2nd Week of Advent, Tuesday, Dec 12
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
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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.
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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 straight-forward 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.
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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.
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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
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Saint Jane Frances de Chantal
Feast day August 12
Jane Frances Fremyot was born into nobility in 1572 in France. Her father was president of parliament at Dijon; her brother became an archbishop. Since Jane’s mother had died when Jane was young, she had to take on added responsibilities. She was intelligent, beautiful, and charming. She fell in love, married Christopher de Chantal, and went to live in a castle at age 21. She persuaded her husband to have daily Mass for the household. Not only did she care for her home and her four children, but she also nursed those who were sick and aged. Those who begged were never turned away.
Then Jane’s husband was killed by another man in a shooting accident. For a while, Jane lost interest in everything. Then her father-in-law demanded she come and manage his estate, or he would take away her inheritance. The young widow took her children and her belongings to her father-in-law’s house. The man was tyrannical. Jane prayed for hope and strength. After seven years, Jane’s father suggested she spend Lent with her own family. A well-liked bishop, Francis de Sales, was giving talks in that diocese. He became Jane’s spiritual director. Francis was amazed at Jane’s deep faith, courage, and prayer life. Francis encouraged her to seek God in a way of love, gentleness, and humility. When Jane returned home, she had a more positive outlook and became reconciled with the man who had caused her husband’s death.
Francis de Sales shared with Jane his dream of a religious community of women who would help those who were poor in the cities. Jane agreed to found such a community. On June 6, 1610, they opened the first convent. Jane and 12 other women called themselves the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary. When Francis de Sales and Jane decided to open a second convent, a cardinal in Lyons, France, protested because sisters at that time did not go out into the world to serve. So Jane and Francis made the Visitation sisters cloistered. Eighty convents were founded before Jane’s death.
