December 15/Third Monday of Advent
“By what authority are you doing these things? And who gave you this authority?” ~ Matt 21.22
Ever since fourth grade, when I first encountered the conundrum of word problems, math has not been the discipline in which I have felt most at home. A geometry exercise I loved, however, was using the compass to draw a perfect circle. As I fixed the pencil into the holder, pressed the slender leg into the paper, and carefully inscribed an arc all the way around, I trusted that a perfect circle would emerge. That compass never failed me! It is hard, these days, to know where to fix our own center. Institutions, traditions, long-held customs and norms all seem swallowed up in the cacophony of opposing voices: is there a question that better typifies our taunting, doubting, truth-eluding age than “Who says so?”? As the Irish poet W.B. Yeats famously wrote in The Second Coming, “The falcon cannot hear the falconer;/Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold.” But there is a fixed center that will hold. It is God, who can lift us out of the turmoil and scrum of our daily lives and put us on the path to divine truth. As the medieval German mystic and writer, Meister Eckhart, observed, “Whoever wants to start a good life should do so like someone setting out a circle. If he has fixed the center of the circle accurately, and it remains firm, then the line of the circle will be a good one. In other words, a person should first learn to set his heart firmly in God.” We are invited today to recognize the unchanging and eternal authority of God — the authority that Jesus so calmly claims in the face of a hostile establishment. Let us recognize that divine authority today. May we pray with Cardinal John Henry Newman, saint and Doctor of the Church, “I can ask nothing better than this, to be in your care — not my own.”
Almighty God, Lord of heaven and earth, grant me the confidence and wisdom to place my trust completely in you. Amen.
For today’s readings, click here: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/121525.cfm
To hear a fresh take on “Lo, He Comes with Clouds Descending” by Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7AIf–i1Y0&list=RDc7AIf–i1Y0&start_radio=1
