If You Have Jesus, You Have Peace And Joy

Isaiah 25:6-10 Matthew 15:29-37

What do you long for that is better than what God plans for you? Isaiah in today’s first reading Isaiah testified to good things to come and in a scene unique to Matthew, he portrays Jesus as a great healer and nourisher of the people. Jesus ascends a mountain and the crowds of the “lame, the blind, the deformed, the mute” come to him, and “he cured them all.” 

The people who witness this scene of healing “glorify the God of Israel.” To this scene also Matthew appends the story of the feeding of the multitude.  Jesus is prompted to feed the crowds because: “My heart is moved with pity…  for they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat.” Advent invites us to think more deeply about the compassionate love of God who dwells in our midst.

The Scriptures we hear in today’s liturgy and the examples of faithful servants of God in the season of Advent should remind us that, above all, we are to bring healing and reconciliation into our fractured world. If we have Jesus, we will have peace and joy.

Fr Joseph Osho