Posted by The WORD in Other Words by Brother Romualdo Abulad SVD (Philippines) for Tuesday Week 1 in Advent
Gospel
Lk 10:21-24
What is essential is invisible to the eyes, ” so says Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s unforgettable Little Prince. Even more wonderful is what Jesus means when he says to the Father, “Although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned, you have revealed them to the childlike.” It takes the eyes of the childlike to “see” what unspeakable beauty is contained in Isaiah 11’s description of “the rule of Immanuel.”
Immanuel shall rule with justice, and justice shall be “the band around his waist.” Justice shall be the way of life in the kingdom of Immanuel, where “the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with kid; the calf and the young lion shall browse together, with a little child to guide them. The cow and the bear shall be neighbors, together their young shall rest: the Iron shall eat hay like the ox. The baby shall play by the cobra‘s den, and the child lay his hand on the adder‘s lair.” In this incredible universe, the impossible becomes possible, the inconceivable becomes a reality: the harmony of opposites — eternal peace, the promise of things to come.
Even more challenging is the recognition of the Father and the Son in and through each other. How is that possible? “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see,” says Jesus, for “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 two are identical even as they are two: the harmony of opposites: eternal peace. That‘s what is revealed as the kingdom, which is already “at hand,” that is to say, right here already. Why can‘t we see it? It takes a child.
