2nd Week of Advent, Tuesday, Dec 6
Isaiah 40:1-11 / Matthew 18:12-14
God is indeed coming; He will gather the lambs in his arms.
There's a plaque in London that pays tribute to a certain Charles Gordon. It reads: “To the memory of Charles Gordon Who at all times and everywhere gave His Strength to the Weak His Substance to the Poor His Sympathy to the Suffering His Heart to God.” Whether the plaque's author knew it or not, he was describing the God of compassion to whom Isaiah refers in today's reading. No finer tribute could be paid to a person than to describe him or her in terms of the caring God who made us.***
What do we give to the weak? To the poor? To the suffering?
To God? “There is a destiny that makes us brothers, None goes his way alone.
All that we send into the lives of others, Comes back into our own. Edwin
Markham 22
***
The author of Second Isaiah has a beautiful message of joy
and hope. God will end the exile of his people and bring them back to him.
Their sins are forgiven. He will live among them as their shepherd.
***
We know what a problem is. It is a matter or situation regarded as unwelcome or harmful and needing to be dealt with and overcome, or something difficult to achieve or accomplish. But when a person is labelled as a problem, it certainly encompasses all the above traits as well as making the situation much more complex because it is an "animated problem". So, we will come across terms like "problem kid" or "problem worker" or "problem boss". And there are certainly no straightforward or clear-cut solutions to these "problems".
The 1st reading has this interesting passage: All flesh is grass and its beauty like the wild flower's. The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on them. (The grass is, without doubt, the people). The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God remains forever. As we read the Old Testament, it is quite clear to us that the Chosen people of God had incessantly given God problem after problem. They are like "problem people".
The straightforward clear-cut solution would be to abandon them and cut them off and choose another group of people. But if God's ways are not our ways, then God's way of dealing with a problem is certainly not our way either.
Just like in the gospel parable of how ridiculous it seems to leave the 99 obedient sheep in search of the one who strayed. And it is even more ridiculous for God to become man in Jesus. Yet when it comes to saving the lost, nothing is ridiculous for God.
So, when we face "problem people" may we keep in
mind that it is never the will of God that one of them should be lost.
***
God became visible as the shepherd of his people in Jesus
Christ. To him, every person is precious, especially the little people and
sinners. The pilgrim Church – her leaders, and all those belonging to the
Church, are to be merciful and forgiving, responsible for one another, sinners
responsible for their fellow sinners.
***
Prayer
Lord, our God, you are near to us in Jesus Christ, your Son.
When we go astray, you look for us until you find us. Bring us back to you, show
us the way to you through him who is our way, Jesus Christ, your Son and our
Lord, who lives with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen
***
Saint Nicholas
Children all over the world know him and love him.
In Germany, he’s Kriss Kringle. In France, he’s Pere Noel.
British children call him Father Christmas. Of course, you know him as Santa
Claus.
He’s got another name, you know. It’s an ancient one that
goes back hundreds of years. It's one of the very first names people called
him: St. Nicholas.
Children tell lots of fun stories about Santa Claus, Pere
Noel, or Kriss Kringle. All of these stories remind us of how much we’re loved
and of how happy we are when we give. The earliest stories we know were told
about St. Nicholas, the bishop of Myra.
Hundreds of years ago, Nicholas lived in a seaside town
named Myra, which is in the country we now call Turkey. Ever since he was a
small child, Nicholas loved God more than anything. He studied hard, prayed
often, and followed Jesus by helping the poor.
The people of Myra loved Nicholas so much that when their
old bishop died, they immediately elected Nicholas to replace him. He served
them well for a long time.
Nicholas was loved for one reason. He loved. He loved God
and God’s people so much that he would do anything for them.
Here is a story about Nicholas that has been passed down
through many generations.
There was a man living in Myra who was very poor. This man
had no wife, but he had three grown daughters who lived with him
In those days, when a young woman got married, she had to
bring money or property with her into the marriage. This is called a dowry. If
a woman didn’t have a dowry, she would never marry.
This man was so poor that he had no money for his daughters’
dowries. And he didn’t have enough money to support them either. He had, he
believed, only one choice: to sell his daughters into slavery. Nicholas heard
about this terrible situation. Late one night, Nicholas crept to the man’s home
and threw something through the window. It was a bag of gold—enough to pay the
dowry for his oldest daughter.
The man was overjoyed, and his daughter was too. She
married, but her father was still left with a problem. Two, to be exact. What
about the two younger daughters? Sadly, he prepared to send them away.
Nicholas returned one night and again threw a bag of gold
through the window. The father rejoiced. But he wondered who was helping him
and why.
Of course, Nicholas didn’t want the man to know. He knew
that it’s best to help others without letting them know we’re helping them. If
we help others in this way, we help because we truly want to and not because
people will praise us for it.
But the father was determined. He had one daughter left and
no money for a dowry. He certainly hoped he would be helped again, especially
because he wanted to find out who was doing it. So he locked the windows and
watched out the door.
Nicholas still wanted to help, but he didn’t want to be
seen. So, in the back of the house, far from the father's sight, he dropped the
bag of gold for the third daughter right down the chimney
Other stories are told about Nicholas. It’s said that God
worked through Nicholas's prayers to raise children from the dead—some who had
been killed in a fire and another child who had drowned. All of these stories
tell us the same thing about St. Nicholas. He lived for God, which means that
he lived for love. If people were in need and he was able to help, St. Nicholas
gave them hope and strength. St. Nicholas never paused for a minute to wonder
what he should receive in return for his help. He only thought about what he
could give to those who needed him.
Stories about St. Nicholas spread from his home in Turkey up
to Russia, where he is still a very popular saint. Through the centuries,
people passed on stories of him across the most northern parts of Europe, then
to Germany, France, and England, and finally to the United States. The children
in every country gave St. Nicholas a name in their own language, and ours is
Santa Claus.
Christmas is a fun, exciting time, isn’t it? It’s fun
because of all the time we get to spend with our families. It's fun because we
do a lot of celebrating. It’s fun because we get to think, sing, and pray about
Jesus, who was born into the world to save us.
Christmas is also fun because we get to give. We can show
our family and friends how much we love them by giving them special gifts that
we make or buy.
We give because we’re thankful. We’re thankful for
friendship and love and for all the people who take care of us. We’re thankful
to God for giving us life.
St. Nicholas was thankful too, and that’s why at
Christmastime we try to be just like him. He was so grateful for the life God
had given him that he just couldn’t stop giving joy and hope to others—no
matter how far he had to travel or how many roofs he had to climb!
St. Nicholas showed his gratitude for God’s gifts by
giving to others. What gifts can your family share with those in need?
