Friday - Second week of Advent

“Thus says the LORD, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
I, the LORD, your God, teach you what is for your good,
and lead you on the way you should go”. (Isaiah 48)

The prophet Isaiah reminds us that God’s kingdom is for the ones that are open for Gods word and are willing to be teached by God. In Jesus God came to us to teach us the truth about himself. It is a joyful teaching that comes to us. Jesus’ message of the kingdom of God is good news and it produces true joy and spiritual freedom to those who listen. On the contrary it contains a warning for those who don’t. People can be pretty stubborn and often think they know better, even better than God. They message of John the Baptist and Jesus was often met with resistance. In many occasions people didn’t want to listen. There you can see a spiritual blindness that needs to be healed. They frustrated in fact God’s plan for them, at least for a while, because they had closed their hearts. They did not want to hear the message from neither John and Jesus.

What can make us spiritually blind? Our generation, like in Jesus’ days, can also be one of indifference. We seem to be indifferent to other people, the world and also to the things of God. Indifference makes us deaf for God’s voice and the Gospel message. We try to follow God but we do also things that contrary to the Gospel. We try to do our best with falling and getting up again. Only when we are humble we can hear God speak to us and find favor His grace.  The Gospel also reminds of the way we act in our relationships with others. We are often like children. We seem to find fault in everything and are blind to the good things in the other person. Negativity and division can build up but tears down. It is like Jesus says: “We played the flute for you, but you did not dance, we sang a dirge but you did not mourn.” That comes forth out of a weak ego. If people don’t compliment or praise us we get upset with them, like a child.
 
God tells us through Isaiah that he wants us to grow into what He has intended us to be. He wants us to mature and be loving and kind people. He wants us to build up each other and encourage each other. We should bear fruit and be imitators of Jesus Christ himself. God can mold our character of if we let him. But we  need to listen what he wants to tell us. He does so through the scriptures but also in prayer if we let him speak. We can only receive his message for us if we are humble and open our hearts. We have to step away from our attachment to the world and live in the spirit. We need to live with the Gospel message active in our hearts. We need to grow spiritually and live with God every second of our journey through life. It is only then that we can experience the transforming power of God. Let us pray that God may guide our hearts and minds to live according to his will and bear much fruit. Amen.