2023-12-23 01:22:00
If the Lord does not build the house
Dear brothers, peace and good.
This year the almanac is a bit capricious. The times are adjusted, and this fourth Sunday, in the morning, will be Advent and in the followingnoon, Christmas. Calendar stuff.
Because we come to the end of Advent. And what is? – which has been? – Advent for us. The Book of Revelation tells it very well, when Jesus says: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door for me, I will enter his house and eat with him and he with me” (Rev 3, twenty). Have we heard the voice of Jesus? Have we let him through our door? If not, we still have time in these few days left until Christmas. Jesus says immediately before: “Be fervent therefore and repent.” That is where his advice goes and that is Advent. But it is true that time is running out and that the arrival of the Christ Child is already there. His closeness opens our hearts to love and harmony. The great miracle – repeated annually – is that this Child softens the hearts of men and prepares them to be better, to be closer to his peers. The last days – the last hours – of this Advent should help us not to put barriers between the loving designs of God and our abilities to do good for everyone.
The initiative is, apparently, David’s and the prophet Nathan will encourage him to do so. It pains him that the ark of God is in a tent, while He, the king, lives in a house of cedar, in a palace. But God says to David: Are you the one who is going to build me a house so that I can live in it? It is not that God rejects David’s generosity, but rather that he offers him the opportunity to show himself to him in a new way. The Lord is the one who builds the house and is going to build David his true House, which is much more than that cedar palace where he lives. And he expresses it with several first person verbs: “I brought you out… I will be with you… I will put you at peace… I will give you a dynasty…. I will establish the descendants following you… and I will consolidate their royalty…. Your house and your kingdom will last forever.”
Human beings are incomplete beings and everything we do bears the mark of our imperfection. We want to build a house, start a family, establish a community, establish a friendship, establish a relationship, and when we least expect it, we discover its inconsistency, we see how our dream breaks down, how the project sinks or we face unforeseen difficulties. and for which we feel unprepared.
During these days of the year, families gather together, but they also detect their weaknesses and internal contradictions; These days the house becomes a point of attraction for us, but nostalgia arises, the longing for something that might be or was and no longer is or cannot be. There are very inconsistent houses. There are homes in which history falls apart, traditions are lost, or die from pure repetitiveness. Building a house is the most worthy task of a human being. But who will build a house like that?
We have a good model in María. Last day the 8th we reflected on her Immaculate Conception. Today the same Gospel is presented to us once more, and we can review it from the perspective of the end of Advent. It is the good thing regarding the Word, that it resonates in a thousand different ways, even though it is the same.
Mary is a woman of hope. She knows that God – although she does not know how – fulfills her promise and that everything happens according to the divine plan. At her pace. At her time. Mary assumes her mission, that of announcing to the world everything that God can do in the poor who entrust themselves to her Love.
When we feel that everything is collapsing, when it seems to us that God is not keeping his promises, when we believe that this was not the marriage we dreamed of, or the community or Congregation we longed for, or the Church we desired… When it seems to us that the house is half in ruins and Maybe we will be tempted to go to another house, let’s look at Mary. Let us say “Fiat” (let it be done!) to the Promise of God… What if the Lord does not build the house! He wants to take center stage. Why not trust Him who is our Father, our Creator? He will provide!
And, finally, may Mary, who believed in the Angel, facilitate the path to the arrival of Jesus, so that we know, these few days that we have left until the Nativity of the Lord in preparing our hearts to better receive him. Let us therefore finish our reflection today in the best possible way: Come, Lord; don’t be late!
Your brother in faith, Alejandro, CMF
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#Gospel #Reflection #Homily #Sunday #December