Readings:
Isaiah 41:13-20
Matthew 11:11-15
Reflection:
In my reflection today, I want to focus on Jesus’ statement about the kingdom of heaven being subjected to violence.
Our world today is vastly different to Jesus’ in many ways, but it seems the violence that plagued Jesus’ time has managed to make its way into our modern context. We see violence in many of our contexts. It can be in the small ways in which we live our lives, via the words one might say to another or it can be in huge ways such as wars which remain ongoing. The question we are often left with is what do we do about this violence?
Oftentimes, we are told to be passive, and that should be the solution. I was told this a few times as a child. If someone was saying something to me or threatening me, I was to walk away and ignore it. Perhaps that was the wise decision and maybe the right decision.
But what if we were to see someone else being threatened? Is this same advice applicable? Should we once again walk away?
I see Jesus calling us here to stand up to violence and to cease this passivity. While passivity with wisdom is good, passivity with cowardice is simply an excuse. Jesus calls us here to take action against what is wrong.
Now, determining right and wrong is a whole other reflection but there are many times when we are called to action but we allow passivity and cowardice to get in the way of what Jesus calls of us.
Let our ears be open to the call of Jesus as we prepare for this Christmas season”.
Thomas Warren.