Posted by The WORD in other words (2018) by Sister Mary Pauline Tamayo SSpS – School of the Holy Spirit, Quezon City
Wednesday 1st Week of Advent
The Good News for today presents to us Jesus as filled with compassion and mercy for all. He attended to the sick, the lame, the blind, the crippled, the deaf and dumb and many others brought to him by the large crowds. He healed them all, restoring them to good health, making them whole. He also fed the hungry thousands who had been with him for three days. He did not have the heart to send them away hungry. How much are we like Jesus in our dealings with the poor and needy?
Following Jesus calls us to see with his eyes the reality of poor and needy brothers and sisters in society, to hear with his ears their cry for help and care, and to act as Jesus did, with compassion and mercy, in response to their need. Whatever we do the least of our brothers and sisters we do it to him. To love and serve the poor is to love and serve Christ.
The recently canonized saint, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, is a shining example of one who saw Christ and welcomed him in the poor. She truly recognized that the service given to the abandoned poor and dying was a service of love for Christ.
We have to find our own way of reaching out to the poor. In truly reaching out to them as channels of God’s love, we become a blessing for them. Then they too become a blessing for us. There is much that we can learn from them. In them we truly encounter Christ, the one whose coming we await and prepare for in this blessed season of Advent.
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