Faith Is Key As we await the Lord

 

Faith makes us think out of box.

Reflection on Today's Readings, Monday of 2nd Week of Advent, December 11th, 2023 

Texts: Isaiah 35:1-10; Psalm 85:9-14; Luke 5:17-26

We learn today that faith is key as we await the Lord. We cannot wait for the Lord without faith. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen (Heb. 11:1). Without faith we cannot be sure of what we hope for or what God promises. We also know that we do not hope for what we see but what we do not see. St. Paul says, "Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen?" (Rom. 8:24). Hence, faith is the fuel with which hope burns. Without faith, light of hope goes off.  

We also see today that it is faith that can make us see way where there is no way. Today's gospel tells us about friends of a paralytic who found no way to reach Jesus. We read, " And behold, men were bringing on a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they sought to bring him in and lay him before  Jesus; but finding no way to bring him in, because of the crowd".  

Faith makes us think out of box

However, they saw way where people could not block. They saw way on the roof. We read, "they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the midst before  Jesus". That is what faith could do, creating way where there is no way. Faith makes us think out of box
. We read, “And when he saw their faith he said, ‘Man, your sins are forgiven you.’" 

Faith also makes us desperate and daring in waiting for the Lord. They display desperation by bringing their friend through the roof. It was also daring for them to do so; they did not think of the cost. Faith does not count the cost of achieving its goals. In words of St. Paul, “Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead”. It is faith that can make us defy any challenges on our ways as we wait for the Lord. 

The way is for those who are desperate and daring

Isaiah tells us about a way that only the righteous can walk in it. In the words of prophet Isaiah, “And a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Holy Way; the unclean shall not pass over it, and fools shall not err therein.” The sinners cannot walk in the way. This is because they cannot bear the cost, they cannot make sacrifices. The way is for those who are desperate and daring, those who are ready to make sacrifices. The way is for those who are ready to despise suffering and pains.  

Prayer 

May our prayer of petition rise before you, we pray, O Lord, that, with purity unblemished, we, your servants, may come, as we desire, to celebrate the great mystery of the Incarnation of your Only Begotten Son. Amen (Collect) 

Fr. Andrew Olowomuke