FRIENDS and SERVANTS of the WORD
12 December 2024
Second Thursday of Advent
Our Lady of Guadalupe
WORD of the DAY
For I am the LORD, your God, who grasp your right hand; It is I who say to you, Do not fear, I will help you. Do not fear, you worm Jacob, you maggot Israel; I will help you—oracle of the LORD; the Holy One of Israel is your redeemer. I will make of you a threshing sledge, sharp, new, full of teeth, To thresh the mountains and crush them to make the hills like chaff. When you winnow them, the wind shall carry them off, the storm shall scatter them. But you shall rejoice in the LORD; in the Holy One of Israel, you shall glory. The afflicted and the needy seek water in vain, their tongues are parched with thirst. I, the LORD, will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. I will open up rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the broad valleys; I will turn the wilderness into a marshland, and the dry ground into springs of water. In the wilderness I will plant the cedar, acacia, myrtle, and olive; in the wasteland I will set the cypress, together with the plane tree and the pine, That all may see and know, observe and understand, That the hand of the LORD has done this, the Holy One of Israel has created it. (Isaiah 41: 13-20)
How shall I live this Word?
“Do not fear the little worm of Jacob.” Before the Lord, everyone feels small, but He assures us, “do not fear”, I come to your aid”. Because He is a God who loves and who is present, who holds us by the hand; a God who sees all our limitations and our poverty, but at the same time, sees our possibilities. The word of God never offends, even when He says the truth about us. He does not spare us, but while correcting, He comforts. We must allow the Word to strike us where we are most sensitive, where we would not like to be looked at and judged. We all feel an inextinguishable thirst, there is no one who does not experience the aridity. God is always ready to quench that thirst, accompanying us in the ‘quenching’ experiences. We are always in continuous search to satisfy that thirst, sometimes mistaking the source to quench our thirst.
The Lord forgives our useless searches; accompanies us and allows us to find the authentic source of the water that quenches forever.
Thank you for your esteem for us and our miseries, which, instead of turning You away, attract You. Thank You, Lord, because by revealing to us who we are, you also speak of our full dignity.
The voice of St. Francis de Sales
God wants your misery to be the throne of His mercy, and your incapacity the seat of His omnipotence. Your incapacities do not prevent you from re-entering into yourself. They only prevent you from pleasing yourself.
E-mail: srmterzo@gmail.com Website: www.sanbiagio.org info@sanbiagio.org Blog: livingscripture.wordpress.com -Comment: Sr. Gisella Serra, FMA
