“Preparing our hearts to receive His Word as He wishes, in our life and seek to live, in total accord with Him!”

(Based on Sir 48: 1-4, 9-11 and Mt 17:9a, 10-13 – Saturday of the 2nd Week in Advent)

It was December in the year 1903.

After several attempts, the Wright brothers – achieved success in getting their “flying machine” off the land.

They were very much thrilled!

They telegraphed this message Katherine, their sister, informing her of the great invention:
“We have actually flown 120 feet! Will be home for Christmas”

The sister was also super-excited.

She rushed to the editor of the local newspaper, to share the great news and showed him the telegraph message.

The editor glanced at the message and said:
“How nice! So the boys will be home for Christmas!”

Oh! The Editor had completely missed the big news – that man had flown for the first time in history!!

How often is this our experience too in life – Missing the Important Points and settling for lower ones!

We fail to give attention to the most important things of life?

Instead, we get carried away by some other less priorities of life!

This is so true, especially with respect to the Word of God?

The Lord promises so many wonderful things in His Holy Word..
… but often, we miss the point.

Something similar had happened to the people of Israel as well…

God had promised them of the coming of the Messiah…
… but they missed the point..
… and thus, failed to recognise the Saviour He came!

God had promised that Prophet Elijah of old would return…
… but they missed the point…
… and thus, failed to recognize the Prophet when he came!

This is what Jesus points out to His disciples in today’s Gospel, when He says: “I tell you, Elijah has already come and they did not recognise him; but did to him, whatever they pleased” (Mt 17: 12)

John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, had come, preaching the message of repentance and conversion of heart (Mt 3:1)

The Gospel says that John the Baptist…
… wore a clothing made of camel’s hair
… had a leather belt around his waist
… had food of locusts and wild honey (Mt 4: 4)

This appearance was very similar to that of Elijah, the Prophet (2 Kings 1:8)

But in their encounter with John the Baptist, the people failed to recognise him as the “Elijah who was to come”

And thus John the Baptist came to be…
… rejected
… derided
… finally killed!

Many times in our life, we too “miss the point” in our encounter with the Lord…

He gives His Beautiful Word to us…
… but we fail to be encouraged by It and live by It

He makes many wonderful promises of assurance and guidance…
… but we fail to live a life of trust and confidence

He offers Himself wonderfully in the Sacraments, especially Confession and Holy Eucharist…
… but we fail to derive the necessary fruits from Them

Today, the Gospel invites us, to look at God’s Promises, God’s Word’s and God’s Will…
… and discover the true purpose of it in our lives.

This is truer as we prepare for Christmas…
Jesus is the BIG POINT of the Christmas

Let us dare not “miss Him”!

May we prepare our hearts to receive His Word as He wishes, in our life…
… and seek to live, in total accord with Him!

God Bless! Live Jesus!

---

📖 Discovering the beauty of the Catholic Church through the Catechism

Intrinsically linked to the sacramental nature of ecclesial ministry is its character as service.
Entirely dependent on Christ who gives mission and authority, ministers are truly “slaves of Christ,” in the image of him who freely took “the form of a slave” for us.
Because the word and grace of which they are ministers are not their own, but are given to them by Christ for the sake of others, they must freely become the slaves of all.
Likewise, it belongs to the sacramental nature of ecclesial ministry that it have a collegial character. >> In fact, from the beginning of his ministry, the Lord Jesus instituted the Twelve as “the seeds of the new Israel and the beginning of the sacred hierarchy.”
Chosen together, they were also sent out together, and their fraternal unity would be at the service of the fraternal communion of all the faithful: they would reflect and witness to the communion of the divine persons.
For this reason every bishop exercises his ministry from within the episcopal college, in communion with the bishop of Rome, the successor of St. Peter and head of the college.
So also priests exercise their ministry from within the Presbyterium of the diocese, under the direction of their bishop. (CCC # 876-877)