Advent Reflection - Tuesday of the First Week of Advent

I love how so many of our scripture readings start during the season of Advent. We get phrases like the one we have today, “On that day.” It shows us that we’re pointing towards something. Isaiah gives us this beautiful prophecy about the coming of the Messiah, about the Root and the Stump of Jesse — about how he will judge with justice, how he will be a friend to the poor and the down-trodden. We also get the incredible vision of peace — the wolf and the lamb, the leopard and the goat, the calf, the young lion and the child. Enemies in a sense will become friends. It’s a great vision for what is hoped for.

Advent isn’t just a time to prepare for Christmas — certainly, that’s our proximate preparation, but this is a time, a season, meant for so much more. It’s meant to prepare us for the end of time and for the final judgement. Ultimately, it’s meant to prepare us for heaven. It’s meant to prepare us for what we long to see and what we desire to hear. If we’re preparing for something, that means it takes work. That’s the difference between passive waiting and active preparation. It’s the input that we must do — and if we hope to see justice and lasting peace, if we hope to see the Kingdom of Heaven, it means that our work now must be implementing that vision.

And so, let us begin this task of preparing for the Kingdom by praying for a world of justice, a world of peace, and ask God to show us where in our lives we can become better men and women of peace.