Commentary on the Gospel of
In Advent we celebrate the coming of the Lord into the world and into our lives, but while it is a coming which has already happened it is also one which is happening now and one which we await to see the fullness of when creation finally becomes all that God means it to be in Christ.
Today’s reading from Isaiah speaks of a God who comes not to condemn and cleanse, not to call for a change of heart, but a God who comes to render justice in its most radical sense – and the justice of God is mercy – and so to heal in the most complete and penetrating way: He sets all things right! He deals with deficient and broken bodies, wipes away tears, and restores us to innocence, and He comes to make us the people that He has sought so desperately to call His beloved own and whom we wish to be (or should wish to be)....
And the Gospel reading shows us that God actually has come: Christ's healing power is godly, and setting it next to the first reading strongly suggests that Jesus is God or certainly at least filled with His favor and power. One way or another God has been among us and, for us who believe, He is still visible in His work to heal our broken, bleeding world.
Let us pray from our hearts, from our deepest yearnings, and pray that our God come in visible power to complete His work. But let us pray most especially that He complete that work in each of us so that we may join our brothers and sisters in being about the godly lives He calls us to right now, our radical imitation of Jesus as He continues to bring His reign to fruition in all of creation.
