December 10, 2013

Tuesday of the Second Week of Advent 
Lectionary: 182
Reading 1 IS 40:1-11

Comfort, give comfort to my people,
says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her
that her service is at an end,
her guilt is expiated;
Indeed, she has received from the hand of the LORD
double for all her sins.

God spoke to Isaiah asking him to comfort the people of Jerusalem. Because, at God's hands they had suffered much punishment because of their sinful ways.

A voice cries out:
In the desert prepare the way of the LORD!
Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!
Every valley shall be filled in,
every mountain and hill shall be made low;
The rugged land shall be made a plain,
the rough country, a broad valley.
Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed,
and all people shall see it together;
for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

This is a prophecy of the Precursor, St. John the Baptist, who would soon come and proclaim the coming of the glory of God, who is our Lord Jesus Christ.

A voice says, “Cry out!”
I answer, “What shall I cry out?”
“All flesh is grass,
and all their glory like the flower of the field.
The grass withers, the flower wilts,
when the breath of the LORD blows upon it.
So then, the people is the grass.
Though the grass withers and the flower wilts,
the word of our God stands forever.”

People I like the grass of the field. In their season, they are born, they grow taller, they get stronger, and they begin to weaken, then they die. Only God is forever.

Go up onto a high mountain,
Zion, herald of glad tidings;
Cry out at the top of your voice,
Jerusalem, herald of good news!
Fear not to cry out
and say to the cities of Judah:
Here is your God!
Here comes with power
the Lord GOD,
who rules by his strong arm;
Here is his reward with him,
his recompense before him.
Like a shepherd he feeds his flock;
in his arms he gathers the lambs,
Carrying them in his bosom,
and leading the ewes with care.

This reveals that Jesus Christ was to come to Jerusalem so that Jerusalem would become a beacon to all the nations of the world. And it is in Jerusalem that the Church was first established.

Responsorial Psalm PS 96:1-2, 3 AND 10AC, 11-12, 13

R. (see Isaiah 40:10ab) The Lord our God comes with power.
Sing to the LORD a new song;
sing to the LORD, all you lands.
Sing to the LORD; bless his name;
announce his salvation, day after day.

R. The Lord our God comes with power.
Tell his glory among the nations;
among all peoples, his wondrous deeds.
Say among the nations: The LORD is king;
he governs the peoples with equity.

R. The Lord our God comes with power.
Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice;
let the sea and what fills it resound;
let the plains be joyful and all that is in them!
Then let all the trees of the forest rejoice.

R. The Lord our God comes with power.
They shall exult before the LORD, for he comes;
for he comes to rule the earth.
He shall rule the world with justice
and the peoples with his constancy.
R. The Lord our God comes with power.

God is invisible to our eyes of flesh. But to the eyes of the spirit and the eyes of the faith, God's presence is evident throughout the world. When one becomes aware of God's presence, he can be seen from the smallest details like the veins in our hands. To the largest most powerful events, like the great hurricanes and storms. Who but God could create such wonders?

Gospel MT 18:12-14

Jesus said to his disciples:
“What is your opinion?
If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray,
will he not leave the ninety-nine in the hills
and go in search of the stray?
And if he finds it, amen, I say to you, he rejoices more over it
than over the ninety-nine that did not stray.
In just the same way, it is not the will of your heavenly Father
that one of these little ones be lost.”

Jesus proclaimed the love of God for every single human being. He revealed that God was interested in the least of sinners that they be saved and come to the knowledge of truth.