The short while that I have been a priest, a time span that adds up to be about 2 1/2 years I have discovered an important truth in ministry.
I have had many people call, gather in my office, seek my time, people of many cultures and many ages, and not one of them wanted my advice.
Every person, young and old, who entered my office has been seeking one thing, they wanted me to fix it, they wanted a solution to life's problems, a solution to life's mystery that was unfolding before them, a solution for the fix they were in at the time.
People do not generally want advice, they want solutions.
If you page through the Bible, you discover that God never offers advice but rather he offers a solution. From the beginning when he spoke his first words, "let there be light" he brings forth a solution to the problem of nothingness.
God is one who does not bother with mere advice, rather he brings with him solutions.
Jesus is the same way in the gospel. He is one who has the solution to life's mystery, to life's problem.
Into today's gospel he reminds us what the solution entails.
"Not everyone who says 'Lord, Lord' will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven."
The solution involves not just speaking but ultimately listening.
The solution has always been listening. God has always invited us to listen, to heed, and then be set free.
Advent is the time for listening. Advent is the time to recognize again the one who speaks the solution for life's mystery.
The word of God is spoken, in the quiet and silence, we hear it again a new and fresh; in the quiet and in the silence, the word of God is born in the manger in sleepy Bethlehem.
God's solution to life's mystery is not just to speak his word but allow that word to become flesh so that it can speak to us. Jesus is the solution, this is why his words are so efficacious.
Listen and encounter the personal solution in the person of Christ who speaks, he who has the words of everlasting life.
"Only say the word, and I shall be healed."
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