November 29th

November 29, Tuesday of the 1 st Week of Advent
Readings: Is 11:1-10/Lk 10:21-24 (176)
David Garcia: Theology Teacher
“Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I say to you, many
prophets and kings desired to see what you see, but did not see it, and to
hear what you hear, but did not hear it.”

The Lord has blessed us abundantly by revealing his sacred word to us. In
today’s readings, we hear the Lord telling us that kings and prophets longed to
know the truth. One may ask, what is this truth? Jesus Christ is the truth, and the
truth is that Jesus comes to bring us the salvation we long for and when he arrives,
he will lead us to himself who is the Eternal Truth of God. It makes me wonder
how receptive we are nowadays to this important truth which is the witness and life
of Jesus Christ. Today’s message makes me to throw out this question to all of us.
Do we just take for granted the word of God Incarnate? In a world that is
superficial, many things are presented to us on a screen to ponder, some good,
some bad, and things just plainly random. Most of these are distortions of the truth.
And again, this reflection leads me to ask all of us. Where is the longing for truth
today, a truth that is supposed to change our lives in radical ways once we
encounter it. But instead of hearkening to the truth, then again, we turn a blind eye
and carry on with our life unexamined.
Our ancestors in Christ, those who turned away from paganism and
embraced the Christian life such as our grandma, grandpa, great grandma, great
grandpa, though were sinners like us, reformed their lives and followed this sacred
tradition of truth and strived to pass them on to their Children in a special way.
Their resolution to follow the truth propels me to ask us again, where is our vigor
and passion for this truth? Then I look at myself, where is my vigor for truth as a
world of secularism (meaning the rejection of God and Religion) clouds the sky of
these sacred traditions. This cloud tries to scare us away from the traditions that
were handed down from Christ and His Church. Traditions that we should hold
dear to our hearts because they are sacred in themselves, and they contain the truth.
But this cloud of secularism should not scare us, because during Advent, we
anticipate the Messiah who radiates his light through all darkness. Jesus comes to
save us from all iniquities and gives us hope. As it says in the Book of the Prophet
Isaiah, it was foretold that the Messiah would be a man of righteousness and
justice, a man of wisdom and understanding. Christ wants to radiate our lives with
all these gifts, righteousness and justice and every other virtue that comes from
God. All He asks of us is to have an open heart. So, this is the question I leave us

with, is our heart hardened or is it open to receive the radiant light of Jesus Christ
this Advent season?