Contemplating today's Gospel
Liturgic day: Wednesday 2nd of Advent
Comment: Fr, Jaume GONZÁLEZ i Padrós (Barcelona, Spain)
«Come to me, all you who work hard and who carry heavy burdens and I will refresh you»
Today, the cycle of readings which have Isaiah as the protagonist comes to an end. Through him we can see how the Messiah's coming had been announced prophetically.
Waiting for the return of the Lord, for his "adventus", demands a very clear determination not to lose heart, whatever happens in the meantime. We cannot ignore that the wait may not be easy, and we could easily end up thinking that, given our weakness, we would not be capable of persevering in living a Christian life tenaciously. The temptation to lose heart is always near for us who are weak by nature.
It can easily be forgotten that the Kingdom of God is open to man primarily as a result of God willing it to be, in spite of the resistance put up by those of us who lack a "determined determination", determined enough to seek it ahead of all other things as an absolute priority. Too often do we complain about how tired we are: Once we have analyzed our results and found that our achievements are little, we may not be able to help reproaching the Lord for the little help we think he has provided us with, given the amount of work we have put in. Here is our sin! Turning God into our assistant, instead of understanding that the initiative is always his and that it is He who invests the most.
Isaiah, from the eschatological perspective that characterizes the first weeks of Advent, reminds us of how great and irresistible the power of the Holy One is.
We find the fulfillment of the prophet's words in Jesus. «Come to me, all you who work hard and who carry heavy burdens and I will refresh you» (Mt 11:28). In the Lord, in his loving heart, we all find the necessary rest and strength not to lose spirit and, thus, to wait for him with renewed love, while our souls do not stop blessing him and our memories never forget his favors.
