Daily Reflection – 12/3/19
Sacred Scripture
Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I give you praise, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.” Turning to the disciples in private he said, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I say to you, many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.” (Luke 10:21-24)
Reflection
Christ came from heaven to earth to be with us! He literally went from eternity to time to be with us. To me, the fact that He did it is much more impressive than how he did it. I’m not interested in knowing how He did it. I want to understand why He did it.
Why did the Lord do it? By all accounts, it was to restore a broken relationship. What does it take to move heaven and earth? By the looks of it, it takes great humility. No wonder why the Lord arrived to us as a child; but not only a child, a very poor child, a child born in a stable.
Secularists will say that He was born poor. Believers will say he chose to be poor. Which one is it? It doesn’t matter. What matters most is what He did with His poverty. He did nothing. He didn’t take advantage of it. He wasn’t discouraged by it.
Maybe He wanted to teach us, the “talented” and “gifted” of this world, that it will never be what you have that makes you who you are, but how you love that makes you who you are: a gift. – human dignity descends to us from what is above us: God.
God restored man’s dignity when He sent (and gave) His only Son to us. Yes, with a child asleep in a manger, in a town called Bethlehem, and during a cold silent night, the child Jesus, without uttering a single word, delivered a simple message to all of us from His Father. He said with his presence: “You are worth it.”
Advent is that time of year to remember this.
When you love someone, you are more than willing to go the extra mile, to do whatever it takes, to go to great lengths to fix a problem. Our Lord and Savior went above and beyond the imaginable to fix our relationship with Him. He moved Heaven to earth.
Advent is that time of year for us to go to great lengths, to go the extra mile and to do whatever it takes to fix our relationship with the Lord.
God moved Heaven. Now it’s our turn to move earth.
Prayer of The Day
Lord Jesus, give me the child-like simplicity and purity of faith to gaze upon your face with joy and confidence in your all-merciful love. Remove every doubt, fear, and proud thought which would hinder me from receiving your word with trust and humble submission.
Daily Note
Jesus makes it possible for each of us to personally know God as our Father. To see Jesus is to see what God is like. In Jesus we see the perfect love of God – a God who cares intensely and who yearns over men and women, loving them to the point of laying down his life for them upon the cross. Do you pray to your Father in heaven with joy and confidence in his love and care for you?
