Our Littleness Before God

Having reached the midpoint of our Advent journey, the prophet Isaiah reminds us of a great and important reality not to be forgotten: in the eyes of God, the smallest is the greatest, because his eternal compassion measures us not from our presumed achievements, but from our radical need for salvation and life. It is precisely our fragile and poor reality that allows God to work great things in us, as the Psalmist sings: “The Lord is good to all; his tender mercies are over all his works.” (Psalm 144:9)

Break Up the Soil

The Lord comes to our aid to sustain and encourage our decision and our commitment to always work on ourselves in closeness to his commands. This involves a real struggle against everything that conditions our living and acting: everything posing as an obstacle to a full and free life in Christ. We continually need to break up the soil of our hearts with strength and courage: “Behold, I will make you into a sharp threshing sledge, new and having many teeth,” says God through the prophet Isaiah.

Do Not Fear

In the first reading, we encounter this divine statement: “Fear not, O worm Jacob, O maggot Israel.” If a man were to call us “little worm” or “maggot,” we would surely be offended, feeling attacked in our dignity. In the first reading from Isaiah, however, it is God who defines his interlocutor in this way. The two terms used do not make us feel bad or disrespected. Not only because before the Lord every wise man feels small, a “maggot” precisely, but above all because the two terms are inserted in a specific context. There is a “do not fear.” A “I am coming to help you,” a “I will make you like a sharp threshing sledge.”

Behind the two “nicknames”, there is a God who loves and is present, who holds your hand: “I take hold of your right hand,” a God who, while seeing all the limitations and poverty in us, at the same time sees the possibilities: “You will rejoice in the Lord, you will glory in the Holy One of Israel.”

Truth and Consolation

The word of God never offends, even when telling the truth about us. It does not compromise, but while saying the truth about us and our situations, it consoles. We must allow the Word to strike us where we are most sensitive. And, where we would not want to be looked at and judged. And, we should thirst for an authentic relationship with God through his word. We all feel an unquenchable thirst. There is no one who does not experience a kind of dryness at a time in life. God is always ready to satisfy that thirst, accompanying us in our search for “quenching” experiences. We are always in constant search to satisfy that thirst.

Sometimes we make mistakes in the source from which to quench it. But the only right source is God. Advent is a beautiful season to realize our eternal need for God. And, prepare ourselves to draw closer to him even in our smallness and weakness.

Lord, come to the aid of my weakness. Grant me the strength to break up my heart so that it opens to welcome and becomes a fertile womb.

[Readings: Isaiah 41:13-20; Matthew 11:11-15]