TO BE READY AND AWARE
We are begining the Advent, which is a preparation for the celebration of Jesus’ incarnation. With his first coming, he gave us a taste of the beauty we were created for, he gave us a taste of the goal we are destined for. Moreover, he revealed to us the truth of our dignity, which we are worthy, revealed us his love, and gave us the assurance of what is happening behind the veil of the bodily eyes. It is important to see this goal and illuminated from it looking at the path we are just walking. For through the light of this Homeland, this path is different.
We’re on our way. We walk the path of life towards the promised land of the kingdom of heaven. From our plans, to God’s plan. We leave reliance on our own strength, intelligence, and self-sufficiency, and move toward the wisdom of Heavenly Father who is preparing something that is unattainable for man himself. On this journey, it is so imperative to be awake, with your back girded and your lamp on. This means that we have an open heart and an open soul for the moments when the Lord touches us in life with his fatherly hand. When we experience moments of his immediate proximity. When the Holy Spirit wants to show us which direction to turn. The anticipation of God’s intervention and vigilance for His signs is the basic attitude of a biblical man, especially a disciple of Jesus. Without anticipation, a meeting does not happen.
On this path of faith, we often feel that God is “late,” that he is too slow in responding to our situation, that he has fallen asleep, traveled far away. And then all too often it happens that we begin as a mischievous servant to “beat up our servants and maidens, to eat, to drink, and to get drunk.” It happens that we fall asleep in our own comfort even if it does not bring joy.
But it is in moments like this that God wants us to mature in our faith, to grow up into a mature relationship in which someone is simply, alive and awake, able to stand on their own two feet, taking responsibility and trusting, working, and performing their duties, even if the goal is blurred for a moment and everything seems absurd. For the Lord will surely keep the promise. And it doesn’t take much time to fulfill it. But in the meantime, we, foreigners and travelers, need to mature. To grow up in people who testify that their home is not here, in people who no longer want to return to the state of their old slavery to sin, but remain those who walk, ready for a Voice that always points forward, into a new, into something that is not yet seen, in God’s.
Only those whom the Lord will find at any hour where they should be can taste the Promised Land, where milk is strained. Anyone who is where he needs to be at all times, even in the most hidden, quiet, and humble of duty, will surely sooner or later experience the good stewardship of God, overtaken by his grace.
May faith be for all of us today and every day the force that awakens us from our soporific comfort and calls us to the path, to readiness, to dynamism. From good to better. Let us go with the confidence that God himself serves those who are ready and gives them everything they need.
GOD BLESS YOU!
More of spiritual reading coming soon!