3RD WEEK OF ADVENT

Let justice descend, O heavens, . . . like gentle rain. 

When the people of Israel returned home after their exile in Babylon, many of them bore the wounds of their captivity. Yes, justice had finally descended when their captivity came to an end—just as today’s first reading (Isaiah 45:6-8, 18, 21-25) describes it—but many were numb to the fact that God still wanted to work in their lives. Like anyone coming out of a traumatic situation, they struggled with wounded memories, feelings of guilt or unworthiness, and anxiety over the future.

And so the prophet, seeing how dispirited the people were, cried out, “Let the earth open and salvation bud forth!” (Isaiah 45:8). God is pouring out his justice, his mercy, his grace! Open your hearts and receive it! Welcome his “gentle rain,” with its power to heal, into your souls! (45:8).

As it was back then, so it is today. God’s justice is constantly raining down on the just and the unjust alike, and he is constantly urging us to receive it (Matthew 5:45). At every moment of every day, every person on earth can hear his call: “Turn to me and be safe” (Isaiah 45:22). His cry goes out to the cancer patient in the hospital, the inmate on death row, the woman with postpartum depression, and the couple struggling to make ends meet. It goes out to the businessperson in the midst of a shady deal, the frightened soldier on the front lines, the wayward husband caught in infidelity, and the teenager tempted by drugs. There is not a single person whom God doesn’t want to heal, deliver, comfort, strengthen, or guide.

Let this truth, like God’s justice itself, sink into your heart. Let it give you hope for the people you know who are suffering in any way. Let it give you confidence as you lay their needs before the Lord in prayer. By all means, keep asking God to heal them or protect them or bring them to conversion. But pray just as much for them to open their hearts to the Lord and receive his grace.

And while you’re at it, ask the Lord to help you open your heart to him as well. There’s no end to the grace he wants to give you!

“Lord, let your justice find its way into every person’s heart today!”

Psalm 85:9-14
Luke 7:18-23
Isaiah 45:6-8, 18, 21-25