Journey to Bethlehem Day 3

Tuesday, December 3 Psalm 122:1-5

1I was glad when they said to me,
“Let us go to the house of the Lord!”
2 Our feet have been standing
within your gates, O Jerusalem!
3 Jerusalem—built as a city
that is bound firmly together,
4 to which the tribes go up,
the tribes of the Lord,
as was decreed for Israel,
to give thanks to the name of the Lord.
5 There thrones for judgment were set,
the thrones of the house of David.

Advent is a time of preparing for the future. The season looks forward with a decided attitude: expectation with faith.
For believers, men under judgment, this seasonal challenge entails contemplation not of the winning child lying in the manger, a figure which men can easily adore, but of one pavilioned in splendor, an awesome conqueror armed with power and coming in judgment.
The hand of God-the-Father lies over the One on his right. Judgment is the prerogative of the cherished figure seated at the right hand of power in Oriental monarchies. St. Luke makes explicit that martyrs see “Jesus standing at the right hand of God” (Acts 7:56).
It was from that same place of honor that Christ welcomed the penitent thief into glory. The Christ of glory is the mediator who pleads for the faithful at our judgment. Even in our judgment the mercies of Christ shall yet rain down upon us.

Grant us, Father, with all who have died in the hope of the resurrection, to have our consummation and bliss in thy eternal and everlasting glory, and, with all thy saints, to receive the crown of life which thou dust promise to all who share in the victory of thy son Jesus Christ; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.