Reflection on Today's Readings, Friday of 2nd Week of Advent, Year C, December 10th, 2021
Texts: Isaiah 48 :17- 19; Ps. 1:1-4.6; Matthew 11:16-19
Today's Readings reveal the root of our problem: it is unwillingness to surrender to God. It began with our first parents when they disobeyed God; they rejected God's instruction and followed the desire of their hearts. Since then we have lost the paradise where peace and righteousness abound. Hence, in today's first reading, God says, “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go. O that you had listened to my commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea; your offspring would have been like the sand, and your descendants like its grains; their name would never be cut off or destroyed from before me.” All we need is just to obey Him, to keep His commandments and we will live in peace and righteousness will abound. We learn, today, that it is in obedience to God we gain peace and righteousness. Advent season reminds us to await Christ's coming in obedience to God's commandments. We cannot truly wait for Christ if we do not keep the commandments He has given us, the commandment to love God with one's heart, soul and might, the commandment to love one another as He has loved us, the commandment to love both friends and foes.
Jesus, in today's gospel reading, tells us that we always find reason not to heed the word of God. He tells us that God has employed all the means possible to speak to us, but we still do not respond. He says, "To what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the market places and calling to their playmates, ‘We piped to you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.’" He tells us that we are good at finding fault with His heralds. In His words: "For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon’; the Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Behold, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!'" Our attitude to God's call shows that we are just obstinate, not ready for Him; we are not ready to follow Him; we are not ready to renounce our ways; we are not ready for the new life He offers. Having attended to our complaints positively, then it is clear that we are the problem, not God. Hence, Jesus says, "Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.”
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. Amen. (Collect)
Fr. Andrew Olowomuke
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