Advent, Tuesday December 1st
December 1, 2020
Advent Devotion – Friday – God Loved Us First
December 4, 2020
THE POWER OF MERCY
. . . through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, buy making peace through the blood of his cross. – Colossians 1:20
God chose to enter into human history in complete weakness., That divine choice forms the center of the Christian faith. In Jesus of Nazareth, the powerless God appeared among us to unmask the illusion of power, to disarm the prince of darkness who rules the world, and to bring the divided human race to a new unity. It is through total and unmitigated powerlessness that God shows us divine mercy. (Finding My Way Home, 33, Nouwen)
We live in a world in which people increasingly distrust or even fear people in power. There are simply too many examples everyday for many of us to ignore. Even though God makes temporal power possible for some people, it is meant to be used for the building up of communities and the building of the kingdom of heaven. Because of human selfishness, however, power often ends up serving darkness rather than the light.
Christ reveals to us the true meaning of power and invites us to reflect on it this season. The world may be in the grip of the powers of darkness, but the true power of the universe arrives in secret, in the form of a tiny baby. This baby becomes the model for all of us: by letting go of our desire for power and control, we receive God’s mercy.
Prayer- Lord Jesus, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Amen
