The Church, in her wisdom, always chooses wonderful readings during each liturgical season. In this first week of Advent we hear some soothing words from the prophet Isaiah. The prophet tells us,”O people of Zion, who dwell in Jerusalem, no more will you weep; He will be gracious to you when you cry out, as soon as he hears he will answer you.” Even though this was spoken to the people of Zion it still applies to us today.
Have you ever had a moment where you felt like you were dying of thirst or exhaustion? I once went on a backpacking trip with my cousins to a remote island in Michigan and on the very first day I got the worst sunburn imaginable. I am a redhead so when I say worst sunburn ever I mean that I was literally the color of a lobster. It was terrible and I would have given anything to have some aloe vera lotion to put on my burns. 15 miles of backpacking with the straps rubbing against my burnt skin was not what I would call a vacation.
As soon as we got back to the mainland I immediately went to a store to get lotion that was instantly soothing. We all have things in our lives that need healing. Maybe for some of us these are more spiritual wounds than physical ones, but we all have them. I think it can be easy to write God off and say that he has other people to care about or maybe even believe that we aren’t worthy of healing, but God wants to heal us. The instant relief of aloe vera lotion for me was a human remedy. Think of how much more God wants to soothe us, heal us, and make us whole.
Today’s first reading makes it clear that God wants this for us. God wants to enter into the very hurt of our lives and bring us His soothing presence and grace. This is one of the reasons that the Sacrament of Reconciliation requires sorrow for sin. It is not so much that we put ourselves down and feel terrible, but quite the opposite. We are required to have sorrow for our sin because that is right where God wants to meet us and heal us. Just like the people in Zion who were told they would no longer weep, God is telling us, as we prepare for his birth at Christmas, that he wants to be a part of our healing journey.
He doesn’t just want to watch as a bystander. He wants to be actively involved in our sorrow, our hurts, our wounds, and our failures. He is the great healer, we just have to let Him heal. Let’s take a moment during this beautiful season of Advent to allow God to show us exactly where we need healing and what we need from Him, and then ask Him for it. Like a loving Father, He longs to hear from us and heal us.
From all of us here at Diocesan, God bless!
Daily Reading
Saturday of the First Week of Advent
Reading 1 Isaiah 30:19-21, 23-26 Thus says the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel: O people of Zion, who dwell in Jerusalem, no more will you weep; He will…
Saint of the Day
St. Nicholas of Myra
St. Nicholas of Myra
Feast date: Dec 06
On Dec. 6, the faithful commemorate a bishop in the early church who was known for generosity and love of children. Born in Lycia in Asia Minor around the late third or fourth century, St. Nicholas of Myra is more than just the inspiration for the modern day Santa. As a young man he is said to have made a pilgrimage to Palestine and Egypt in order to study in the school of the Desert Fathers. On returning some years later he was almost immediately ordained Bishop of Myra, which is now Demre, on the coast of modern day Turkey. The bishop was imprisoned during the Diocletian persecution and only released when Constantine the Great came to power and made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. One of the most famous stories of the generosity of St. Nicholas says that he threw bags of gold through an open window in the house of a poor man to serve as dowry for the man’s daughters, who otherwise would have been forced into prostitution. The gold is said to have landed in the family’s shoes, which were drying near the fire. This is why children leave their shoes out by the door, or hang their stockings by the fireplace in the hopes of receiving a gift on the eve of his feast. St. Nicholas is associated with Christmas because of the tradition that he had the custom of giving secret gifts to children. It is also conjectured that the saint, who was known to wear red robes and have a long white beard, was culturally converted into the large man with a reindeer-drawn sled full of toys because in German, his name is “San Nikolaus” which almost sounds like “Santa Claus.” In the East, he is known as St. Nicholas of Myra for the town in which he was bishop. But in the West he is called St. Nicholas of Bari because, during the Muslim conquest of Turkey in 1087, his relics were taken to Bari by the Italians. St Nicholas is the patron of children and of sailors. His intercession is sought by the shipwrecked, by those in difficult economic circumstances, and for those affected by fires. He died on December 6, 346.