesus Christ. He has redeemed us by his blood. The single biggest challenge of the Advent Season is to feel our need for a Savior. We need to feel it in our core. We need to know that we cannot do it alone. We need Advent so we can remind ourselves that we need to become utterly dependent on him for everthing--gradually replacing our sinful actions with his perfect love. Only then, can we be another Christ.