2 December 2021
Thursday of the First Week of Advent
Do we dare to let the Word of God come and become flesh in us? To celebrate St. Andrew we heard the blessed words of St. Paul, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved.” Yet today we hear Jesus say, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” It is not that Jesus opposes the confession that He is Lord. Quite the contrary! Jesus (followed by St. Paul) wants this external confession to blossom forth from roots in the heart and to bear good fruit in works of charity. “Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them…” This is what the Lord wants. The Word of God wants to come to us, and not just stop in our ears, nor in our good thoughts, but to dive into the depths of our heart and move us to action. Though we may see the hard parts of acts of charity (the difficulty of forgiveness, the time and effort of service to the poor, the limits that come with faithful commitment), let us ask the Lord today to show us all the more clearly that He is with us in the face of any challenge, and is there to help us do the will of the God who is Love.