December 10, 2009
Thursday of the Second Week of Advent
I will make of you a threshing sledge, sharp, new, and double-edged, to thresh the mountains and crush them, to make the hills like chaff. When you winnow them, the wind shall carry them off and the storm shall scatter them. But you shall rejoice in the LORD, and glory in the Holy One of
All the prophets and the law prophesied up to the time of John. And if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah, the one who is to come. Whoever has ears ought to hear. Matthew 11:13-15
Piety
Father, touching is such a need in our world…is it any wonder that people just wanted to touch the garment of your Son for healing? From the time in the Garden, you warned Adam what not to touch. When you sought to protect those you love, you made sure that evil could not harm them like when the fire did not touch your servant Daniel in the furnace. Yet touching became the desire of those who wanted to be close to Jesus and now plays such an important role in our sacraments. Continue to touch us with the healing power of your finger so that you can plant in us the mustard seed of faith that can move mountains. Amen.
Study
How personal is your relationship to God? How personal do you want to make your relationship to God? As long as we see God as “out there” or “up in heaven,” then we will have difficulty bringing our relationship with him down to ground level. So, one way we can view today’s readings is as a plea from God to have a personal relationship with us. God is going more than half way to reach us where we live.
Start with the first words in our reading from Isaiah 41: “I am the LORD, your God,who grasp your right hand.” Who has touched you or held your hand in life? Your parents when you crossed the street to get to safety. Your spouse when you stood before the altar on your wedding day. Your friend who visits you when you are sick. Your parishioner greeting you with the sign of peace and recognizing the Jesus within you. A baby wrapping his or her small hand around your finger. The touch of the surgeon’s skilled hands guided by God as an instrument of healing.
Michelangelo could have used any image or symbol to portray God’s relationship to humanity on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. He chose in one of the greatest most inspired works of art to use touch – the finger of God reaching out to Adam and elevating this creation, this human above all others.
Touch. Touch is one sense that is not out there. When you smell something, you try to figure out where it is coming from. It is out there. When you see something, the object in your vision might be miles and miles away. You can sense it is there but you may not be close enough to touch it. A train in the distance may blow its whistle or thunder may rumble across the skies. However, you will be challenged to pinpoint its location. Touch is different. Touch is right here…right now…When we imagine the Lord holding our hand, He can not be in the distance. He must be right next to us. We must consider him right here in the present moment.
In poetic language, Isaiah reveals ways we can see evidence that God is here from the gifts of beauty that God provides: “I will open up rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the broad valleys; I will turn the desert into a marshland, and the dry ground into springs of water. I will plant in the desert the cedar, acacia, myrtle, and olive; I will set in the wasteland the cypress, together with the plane tree and the pine, that all may see and know, observe and understand, that the hand of the LORD has done this, the Holy One of Israel has created it.” Isaiah 41:18-20
So even if we can not make our hearts, minds, and beings form a perfect union with the Lord, Jesus still sends outward signs of life and love as evidence that he yearns to be close to us. Yet God did not want to build his relationship with us on just the natural beauty of the world alone. After creating the world, God sent the prophets to announce the coming our savior. A prophet like Isaiah is an intermediary between heaven and earth.
Finally, at the end of that line of prophets stands John the Baptist. Jesus’ answer to John is that he fulfills the prophetic vision of the law. “For
Through the reality of His touch, we are asked to have faith. When we are open to allowing the Lord to help us in the here and now, he will give us the power to move mountains not on our own but only because the hand of the Lord makes it happen.
Action
How can you get in better touch with the Lord who wants to grasp your hand this Advent? How can you get better in touch with your neighbor who needs and seeks the healing touch you can provide?
Resolve to be fully present to those around you. When you are in a room with your family and friends, turn off the television and the stereo or pull out the ear buds of your Ipod or Play Station in favor interaction through talking with each other.
Then, be fully present to the Lord at Mass and in your prayer life. Concentrate and shut out distractions. When the priest or Eucharistic minister hands you the Body and Blood of Christ, receive the sacrament first as it touches your hand then as it touches your tongue then as it moves through and touches your entire being.
