Dec 9: God's Life Offered to All

Pskov School Icon: The Descent into Hell
Also known as the Anastasis or Raising Up
The risen Jesus extends his hands to Adam and Eve.
John the Baptist is to the right of Jesus.

Thursday of the Second Week of Advent
Gospel: Mt 11:11-15

“Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he (NRSV, Mt 11:11).”

Lord God, at every moment that you call each one of us forward to grow in you, we are amazed, indeed overwhelmed, by that which you have in store for us, of which we could not conceive beforehand. And yet your promise was always there, from the beginning, only recognized by us in part and gradually.

Lord, your Son Jesus preached the coming of your kingdom. His followers, listening to him, still expected a reality within this world, as was the expectation of your people from the time of Abraham. Your promise had always been understood as the land. In the resurrection of Jesus and the challenge which it brought into the lives of the apostles, it became clear that we are called, not, as had been thought until then, to dwell as a people in the land, but to an other-worldly reality, to life with you, Lord, in which you would share your very own life with us. And indeed that sharing of life would have its beginning in the here and now, in this world.

The kingdom of God was understood by the apostles to have begun with the resurrection of Jesus. That is why, Lord, that John the Baptist, great as he was, could not have been compared to anyone who accepted belief in the risen Jesus.

But growth in grace brings growth in understanding. How could all of those who prepared the way for the coming of Jesus be in any way excluded from the promise, now more fully understood? Jesus, risen from the dead, must have liberated from the snares of death all those before him who had prepared his way. In Jesus’ harrowing of hell, John the Baptist was the greatest of them to be set free but even the very first parents were not to be rejected.

But why, Lord, would John and the others have to wait until the moment of the resurrection to share in your life, if it had been the promise all through the ages? Again, Lord, every moment in history brings with it the possibility of further growth in your life and growth in understanding. Lord your act is your being. As your being is one so also is your act. In your one act you beget your Son and, together with your Son, you share your life in the Holy Spirit. In that same one act that begets divinity, you also create and bestow life on us, even a share in your divine life. That same one eternal act that embraces all of time, always giving life, is made manifest in the incarnation of your Son. All then who have ever lived from the beginning, and will live, have the possibility of accepting your life even from the womb. Their acceptance of that life, made in your power, is what makes them human. Lord God, in Christ, you, who offer your life to every human in every time and every place, take a human body upon yourself, so much do you love us.

Lord God, with John the Baptist, and with all who have come before him and afterwards, may we rejoice in the gift of your divine life that you have shared with every one of us. And may we give thanks for the destiny to which you invite us all, over and over, at every moment, to live that life with you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, forever and ever.
Alleluia. Amen.