Instruments of His love
Since the beginning of Advent and up until today, we have been accompanied on this journey, in the Old Testament readings at Mass, by the prophet Isaiah, one of the four major prophets of the Old Testament.
In Isaiah’s prophetic voice, we learn (of Jesus) that a “shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse (and)…the Sprit of the Lord shall rest upon him.” Isaiah speaks of the “mountain of the Lord of hosts” on which “he will destroy death forever.” In today’s first reading, Isaiah gives voice to the Lord and writes: “I am the Lord your God, who grasp your right hand. It is I who say to you, ‘Fear not, I will help you.’”
We have, in part through Isaiah, an understanding of a God who is our loving and Provident Father, desiring to be at our side and providing for us all. In the spirituality of St. Luigi Guanella, founder of the Servants of Charity, all of us are called to be “instruments” and “hands” of God’s Providence. For the Missionaries of Charity, my “cousins” in religious life, Mother Teresa shared that “I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God, who is sending a love letter to the world.”
As those serving in Catholic Charities, we have the opportunity, blessing, and privilege each day of being instruments and hands of God’s Providence in writing that love letter to the world. We can say to everyone of those placed in our midst, as the Lord did through Isaiah: I will “grasp your right hand” and “Fear not, I will help you.”
Fr. Dennis Weber, SdC, is a priest of the Servants of Charity and Director of Ministry and Mission for the Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Services of Catholic Charities of Philadelphia.