THURSDAY-2nd Week of Advent:Year-C
1st Reading: Isaiah 41: 13-20: I, the Holy One of Israel,
and your Redeemer.
Gospel: Matthew: 11: 11- 15: A Greater than John the Baptist has
never been seen.
What
Jesus did was reprimand the crowd. He vindicated John and his mission,
reminding the forgetful and the fickle that John was the forerunner, and he
claimed that he was the true Messiah.
1. John was the greatest of natural
men/women, yet not as great as the least in the Kingdom of Heaven.
2. John launched a violent over throw of
the kingdom.
i.
He
stirred people to storm and rush into the kingdom just as an army storms or
rushes into a city. Cf. Lk 16: 16.
ii.
A
person must storm the kingdom to enter it. Cf. 2 Tim 2: 3-4; Heb 11: 6.
iii.
A
person who really wishes to enter heaven will storm it. That is he/she will
endure anything to enter heaven. Cf. Lk 9: 23; Rom 12: 2; Eph 4: 23.
3. John was the last of an age- the age
predicting the Messiah. John ended the age of the Old Testament prophecy. He
was the last of a long line of prophets who predicted the coming of the
Messiah. He was the one whom God raised up to be the end of one era and the
beginning of the new era.
4. John was the promised Elijah, the
forerunner who was to proceed the Messiah. John was not Elijah in person, but
he was like Elijah in spirit and power and work (Jn 1: 21-23).
5. A person must hear. A person has ears
in order to hear. Let everyone hear the message of Christ Jesus. Cf. Mt 13: 16;
Prov 18: 15.
Thought:
God expects us to use the faculties we have in order to receive His message: we
have eyes to see His Work, hears to hear His Message, mind to reason the Truth,
hand to work His Works, feet to go where He wishes. We are to be as committed
to the Messiah as John the Baptist was.
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