Thursday in the First Week of Advent

“Open to me the gates of justice; I will enter them and give thanks to the Lord” (Ps. 118:19). We are on a journey towards the House of Bread where we will find the Bread of life. In Him, we shall live and move and have our being. Like Him, we shall be blessed and broken for the life of the world. Because of God’s great love, the floodgates will open, and “justice will surge like a river and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” (Am. 5:24). As we respond to the announcement of the angelic choir, we will encounter our Lord and Master in a simple manger bed (CF. Is. 1:3). If we want justice in our land, we must ask for it with all our heart (CF. Mat 7:7a). If we want a resting place large enough to accommodate all people, we have to seek it (CF. Mat. 7:7b). If we want to enter the gates of justice, we have to knock (CF. Mat 7:7c). “For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened” (Mat. 7:8).

Time is endless in thy hands, my lord.
There is none to count thy minutes.
Days and nights pass and ages bloom and fade like flowers.
Thou knowest how to wait.
Thy centuries follow each other perfecting a small wild flower.
We have no time to lose,
and having no time we must scramble for a chance.
We are too poor to be late.
And thus it is that time goes by
while I give it to every querulous man who claims it,
and thine altar is empty of all offerings to the last.
At the end of the day I hasten in fear lest thy gate be shut;
but I find that yet there is time.

(Endless Time by Rabindranath Tagore)