Monday December 4 First Week of Advent
Isaiah 2:1-5
This is what Isaiah, son of Amoz, saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. In days to come, The mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established as the highest mountain and raised above the hills. All nations shall stream toward it; many peoples shall come and say: “Come, let us climb the LORD’s mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, That he may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths.” For from Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and impose terms on many peoples. They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; One nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again. O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the LORD!
Psalm 122 Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.
Matthew 8:5-11
When Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion approached him and appealed to him, saying, “Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, suffering dreadfully.” He said to him, “I will come and cure him.”
The centurion said in reply, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man subject to authority, with soldiers subject to me.
And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come here,’ and he comes; and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Amen, I say to you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith. I say to you, many will come from the east and the west,
and will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the banquet in the Kingdom of heaven.”
Reflection
We begin the first week of Advent – A time we aawait God to “come” incarnate in Jesus. The word “come” appears seven times in the readings today. “Come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord that he may teach us his ways.” and “come, let us walk in the light of the LORD!” Isaiah is often calling the people of God to come to Him. To come not with weapons of war but instruments of service. It is in God we find the guidance and light that we are seeking, not in our inflated human thinking.
In the Gospel narrative we see a powerful centurion whose words carry weight in the world. He says “go”, “come”, “do this”, and his orders are carried out by his soldiers immediately. However, he realises the limitation of of the power of his words, and feels paralysed when it comes to healing his paralysed servant. Helplessness and humility bring him to Jesus. But Jesus is not paralysed. He says, “I will come”, and you can almost sense the urgency in him.
We give thanks to the God who comes to us and we call on him, “Maranatha, Come Lord Jesus Come.”