December 2, 2025 // Tuesday of the First Week of Advent
Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s First Reading: Isaiah 11:1-10
As she awaited move-in day at college after high school graduation, my granddaughter lived in an already-but-not-yet space. Constrained by the responsibilities of living with parents and siblings, she ached with yearning for the not-yet. My life, too, is replete with such moments. The time between saying yes and the Sacrament of Matrimony, the time between another yes and our arrival in Guatemala as missionaries, the time between discovering Catholicism and our reception into the Church. In each already-but-not-yet space we rejoiced in gifts already received while longing for those yet to be given.
A similar ache rises up in me in light of today’s First Reading. The picture the prophet paints is one of a world without violence, injustice, or harm, a world where wolves, lambs, children, and venomous snakes live in harmony and peace. The artistic renderings I’ve seen of this passage are at the same time beautiful and disappointing. How, I wonder, can an artist possibly portray the “not-yet” of the promised kingdom when “justice shall flourish [. . .] and fullness of peace forever”( Psalm 72:7)? When I bring my heart to Jesus, He assures me that my longing is not misplaced, but rather it’s a holy desire.
Because Jesus has already come, we’ve received so many gifts, especially His Church’s Sacraments! Yet, all has not yet been set right in our world. Wars and famine, earthquakes and tsunamis, predators and prey have not yet diminished.
Just as surely as Jesus’ birth brings the Light of Christ to us in darkness, at the end of time God will satisfy our desire for the full realization of peace and justice. Our part is to trust God to complete what He promised through the prophet in His time and to live in His peace and justice through obedience to His commands while awaiting that day.
In this already-but-not-yet space we inhabit this Advent, we do well to joyfully plan a fitting celebration of the unfathomable mystery of God becoming Man. We also do well to cultivate an ever-deepening longing for the day when God will be all in all.
Relate to the Lord // What already-but-not-yet space are you inhabiting right now? What are you longing for that you don’t have yet? How can you rejoice in the already?
Lani Bogart began to love Jesus as a child and He eventually led her and her family into the Catholic Church. An Arizona transplant to Houston, she enjoys singing, writing, scripture study, and hosting family and friends with her deacon husband.For more of her story see Lanibogart.blog.
Lani Bogart nació en Hawaii y creció en Ohio y Michigan. Era una niña pequeña cuando empezó a amar a Jesús. Está en su casa en Texas con su esposo, un carpintero diácono, cerca de sus hijos y nietos. Lani también es una directora espiritual activa y voluntaria de curación de traumas. Puedes leer más en Lanibogart.blog
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