3rd Sunday of Advent
(Sunday 11th December 2016)
“Rebuild my Church!” – Matthew 11:2-11
Please God next week many of us will be together for the annual Christmas retreat in Newbridge. Even if you can’t be with us physically you will be with us spiritually. The theme of this year’s retreat is “Rebuild my House”. This phrase comes from the story of St. Francis of Assisi.
Francis was undergoing his conversion and like many of us, he didn’t know what the Lord was asking him. One day while he was praying in a dilapidated Church called San Damiano he heard a voice from the Cross “Rebuild my Church Francis for you see it is in ruins”. Francis looked around the little church and saw how it was physically in ruins and he set about restoring it. But as his prayer life continued to deepen he realised that the voice wasn’t talking about renewing buildings but actually renewing the living body of the Church. He also realised that the only way to do this was by loving holiness.
The same call is being asked of each one of us by Pope Francis. The voice of the Lord is speaking to each one of us personally. What that means is very personal to each of us. In this Sunday’s Gospel we see that John the Baptist, although he had witnessed to Jesus, yet he is unsure about this person called Jesus. He is wondering could he truly be the Messiah.
We should listen to the voice of the Lord in our lives. Jesus is alive and he desires a living relationship with each of us. As in all relationships they grow and mature, they change and they deepen, otherwise they become lifeless and die. This has to be the same for us with the Lord. We can never become comfortable with our relationship with the Lord; we can never put him in a box and leave him aside if our relationship is living.
Like St. Francis of Assisi, ask the Lord to come ever more deeply into your life, be yourself a living stone building up the Body of Christ. Even if at times this will cause you some discomfort as it did John the Baptist.