The Catholic Calendar for Friday, December 9, 2005
Friday in the Second Week of Advent
St. Juan Diego, hermit

Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:
Isaiah 48:17-19
Psalm 1:1-4 & 6
Matthew 11:16-19

A reflection on today's Scripture. . . .

"We piped you a tune but you did not dance,
we sang you a dirge but you did not mourn." (Matthew 11:19)

Today's Gospel recalls the amusing modern-day story of a man who, after seeing pictures and speaking to some of its residents believed they'd lied and that there was no city named Cincinnati. Such an attitude illustrates the mindset of Israel's hierarchy in Christ's time. Both John the Baptist preaching repentance of sin followed by Jesus who promised forgiveness and a new, transformed life were dismissed. They attributed Jesus' miracles to Satan and rejected God's messages by finding fault with the messengers.

Today's world demonstrates the same attitudes as those of two thousand years ago. We are suffering from a succession of destructive events--wars, famines, plagues, and natural disasters--yet it seldom occurs to anyone that such calamities stem from our separation from God, our ignoring His sovereignty over us and disregarding His law based upon His love and those truths inherent in His love. When God made man and entrusted this world to our care, He did so in expectation that we would remain in an intimate, loving relationship with Him, governed by His wisdom. Instead we seized power from Him and used our fallen natures to greedily exploit the land and one another.

We seem unaware that our so-called "civilization" has taken a suicidal course because we refuse to admit that our survival depends wholly on our remaining true to God's laws. If mankind is growing more hostile toward one another, if nature has bursts of cataclysmic madness, we can blame ourselves for having broken the "chain of command" between ourselves and our Creator. Only a humanity that allows itself to be formed anew in God's goodness and holiness can restore peace, justice and calm order to this world.

O Loving Father,
keep us ever faithful to Your Son,
Your living Word in Whom You created us to live.
Send Your Spirit to prepare our hearts
to joyfully and humbly receive Him.
Amen

- Marie Bocko, OCDS
(mlbocko at earthlink dot net)

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