Walking His Path

A Reflection on the Psalm for Sunday, December 1st, 2024:
First Sunday of Advent

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Psalm 25

​R. To you, O Lord, I lift my soul.

Make me to know your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my savation. 

​R. To you, O Lord, I lift my soul.

Good and upright is the Lord, therefore he instructs sinners in the way. He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way. 

​R. To you, O Lord, I lift my soul.

All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his decrees. The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him, and he makes his covenant known to them. 

​R. To you, O Lord, I lift my soul.

Pause. Pray. Reflect.

This weekend we will enter into the first week of Advent. Over the next four weeks, the Scriptures we will hear at Mass will speak to our longing for the coming Christ as well as the image of paths and ways. We will hear of how Saint John the Baptist called us to prepare the way of the Lord and also about the path the Lord prepares for us and wants to guide us along.

The interesting thing about roads is that you can take them to get either to or from a place. The path we walk is also the path Christ walked, first by coming down the path towards us in His Incarnation, then by leading us forward along that path back towards heaven.

While He took that path in a very real way over 2000 years ago, His salvific work also exists and works for us outside of time. The promise of this Psalm – that God will lead us in truth, teach and instruct us, and show us the right way towards heaven – wasn’t just for those who could see, hear, and touch Him during His earthly mission. Through the working of the Holy Spirit, alongside the truth of Scripture and the guidance of God-given tradition, we can receive Christ’s teaching and guidance in as real a way as the apostles and disciples did in the days between the first Christmas and Christ’s ascension into heaven.

The path that He walked is one that we can still follow Him on today. He is still reaching back a hand of friendship to us, inviting us to take on His cross and His victory.

When we declare in churches around the world to “prepare the way of the Lord,” what we are being invited to do is to make room in our lives for Jesus to reach into our lives, for the Holy Spirit to make a straight path in our hearts and souls, and for the Father to clear our path forward towards salvation.

But what are the obstacles I put along that path? What potholes are created by my sin? What choices am I making to avoid the right path? What ways am I ignoring Christ’s outstretched hand and the voice of the Holy Spirit beckoning me forward with Him?

This Advent, I enter onto this path with a prayer on my heart, a prayer that I would have clear sight of how God is working in my life and how I am striving against God’s good work in and around me. 

Heavenly Father, open up the path of Your goodness before me. Holy Spirit, guide my heart to seek Your goodness and reject the weakness of my sin. Precious Jesus, show me how to follow in Your footsteps. God, in every way I need, lead me into the salvation promised and given through Christ’s life, death and resurrection. Amen.

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Stéphanie Potter

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