Tuesday,
November 29, 2016
1st Week of Advent
1st Reading: Is 11:1-10
Gospel: Luke 10:21-24
Jesus was filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit and said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and made them known to the little ones. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. I have been given all things by my Father, so that no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and he to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
Then Jesus turned to his disciples and said to them privately, “Fortunate are you to see what you see, for I tell you that many prophets and kings would have liked to see what you see but did not, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the
Assimilated Life Experience)
With joy from the Spirit Jesus praised his Father sincerely and spontaneously. If we want our prayer of praise to be as sincere and spontaneous, our source of joy must also be the Holy Spirit. This brand of joy is not the happiness most of us seek. Happiness depends on “happenings” while joy comes from a heart open to the guidance of the Spirit.
“Happenings” refer to that series of mundane events offering nothing but fleeting satisfaction that lasts no longer than the happenings themselves. This satisfaction cannot be the source of inner strength because when it fades away it leaves a vacuum in the heart – a vacuum that sucks into the heart just any mundane happening purporting to sustain or prolong the happiness. This results to fishing expedition that sets the heart on an unbridled experimentation with the world. Happiness rarely lifts a person to the level of the divine. Only joy derived from the Spirit does.
To achieve joy, today’s Gospel suggests that we remain childlike. Being childish is a different thing for it turns us into spoiled spiritual brats. Being childlike endows us with the simplicity that makes us appreciate God’s smallest blessings. When one is appreciative of even the smallest blessings, he is like a child easier to please than an unimpressed adult with complicated standards and expectations. It is when we are childlike that our eyes see the secrets of the kingdom. That’s why Jesus exclaimed: “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and made them known to the little ones.”
Seeing the secrets of the kingdom with the simplicity of the child, we will never run out of reasons to give him thanks. Such prayer of praise and thanksgiving will be as sincere and spontaneous as Jesus’ prayer. -(Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM., MAPM., MMExM., REB., Email: dan.delosangeles@gmail.com.
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