Our Preparation for Christ’s Arrival Leads to Partaking Christ’s Salvific Works – Monday of Second Week of Advent

The incarnated Christ, whose arrival into our hearts, for which we have been diligently preparing with vigilance during Advent Season, will restore and renew our lives, which have been damaged, wounded, and disabled. Christ is coming to restore our lives to their original goodness (i.e. Genesis 1:24-31; cf. Revelation 21:3-4). And in the First Reading for Monday of Second Week of Advent (Isaiah 35:1-5), we see some reflections of Christ’s acts of healing – restoring life to its original perfect condition.  In the Gospel Reading (Luke 5:17-26), we see the incarnated Christ at his act of healing a paralyzed man brought by his friends.

Here is an important element that we cannot afford to miss in the Gospel Reading (Luke 5:17-26). This is not just another Gospel episode of Christ’s healing in action. This is also to remind us that Christ is coming to us in order to make us not only his disciples to follow him but to send us on apostolic missions to partake his works, including healing (i.e. John 14:12).  In fact, we received the same message from the Gospel Reading of last Saturday (Saturday of First Week of Advent), Matthew 9:35–10:1, 5a, 6-8,  extending Christ’s works of compassion on a greater scale as the disciples were sent to do their mission works on behalf of him, in order to completely fulfill and keep Isaiah’s prophesy about Christ’s compassionate response to our cries (Isaiah 30:19-21, 23-26), as in the First Reading of Saturday of First Week of Advent.

The action of the paralyzed man’s friend: climbing to the rooftop of the house in which Christ was teaching to the crowd, removing some roof tiles, and bringing their paralyzed friend down right in front of Jesus to get his attention for sure (Luke 5:19) is not just an act of faith-based compassion but also it is an action that we must prepare ourselves to do for our friends and neighbors on our apostolic mission, for Christ whose arrival that we prepare will commission us to this before Pentecost.

We are not just hoping and looking forward to Christ’s arrival and what he will bring upon hearing our cries – providing for our needs and restoring our lives to the original perfection. In order for this, we were reminded by John the Baptist that we need to make the path of Christ’s coming straight and smooth by removing any obstacles that get in his way as our preparation through the Gospel Reading of Second Sunday of Advent, Cycle C (Luke 3:1-6)

Our Advent preparation for the incarnated Christ’s arrival in our hearts will not only to result in restoration of our lives to the wholeness but in our apostolic mission pastoral work, partaking and expanding his works.