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Friday, December 06, 2002
Advent Weekday

First Reading:
Responsorial Psalm:
Gospel:

Isaiah 29:17-24
Psalm 27:1, 4, 13-14
Matthew 9:27-31

Eternal Father, strong to save,
Whose arm hath bound the restless wave,
Who bidd'st the mighty ocean deep
Its own appointed limits keep;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!

-- Eternal Father: U.S. Navy hymn

According to your faith be it done to you. (Matthew 9:29)

Two blind men approached Jesus with a simple request. "Have mercy on us, Son of David" (Matthew 9:27). With the eyes of faith, they recognized that Jesus was no ordinary rabbi, but the Messiah--the heir to David's throne, the Anointed One who had come to fulfill God's promises to his people. While their physical blindness prevented them from seeing Jesus, they nonetheless believed in him because of what they heard. They cried out to Jesus because they knew he could offer them something they couldn't resist--healing and a new life. In response to their faith, Jesus showed them the depths of God's love, restoring them not only physically but spiritually as well.

Jesus wants us to approach him with the same kind of confidence, humbly asking for mercy and grace. What can hold us back? Indifference perhaps, or maybe unbelief, or even a feeling of unworthiness. Yet St. Paul reminds us that nothing can really separate us from the love of Christ, not even death itself (Romans 8:31-39).

We may sometimes feel that we don't have enough faith for Jesus to want to answer us when we cry out to him. We grow discouraged when we try to muster more faith by trying to pray harder! Fortunately, God knows our weaknesses better than we do. And he is always ready to give us the grace we need to respond to his word with trust and obedience.

How can we grow in faith? The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us that faith is an entirely free gift that God gives to us. "We grow in faith by nourishing it with the word of God" (CCC, 162). Thus faith comes not by seeing but by hearing God's word, and by believing that his word is utterly reliable because God is its author.

Jesus wants to give us far more than we can ask or imagine. He wants intimacy with each one of us. He wants to lavish his love and friendship on us. St. Augustine once said: "God loves each of us as if there were only one of us to love." Let's draw near to the Lord in this Advent season with hopeful expectation that he will fulfill all his promises.

"Lord Jesus, I love you and give you my all."

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God bless.