The Holy Father, in today’s Angelus message from the Vatican, had this to say regarding the world in which we live (my translation of the Italian original):
And Isaiah, the prophet of Advent, has us reflect today with a heartfelt prayer, directed to God in the name of the people. He recognizes the shortcomings of his people, and at a certain point he says, “No one calls upon your name, no one awakens to bind himself to you; because you have hidden your face from us, we are in tossed about by our iniquity” (Isaiah 64:6). How can we not be struck by this description? It seems to reflect certain view of the post-modern world: a world where life becomes anonymous and horizontal, where God seems absent and man the sole master, as if he were the maker and ruler of all — construction, work, economy, modes of transport, the sciences, technology — all seems to depend on man. At times, in this world that appears almost perfect disturbing things happen, either in nature or in society, by which we think that God seems to have withdrawn, we might even say, so to speak, abandoned us.
In reality, the true “master” of the world is not man, but God. The Gospel says, “Watch therefore; you do not know when the master of the house will return, whether in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow or in the morning…… “Lord, you are our Father; we are clay and you the one who forms us; we all are the work of your hands.” (Isaiah 64:7h).
Let us all this Advent try to live by these words of the prophet Isaiah, and the teaching of the Holy Father. Let us live each day, knowing that God is the master of all, and we are mere clay in his hands, clay he molds and shapes to bring us to maturity and to do the work he has set before us.
