By Fr Antony Christy, SDB.
THE WORD IN ADVENT – First week Wednesday
December 6, 2023: Isaiah 25: 6-10; Matthew 15: 29-37
The Reign is all about a sense of fullness, where the entire humanity feels fulfilled. As we saw in the Word yesterday, it is a fullness where there is no want, nor jealousy, nor competition! Only when someone feels fulfilled will the person never covet someone else’s belonging. That sense of being fulfilled is the experience of the Reign.
Today we are familiar with the news bits about ED and IT raids, Anti-corruption actions and tax evasion complaints. Who does these? Those who have nothing to live by? No. Those who have a world more than what they actually need, or what the next four or five generations of theirs would need. As the famous wit goes, there is never enough for a person’s greed. One of the Reign-qualities that we need to grow in, is developing a sense of fulfillment.
There are two requirements to develop this sense of fulfillment: recognition of the goodness of God and a loving abandonment into the hands of God.
Firstly, recognition of the goodness of God, is a normal and natural habit in which we need to grow in – keep our eyes open to the enormous good that the Lord continues to do for us. We are so ready to take note of and lament on the undesirable things that can happen in our lives but we are so slow to recognize and valorize the numerous good that keeps happening in our daily life.
Secondly, a loving abandonment into the hands of God, is a highly spiritual ability that comes as a result of a long process of growing in a personal relationship with God. That is what Reign is all about – a long process of relationship with God, a relationship with the Shepherd who wishes our good, our wellbeing, our fullness, a relationship that takes us forward to a sense of being fulfilled, a sense of wanting nothing, a sense of being in a banquet – that is the advent spirit of expecting the Reign.
Fr Antony Christy is a Salesian Priest from 2005, who has a Masters in Philosophy (specialisation in Religion) and a Masters in Theology (Specialisation in Catechetics). He has completed his doctoral research in Theology at Salesian Pontifical University, Rome. Walking with the Young towards a World of Peace and Dialogue is the passion that fires him on.