2nd Sunday of Advent 7.12.14 The word of life
When Our Lord lists off the various things He has been doing for people the one at the end of the list is interesting - The poor have the good news preached to them. This is different to all the other items in the list. They all concern some sort of physical improvement; this one just concerns preaching.
Many would dismiss preaching as rather useless. Preaching is just words, and what use are they?
But preaching of the word of God enables direct contact between the receiver of the word and God Himself. It enables the receiver of the word to grasp the meaning of his life.
They say: Don’t just give the man a fish, but teach him how to fish. But we could say further: don’t just teach him how to fish, teach him how to live. Teach him what his life is for, why he was created, the promise of eternal life etc.
When Our Lord healed people He also forgave them their sins.
The physical healing was the thing that people noticed, but the spiritual healing was the more important.
There is another stage still. Our Lord does not just heal the body, nor just the soul.
He invites each person to be His disciple; to undergo a complete renewal of heart and mind.
If Jesus walks into my room, and heals me with a word, I can say, OK, He is a good doctor, and I might try to leave it there.
But He comes with a whole package for Salvation. He offers final glorification, but also here and now, transformation of the whole person.
This much glorification we can have straight away. The ability to live in freedom, love, justice - according to the will of God - this is living like a saved person, a child of the kingdom.
All the prophecies come to this.
The great blockage is that this truth has not taken hold worldwide. People have remained too much in the merely physical domain.
The Postcommunion prayer today asks that we despise earthly things and love heavenly. In reality we probably love earthly things a lot more, because they are more immediate to us.
It takes spiritual maturity to reach the level where we can honestly say we would rather have heavenly graces than material or physical blessings.
Our Lord, in speaking to John the Baptist’s disciples, is merely hinting at the power available to one who really seeks to know.
How many Christians are still there when it comes to this? Remember the one leper who came back? Do we just take the healing and run. Or do we come back, giving thanks, and prepared to make a commitment as a disciple.
We say effectively: Anyone who can do me that much good is alright with me, and I will give him my whole allegiance. I don’t know what it will lead to but I can see that I am better off with Him than anywhere else.
There is salvation in no other name. I cannot do better than he himself does it. There is only one saviour and I am not it!
So when the good news is preached to the poor, what becomes of them? They become exceedingly rich. They become disciples, and so being, they are able to operate as transformed people. They might still not have much money, but they have discovered the precious pearl, the kingdom of God. Worth more than all else put together.
May we make that same discovery each time we hear the word of God.
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