STREAM IN THE DESERT

Meditation for Monday of the Second week of Advent, Year C

(Is 35:1-10; Lk 5:17-26)

Expectant and longing humanity is clearly typified and expressed in a sick person who awaits healing. In a way, sickness embodies human suffering. It brings loneliness and fear, and renders one incapable of free movement and actions. Often, a sick person finds himself in the arms of others, like the paralytic, who have to take care of him and help him recover. When this longing for healing looks upon God, it becomes a concrete expression of our great expectation and waiting—our Advent—for divine intervention and salvation. 

For those who wait on the Lord, Isaiah says in the first reading, “They shall see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God…Be strong, fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.” The prophet assures that healing shall flow like streams in the desert, soaking those who wait for the Lord with everlasting joy and gladness, “And sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” 

In Jesus is the fulfillment of the living waters of healing. The compassion, freedom and generosity with which He attends to the sick flows like streams in the desert. And people ‘flowed’ to Him to be healed. Some men carrying a paralytic, had to go through the roof to lay him down before Jesus. And Jesus recognized this act of faith that passed through barriers. To reach Jesus was the only thing that mattered, for His divine touch was assured. So, the men transferred the ‘problem’ in their hands to Jesus, and they stepped back, relaxed and watched! 

As Jesus took charge, they realized immediately that He was offering more than they envisioned, for He said to the paralytic, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.” To the attacking scribes and Pharisees, Jesus also acted as an Advocate, defending the man’s case before the people. Thus, He encouraged the man and his friends to continue to believe and to receive the forgiveness of sins He was offering. Jesus showed that the man’s physical paralysis was not more important than his spiritual paralysis. By forgiveness of his sins, Jesus was laying down His life for that paralytic because that is what it takes to wipe away sins! “Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’?”

So, our Advent longing for the Lord can be truly represented by the longing of the paralytic and his friends to meet Jesus, our healer and advocate. He said to the man, “I say to you, rise, take up your bed and go home.” And the people glorified God, for like stream in the desert, God’s divine touch uplifted them.

Fr Jude Chinwenwa Nwachukwu, C.Ss.R

Saints Peter & Paul Catholic Church,

Tedi-Muwo, Ojo, Lagos.

Monday December 6th, 2021.

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