Does God rule your heart?
And are you okay with that?
In this Sunday’s reading, the prophet Isaiah is imagining a
new rule, a new order, a new way of being that is radically different from any
man has known since Eden. It is an existence cognizant of the vastness of the
Lord and of his knowledge, a new paradise where the serpent is not a source of
fear, but a child’s plaything: the baby shall play on the cobra’s den, and
the child lay his hand on the adder’s lair.
Although those exiled to Babylon had little hope of recovering the
throne of David, Isaiah tells them that a shoot
will sprout from the stump of Jesse:
God can and will fulfill his promises to the people of Israel, so long
as they accept God’s rule over them. God’s reign is eternal, Isaiah notes,
beyond our limited understanding, from
sea to sea… and to the ends of the earth, Psalm 72 tells us. Our acceptance of God’s rule in our lives is
a manifestation of our openness to covenant, and of our hope of heaven, of life
yet to come, till the moon be no more, and
hence, eternal day…
In our Gospel text from Matthew, people are flocking to John the
Baptist. Like the people of Israel, they
seek hope, a new age. Are their hearts
committed to God? Are they a
manifestation of his rule? Relationship
calls us to radical change, to metanoia, to
greater substance spiritually. God can raise up children to Abraham from
these stones, John tells the Pharisees and Sadduccees -- if their
transformation through John’s baptism isn’t deep and heartfelt, there are
others to take their place in the kingdom, and that kingdom of heaven, John says, is
at hand! So produce good fruit, John
tells them, do good works. Don’t just rely
on your heredity as a member of the tribes of Israel for salvation; know that what God is
calling you to is a purification of intentions, a life commitment to God’s
burning, purifying love as it will be revealed through Jesus on the Cross.
Paul tells the Romans that Jesus came to show God’s truthfulness: through his death and rising, he has ushered
in the perfect kingdom, the perfect rule.
Our job is to strive to open ourselves to the new rule that is Jesus, to
strive to think in harmony, listening to each other and praising God with one
voice, unified, living in one accord in the kingdom
of God.
Are we ready to embrace God’s rule and Jesus’s love in our
lives? Advent is about preparing the way, and making straight his paths, so that we
might do just that: that we might receive the Lord into our hearts, and allow him to reign over our lives.
This post is based on Fr. Pat's Scripture class.
Photo source
No comments:
Post a Comment