Just before Advent we celebrated the Solemnity of Christ the King, and now on the first Monday of Advent it is only fitting that we reflect on how we will welcome the coming of our Lord in our midst. We will stand ready in awe and Holy reverence? With great humility and longing, yet trusting that He who has granted us salvation will lead us to greater heights of love with and through Him.
Such was the faith of the first gentile to revere Jesus! He stripped Himself of his own title and authority recognising that Jesus was the Lord of lords, King of kings. Such faith would bring great healing and salvation for everyone under his roof.
So indeed sisters and brothers in Christ, let us go to the mountain of the Lord! Let us go to God’s house. May He make His home in our hearts now and forever. Amen
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First reading
Isaiah 2:1-5 ·
The Lord gathers all nations together into the eternal peace of God’s kingdom
The vision of Isaiah son of Amoz, concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
In the days to come
the mountain of the Temple of the Lord
shall tower above the mountains
and be lifted higher than the hills.
All the nations will stream to it,
peoples without number will come to it; and they will say:
‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the Temple of the God of Jacob
that he may teach us his ways
so that we may walk in his paths;
since the Law will go out from Zion,
and the oracle of the Lord from Jerusalem.’
He will wield authority over the nations
and adjudicate between many peoples;
these will hammer their swords into ploughshares,
their spears into sickles.
Nation will not lift sword against nation,
there will be no more training for war.
O House of Jacob, come,
let us walk in the light of the Lord.
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Gospel
Matthew 8:5-11
‘I am not worthy to have you under my roof: give the word, and my servant will be healed’
When Jesus went into Capernaum a centurion came up and pleaded with him. ‘Sir,’ he said ‘my servant is lying at home paralysed, and in great pain.’ ‘I will come myself and cure him’ said Jesus. The centurion replied, ‘Sir, I am not worthy to have you under my roof; just give the word and my servant will be cured. For I am under authority myself, and have soldiers under me; and I say to one man: Go, and he goes; to another: Come here, and he comes; to my servant: Do this, and he does it.’ When Jesus heard this he was astonished and said to those following him, ‘I tell you solemnly, nowhere in Israel have I found faith like this. And I tell you that many will come from east and west to take their places with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob at the feast in the kingdom of heaven.’
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