Up on The Roof

 Up on The Roof

Memorial of Saint Ambrose, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

Piety

Strengthen the hands that are feeble, make firm the knees that are weak, say to those whose hearts are frightened: Be strong, fear not! Here is your God, he comes with vindication; With divine recompense, he comes to save you. Then will the eyes of the blind be opened, the ears of the deaf be cleared; Then will the lame leap like a stag, then the tongue of the mute will sing.  Isaiah 35:3-6A

And some men brought on a stretcher a man who was paralyzed; they were trying to bring him in and set him in his presence. But not finding a way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on the stretcher through the tiles into the middle in front of Jesus. When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “As for you, your sins are forgiven.”  Luke 5:18-20

Study

In a matter of days, the tone of the Daily Readings shifted markedly.  As we walked and prayed through the final days of the last liturgical year, the ominous conflicts between evil and good from Revelation cast a dark shadow over the readings.  Yet, in just the first days of Advent, we are filled with hope. 

Tomorrow we celebrate the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  Yet, in Isaiah today, we hear the foreshadowing of the Magnificat starting to resound.  Advent means Our God will come to save us.  And the day and the kingdom are both at hand.

From this point forward, God sets the wheels of the redemption plan in motion.  Prophecy becomes action.  What Isaiah promises starts to unfold in a little Palestinian village. Isaiah 35 foretells the Canticle of Mary and all the remarkable reversals it portends. Luke 5 and the group reunion bringing their friend to Christ gives us a great image of the Cursillo to come.

Action

As we sit in the darkness of Advent, awaiting the light, Isaiah holds the lighted candle of hope. Our God is a God of abundance. We get blessings we don’t deserve. We have a God of Compassion, and we see evidence of that in both readings today.

I need to hear that above the cackle of the headlines. We hear the mind-numbing news of more pandemic infections, hospitalizations, and deaths.  No one will be going “home for the holidays” if they heed the warnings for safety. 

Do these give you hope?  How would Jesus react to your faith? Would he find enough evidence of you helping to cure your friends?  How persistent are you?  Would you keep looking for a way in around or through the locked door as the persistent friends did in Luke’s story today?