Title Meditation on Advent (2010.12.26)
Contents
Title: Jesus is our hope and joy
Text: (Isaiah 62:11-12)
Hymns: 95. my joy and my hope
Date: December 26, 2010 (Sunday) 5 am
Venue: Jeonju Yebut Church Small Worship Room
<short verse>
“Behold, the Lord proclaims to the ends of the earth. Tell your daughter Zion. Behold, your savior is coming. He brings the people he has saved. He comes before the people he has found” (Isaiah 62:11).
<Meditation>
In 587 B.C.E., Jerusalem was taken over by the Babylonians, and many capable people were taken to Babylon to live as exiles. As the life of prisoners of war deepened and they gave up hope of returning to their homeland, they could not dream of freedom and liberation from prisoners. When only despair took hold of them, the prophet Isaiah delivered the message of hope.
In the book “Living in the Moment”, an epistle written by Father Nguyen Van Thuan, who was the vice-bishop of Saigon and Archbishop of Saigon, Vietnam, Father was imprisoned for counter-revolution after the Vietnam War ended and spent 13 and a half years in solitary confinement. . When he was imprisoned, I remembered the words of a missionary who was set free after years of imprisonment.
"I've spent half of my life waiting to be released from prison."
With these words in mind, he made up his mind.
“I will not wait for the day I will be released from prison. I will live this present moment in prison filled with love.”
Since then, he has changed his time in prison into a ‘meaningful present’ rather than a ‘year of hardship’ that eagerly awaits the day he will be released from prison. He tells prison guards about countries around the world, teaches foreign languages, and practices love himself. Not only that, while continuing to pray and meditate, he writes prison epistles and delivers them to those outside. It is very difficult to live in the moment when you want to fall into the most desperate despair, knowing that that moment is the moment you should live your life the most.
Only when we can properly live the 'now', we will be able to live fully with joy tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, and we will move forward with the grace of redemption.
Jesus, who unchangingly gazed inside himself, drew out the pure power within, and showed unsparing love to those around him, is our true hope and joy. Those who are in Christ must live with such hope and joy.
<Prayer>
1. May I live each day according to the will of the Lord!
2. Raise many faithful co-workers!