In today’s reflection on the daily mass readings, Fr Richard considers how we can trust in God’s promises revealed to us in the Bible.
Readings for Friday of the 1st week of Advent: Isaiah 29.17-24; Psalm 27.1, 4, 13-14; Matthew 9.27-31. Text of readings can be found here.
Fans of a lower-league sports team need to have a special kind of hope or optimism. Most weeks they see their team getting beaten, and they know deep down that they will never win any trophies. And yet they keep turning up, week after week, to cheer on their players and hope that one day they might somehow do something amazing. Is that dedication to be commended, or is it naive foolishness?
The cynic might ask the same question in relation to our first reading today. Isaiah seems to offer an impossible vision of the future where the deaf will be deaf no more, the blind will see and ruthless tyrants will be cut off. Yet we know from the rest of the Old Testament that God keeps his promises of renewal and restoration, such as rescuing his people from slavery in Egypt or bringing them back from Exile in Babylon. Isaiah’s vision, then, is one that we can trust in. And we see this vision beginning to be realised in and through the life of Jesus in today’s Gospel, as he heals the two blind men. Here, the key is faith – the blind men trusted in Jesus. But their faith was also about encountering Jesus – we are told they follow Jesus and cry out to him for help.
Our faith, then, is not simply wishful thinking, like those sports fans hoping something will turn up. We are able to trust in a God who always keeps his promises of transformation and renewal, and we are able to encounter Jesus, not least here in the Mass, who always responds to us when we cry out to him, and who, through our faith, is always ready to continue that work of building a new creation, his Kingdom.
South Cardiff Ministry Area 