5th. SATURDAY IN WEEK 1 OF ADVENT

1st  Reading: Isaiah 30:19-21,23-26

Future days of blessed enlightenment, when the people turn aside from idolatry.

Truly, O people in Zion, inhabitants of Jerusalem, you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the  sound of your cry; when he hears it, he will answer you. Though the Lord may give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself any more, but your eyes shall see your Teacher.

And when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left, your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, " this is the way; walk in it." Then you will defile your silver-covered idols and your gold-plated images. You will scatter them like filthy rags; you will say to them, "away with you!"

He will give rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and grain, the produce of the ground, which will be rich and plenteous. On that day your cattle will graze in broad pastures; and the oxen and donkeys that till the ground will eat silage, which has been winnowed with shovel and fork. On every lofty mountain and every high hill there will be brooks running with water- on a day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. Moreover the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven-fold, like the light of seven days, on the day when the Lord binds up the injuries of his people, and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow.

Gospel: Matthew 9:35-10:1;6-8

Jesus sends his apostles to spread the gospel to the lost sheep of the house of Israel

Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness. Then he summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast out, and to cure every disease and every sickness.

He told them," Go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and as you go, proclaim the good news, ' The kingdom of heaven has come near.' Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment.

REFLECTIONS AND MEDITATIONS ON THE READINGS

Humanly speaking it is our nature that once we feel that we have done a good job to others we feel the sense of appreciation without excluding payments for our efforts. What about if God will charge us with all the blessings and graces we receive from Him every day? Like for example, the sun we enjoy during the day, the rain, the water, the food, our life, the sea and even the air we breathe. If this will happen, I am sure God will be the richest man in the world. However, this is not the kind of God we know since the beginning of the world. This is not the kind of God Jesus preaches to us and wants to relate with us. But the God we know is a loving  and generous one. He does not need all these material things and money. It is because He even created us out of nothing.

It is because only that Jesus, in today's gospel, wants to teach us something like this: "Without cost, you have received; without cost you are to give,"( Matt 10:8). Jesus lives this teaching because He himself cures the sick people; lets the blind see, expels demons, feeds the hungry with His words and material food;  restores the dead to life; cleanses the lepers and so on and so forth without asking any payment or doctor's fee whatsoever.

The very nature of God is to give. God is a giver. Because He is a Giver, we have received all that we have now like: creation, redemption and sanctification. Yet in receiving all these from Him, we are called  into the mathematics and divine logic of giving too. Sin is nothing other than receiving and not giving. Sin and the sinner are "getters." Getters and givers cannot be mixed up. Let us be a giver so that God will be in us and we in God. " Without cost, you have received; without cost you are to give."

In other words, as somebody had said that Jesus commissioned His disciples to carry on the works which He started, that is, to speak God's word about the kingdom and to bring His healing power to the weary and oppressed. That what they had received from Jesus they must pass on to others without expecting remuneration. They must show by their attitude that their first interest is God and not material gain.

At the end of the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us that: " The disciple of Christ must not only keep the faith and live on it but also profess it, confidently bear witness to it and spread it." ( CCC no.1816). Faith is a free gift from God and it is meant to be shared and multiplied. So many souls are searching but still have not found Christ. Why? It is because they need to see the faith lived. We are called to be living witnesses of faith.

"Compassion" is the powerful emotion by which we identify with the situation of others and are  moved to action. Jesus' compassion for the crowd expressed itself  in two ways in the gospel. He told his disciples to pray to the Lord of the harvest to send workers into his harvest. These harassed and dejected people need workers to journey with them and to lead them. What Jesus did was to appoint  workers himself. He summoned twelve from his disciples and empowered them to extend his own life giving presence  to others who may not meet Jesus personally. Where do we find ourselves in that gospel reading? sometimes we may be those who are harassed and dejected. If so, the gospel assures us that the Lord is with us in our valley of darkness; he is always drawing near to us in his compassion. At other times we may be among the workers whom the Lord wants to send into his harvest to journey  with those who are harassed and dejected. If so, the gospel assures us that in sending us the Lord will also empower us for the work he is asking us to do.