The Rock of Our Salvation

Homily for Friday of the First Week in Advent

When we are healthy, prosperous, self-confident, even simply young, calling the Lord our rock may seem interesting but hardly relevant. We’re more likely to think of ourselves as indestructible, able to do whatever and whenever we wish. In such periods it is easy to forget how radical our dependence on God is, even though we may actually pray it in words. To genuinely know what it means to call the Lord our rock often requires the experience of feeling no firm ground beneath us, of having nothing sure unto which to hold. Spiritual and emotional experiences that are the equivalent of an earthquake really teach us how fragile and shaky we are. Our world is unstable, and the persons and things in which we put our trust are often found to be lacking.

The people of the Hebrew Scriptures learned early to think of God as their rock, the one who is always there, firm, unshakable, dependable, a sure support. In Isaiah today we hear their faith expressed, “Trust in the Lord forever! For the Lord is an eternal rock” (Isaiah 26:4). By a slight extension, Jesus, in the Gospel text for today says that those who cling to his word and try to put it into practice our building their lives on a rock.

Advent calls us once again to learn or relearn that there is no absolute security for us anywhere but in God and God’s Word. For those of us who can spend time every day or often at mass, this is an oasis of quiet in the frenzied seasons where we can once again learn that God is our rock and our Redeemer. We pray with the psalmist, “O Lord, grant salvation! O Lord, grant prosperity!