Every nation, every culture
A reflection on Isaiah 2: 1-5, for the weekday Mass of Monday, December 2, 2024
In our first reading today, we have this beautiful image of the mountain of the Lord, with people from all the nations of the world coming towards it in order to learn the ways of God and to learn how to live as children of God. And the result of this? Peace. We are painted a picture of people beating their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks. A world without war. A world of all different nations that walk in the light of the Lord.
It’s an image and a theme that carries forward into our Gospel. Because in the Gospel story, a person of great faith in Jesus comes from an unexpected place—not from the chosen people, not from the house of Israel, but rather, from a leader of the Roman Empire.
And Jesus explains at the end of it all, “many will come from east and west and will eat with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.”
There’s a message offered to us here today. The kingdom of God, inclusion in God’s family, is open to the entire world. Our church is so blessed to be filled with people from every nation and every culture. And each of them has their own ways of expressing and living out their faith.
This time of year showcases that so well, because of all the different traditions we can see from different cultures for how they prepare for Christmas: all the Simbang Gabis, the caroling, the re-enacting of the Nativity story, the Christmas ponchos, the singing Christmas trees, and the like.
The fact is, no one group of people can act as “gatekeepers” to how our living faith ought to be expressed. We need everyone’s experience of the Holy Spirit at work to best understand the mystery that is God. In fact, it is in the coming together of all the nations that our church experiences the most fruit—a world of peace and of “walking together in the light of the Lord”.
But in order for us to build towards the ideal of this beautiful vision of the church, of the people of God, it means that we have to be a church that listens to each other.
Rather than being quick to judge, or quick to dismiss others perspectives on how to worship, or pray, or do ministry… rather than seeking out what is wrong, we have to start from a place of faith—of seeing the Holy Spirit alive and moving in others.
So, maybe we can all take this to prayer today. What is one way, one opportunity, where I can better recognize and celebrate the Holy Spirit at work in someone different from me? How can cultivate a church that strives for peace and is welcoming of different ideas?