Fr Antony Christy, SDB –
First Tuesday in Advent – December 03, 2024
Isaiah 11:1-10; Luke 10: 21-24
The commissioning of a journey, if it has to be an impelling proposal, has to enable persons have a glimpse of the destination. That is what the Word does today – invites us to gaze at the destination fixed, the Reign, where wolves live with the lambs, calves and lions feed together, the lion eats straw and young child plays with the cobra! For anyone who looks at this, it would be an impossibility, a utopia that has nothing to do with the reality. That is why the Gospel today says – you need those eyes to see it.
Seeing the Reign, requires the eyes of a child. When Jesus glorifies the Father for having made the revelation to the children, he is telling us inferentially that we need to develop the eyes of a child to behold the Reign.
Seeing the Reign, requires a heart that yearns for justice and peace. It is a condition where one goes beyond his or her own good and wellbeing, far from one’s own desire or dreams, looking at the good of all, especially that of the least, the last and lost. That is where exists the Reign.
Seeing the Reign requires that one see the way God sees everything – as God’s own! Everything, and everyone belongs to God and no one has the right to hurt the other; every being is inviolable. How difficult and problematic it is for human beings to see this? That is why the Reign remains still a farfetched dream. Can we really see what the Lord wants us to see – the Reign? Can we at least begin our efforts to see it?
Fr Antony Christy is a Salesian Priest from 2005 and has a Masters in Philosophy (specialisation in Religion) and a Masters in Theology (specialisation in Catechetics). He has a Doctorate in Theology with specialisation in Catechetics and youth ministry at Salesian Pontifical University, Rome. Walking with the young towards a World of Peace and dialogue is the passion that fires him.