Grant Your faithful, we pray, almighty God, the resolve to run forth to meet Your Christ with righteous deeds at His coming, so that, gathered at His right hand, they may be worthy to possess the heavenly Kingdom. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, Who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Your faithful – We are God's faithful. Think for a moment about what that means. Faith is both a divine gift and a human act. Our faith comes from God. It is a theological virtue, infused into our souls. But it is also our response to that gift. We must accept, embrace, apply, and develop the faith God has given us. Then we will truly merit to be called His faithful.
the resolve to run forth to meet Your Christ – Here is the first request we make in this collect. We ask God for resolve, for a firm determination, a set purpose, a solid intention. We need God's help with this as much as with everything else. We are weak. We waver. We make plans and have great ideas but then fail to carry them out. That's why we need God to strengthen our resolve. Our resolve to do what? To run to meet Jesus! To be ready when He comes for us. This may happen at the end of time, if such occurs during our lifetime, but it will certainly happen when we die. Advent helps us prepare the way for Christ in our hearts that we will be ready to run into His arms whenever He calls us home.
with righteous deeds – Of course, there is no way we can ever earn our salvation. We are saved by God's grace alone. Yet we have a responsibility to cooperate with that grace, and that means obeying our Lord when He tells us to love other people and express our love for them in good works. When Jesus calls us to Him, we bring these works along with us as our gift to Him.
gathered at His right hand – These words suggest the judgment scene from Matthew 25. We want to be among those at Jesus' right hand, in the place of His favor. How do we get there? We have faith in Him, and we live out our faith by obeying Him and caring for the needs of others.
may be worthy to possess the heavenly Kingdom – Jesus is the one Who makes us worthy by His grace and love, expressed to the max in His life, passion, death, and resurrection. But again, we must accept His love and grace and live them out in our lives. Then we will be ready to go home to the kingdom of Heaven. We will be ready to receive our inheritance, the place God has prepared for us from eternity, that we may live in His loving presence forever.
No comments:
Post a Comment