Advent Reflection – 4 December – Wednesday of the First Week of Advent, Year A – Readings: Isaiah 25:6-10, Psalm 23, Matthew 15:29-37
Let us adore the Lord, the king who is to come.
“And great multitudes came unto him,
having with them those that were lame,
blind, dumb, maimed and many others
and cast them down at Jesus’ feet
and he healed them…”
Matthew 15:30
REFLECTION – “To this assembly have come not only the disciples, as if they were leaving behind the multitudes, as they did in the case of the Beatitudes. Rather, there are great crowds here, many of whom are deaf or suffer from many afflictions. Look at the crowds who come to this mountain where the Son of God sits. Some of them have become deaf to the things that have been promised. Others have become blind in soul, not looking toward the true light. Others are lame and not able to walk according to reason. Others are maimed and unable to work profitably. Each of these who are suffering in soul from such things go up along with the multitudes into the mountain where Jesus sits.
Some who do not draw near to the feet of Jesus are not healed. But those who are brought by the multitude and cast at His feet are being healed. Even those who come only to the edges, just the extremities of the body of Christ, who feel themselves unworthy to obtain such things, are being healed . So now you come into the congregation of what is more commonly called the Church. See the catechumens? They are, as it were, cast in the far side or back of those who are the extreme end of the body, as if they were coming merely to the feet of the body of Jesus—the Church. They are coming to it with their own deafness and blindness and lameness and crookedness. In time they will be cured according to the Word. Observing this, you would not be wrong in saying, that these people have gone up with the multitudes into the church, up to the mountain where Jesus sits and have been cast at His feet and are being healed. And so the multitudes are astonished at beholding the transformations that are taking place. They behold those who are being converted from such great evils to that which is so much better.” Origen (c 185-253) Father of the Church – Commentary on Matthew, 11
Meditation:
If ever there is a time to believe in miracles, Advent season is that time! We hear of the miracle of Mary’s conception, the miracle of Jesus’ birth in a barn, the miracle of the star in the night sky leading the wise men, the feeding of the multitudes and their healings. A Saint, whose feast is celebrated during the Advent season, St Nicholas, was often called the “wonder-worker.” The Scriptures speak to us of God’s miraculous and unceasing care for us. God always provides for us. (Redemptorist Fathers)
Advent Action:
Today, let us believe in miracles and wonders. And tell all we meet, of these wonderful gifts from God.
Collect:
Prepare our hearts,
we pray, O Lord our God,
by Your divine power,
so that at the coming of Christ Your Son
we may be found worthy
of the banquet of eternal life
and merit to receive
heavenly nourishment from His hands.
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, forever and ever.
The Order can boast of more than 70 Canonised saints and 200 Blesseds, including three Popes, two novices and a master Renaissance artist, the Blessed Fra Angelico.
AnaStpaul 
You must be logged in to post a comment.