Bible
Study: Isaiah 11, 1 to 10. And Luke 10, 21 to 24.
In today’s
Gospel passage, we encounter a literally joyful Jesus so happy about the fact
that his disciples were given the privilege of knowing him as God. First he
prayed to God saying: “I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that
thou hast hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them
to babes; yea, Father, for such was thy gracious will.” Luke 10, 21. Then he
turned towards the people themselves and said: “Blessed are the eyes which see
what you see! For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what
you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.” Luke
10, 23 to 24.
We should consider
ourselves privileged to be Christians and followers of Jesus who is THE WAY,
THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE. To be a Christian is to have the way, the truth and
life right in your hands. Yes, Jesus is the way, only by following him closely
are we going to get the best things life has to offer. Jesus is the truth, he
is the answer to all of life’s challenging questions. Jesus is the Life, only
in him do we find true life and by true life, I mean health for our souls.
Many are
physically alive but because they lack Jesus, they are dead within them yet
they do not even know it. But for us who know Jesus, we are truly lucky,
because we are the ones who have come to touch true happiness, we are the ones who
experience that mysterious peace which Jesus spoke about when he said: “Peace I
leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to
you.” John 14, 27. We are the ones who know that peace does not depend on how
much money we have, how much power we have in the world or how readily we can
find bodily pleasure.
We are
ones who know that these very things which the people of the world crave for
with endless pursuit are the same things which bring them sadness, restlessness
and totally unfulfilled. We are the ones who defy Adam’s Smith theory that man
is an insatiable creature because by our closeness to Jesus Christ, we have
come to find satisfaction in Life. By living out the beatitudes, we have come
to quench our unruly appetites. By refusing to live by bread alone but by every
word God has spoken, we have come to discover a spring of water welling up
inside of us such that as Jesus told the Samaritan woman, we do not have to
keep going again and again to the well of earthly life to draw water.
Yes, we
must consider ourselves lucky to know Jesus. The world does not know Jesus and
that is why they look at us as weird people, they do not know what we enjoy. Truly,
Isaiah’s prophecy in today’s first reading give us a clue to this mysterious
joy and peace that knowing Jesus personifies. As Isaiah says: “The wolf shall
dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf
and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The
cow and the bear shall feed; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall
eat straw like the ox. The sucking child shall play over the hole of the asp,
and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den. They shall not hurt
or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the
knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.” Isaiah 11, 6 to 9.
Physically
speaking, these things seem impossible yet they are real. The world cannot
understand how the wolf can dwell with the lamb, how the leopard shall lie with
the kid. In the same way, the world does not understand how we who say we have
picked up our cross to follow Jesus are happy, contented and at peace. The world
cannot and will never understand how we who have renounced the best it claims
to offer are experiencing true peace and fulfilment in life. Aren’t we lucky?
Let us
Pray:
Lord
Jesus, you are my peace, may I never depart from you, the way, the truth and
life. Amen.
Good morning.
Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you. HAPPY NEW MONTH. Welcome
to December
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