We are at the threshold of the Advent season. The change in season (winter) is another sign for a paradigm shift of and for our routines to slowdown and look within. While we look out for designers for our outfits and new styles for our hairdo and other accessories, taking time out alone with the alone is appropriate before we enter.
For the Catholic community the Word of God these days reminded us of the end times in order that we might prepare ourselves to meet Christ the Redeemer in a purified and sanctified state, “for he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, so that we might be holy and without blemish before him” Eph 1: 4. Because “he himself bore our sins in his own body upon the cross, so that, free from sin, we might for righteousness” 1Pet 2: 24. Thus, cleansed from sin, prepare a beautiful crib in our hearts.
In my quest for God, I was moved by these words: If God’s opinion of you has the most control over your life, you have your answer: You are a humble, God-centered, God-glorifying, sin-mortifying, Christ-like, who is more concerned with Christ’s reputation than your own. However, if you are more concerned with what others think about you, to the point that you are motivated to hide sin, you are in more trouble than you could ever imagine.
This reminds me of King David, a man after the Lord’s heart, but who chose a path of sin. As, one fine day beauty deceived him! David did this though he knew the truth about God. The sadness is not so much about the way of sin (adultery with Bathsheba) he chose, which is bad enough, but the deception he propagated after he sinned. The misuse of his Power and Position and willfulness to ‘exchange the truth for a lie’ and unwillingness to change. For, he felt “I have no sin”. However, there was someone who loved him enough!
God sends Prophet Nathan to David his friend. One of the things so amazing about this story is David did not get the point of Nathan’s fictitious story. Nathan was talking, whereas David was not hearing. He was so blind, so dull, and so determined to hide his sin that he did not have ears to hear…, Nathan said to David, “You are the man”. When he heard that it was he, he kept silent. Without interruption, he allowed Prophet Nathan to speak and when he finished, David said the only thing that needed to be said, ‘I have sinned against the Lord’.
After David had sinned, he plotted a deceptive plan to cover up his actions. He hurt many people in the process. The only thing that mattered was that others should not know what he did. How could someone after the Lord’s heart be so connected to God and be so self-deceived?
David’s life is a call for reflective self-examination for the different kinds of sin we commit as we enter into the Advent Season which begins on 1st December 2019. If someone who loved God so much could fall so far…, how much more possible is it for you and me to detach our hearts from the ‘truth’ we know or ‘that’ which we hide?
