• Isaiah 7:10-14. At a time when the Davidic dynasty was threatened severely, even with the loss of the throne, Isaiah promised survival but through God alone.
• Romans 1: 1-7. Paul has been designated to announce the Gospel – Jesus Christ, “descended from David according to the flesh but… Son of God… by his resurrection.”
• Matthew 1: 18-24. A tradition centering in Joseph recalls Jesus’ virginal conception as announced through the prophets.

Thoughts for Your Consideration: By John Gonzalez

We are coming towards the end of the Advent season. The readings call to mind the Divine plan which called for the birth of the savior. Isaiah offers his prophesy regarding the birth of Emmanuel to King Ahaz of Judah as a miraculous symbol of Divine hope for a period of great national stress. Paul describes the mystery of the incarnation as part of the gospel creed and the hope for the early Christian community in Rome. In the Gospel reading according to Matthew the miraculous circumstances regarding the birth of Jesus are narrated to us through the eyes of Joseph who is both righteous and compassionate. Joseph struggles with the social implications of this event but through the power of faith that graces his intuition he is able to identify the great salvific hope that will be born to them.

These readings set up for us the exciting context for celebrating Christmas. They describe to us the foretold birth of Christ and we can get excited over the message in preparation for the festivities of the week. But if we take the time to contemplate each of these readings and appreciate the dire situation from which each of them where written in we will be feeling something other than excitement.  Instead we may end up with a healthy amount of anguish and trepidation for what is to come. In all three cases (King Ahaz, Joseph, and the early Christian community in Rome) each is being given a message of hope that can only be accepted in faith as they each are asked to take their first step into the deep unknown. At Christmas we celebrate the foretold gift of hope, a gift in the midst of a suffering world, a gift that will challenge all of us to have faith in a hope that is not of our own making and which places us in the midst of the social suffering of our world.

Let us explore the situation of King Ahaz. Ahaz, the King of Judah, reigned in the midst of social upheaval. The armies of Syria and Northern Israel formed an alliance against Assyria. Ahaz would not join the alliance and so the two armies strategized to take over Jerusalem and set up a puppet government which would concede to the alliance. Ahaz was rightfully concerned that a war against Assyria was folly. So instead of joining the alliance with Israel and Syria he contemplated forming a military alliance with Assyria. Here is where Isaiah comes in. He counsels Ahaz against forming an alliance that will eventually reduce Judah to rubble. Instead Isaiah’s advice to Ahaz is to wait out the crisis and “remain tranquil and do not fear.” Scripture Scholars suggest that Isaiah analyzed that Assyria would finish off with the two rebel states of Israel and Syria soon (which they did) and felt that it would be folly to place oneself into a relationship of submission to the Assyrians. In this situation Isaiah offers Ahaz a prophesy of hope regarding the birth of Emmanuel. This prophesy was to symbolize two things. For the interest of Ahaz it symbolized the preservation of the Davidic lineage. But it also signified hope in the midst of tribulation, new life in the midst of impending destruction. Ahaz does not concede to Isaiah  and engages the Assyrians. The Kingdom of Judah has lost faith, “unless your faith is firm you shall not be firm.” The birth of hope is instead brought to bear with the astounding faith of another member of the Davidic lineage, a lowly carpenter who faces a troubling pre-marital situation.

The central message of each of these readings is that hope is alive in the midst of our own social or personal tribulations. As the year 2010 draws to a close we face many social upheavals that can leave us without any faith for the future. Our global economy, domestic social welfare, political and military conflicts are all in turmoil. Where can we identify our hope in these times? Do we now compromise our faith with other organizations or ideologies out there that give us some semblance of comfort and stability? Like Ahaz, should we close in on ourselves with a narrow definition of community or nation and out of fear submit ourselves to the policies of those who appear economically and politically strong? No, Scripture has never presented that as a solution.  Our faith is in God, the God of the poor and the suffering, the God who promises justice, mercy and forgiveness time and time again. The non-violent prince of peace is our true hope, our way to address the violent and unjust challenges in our world. It is a path wrought with suffering as we promote policies of fairness; justice and compassion to all our brothers and sisters who need our help. It is a path that will bring us ridicule as we tirelessly advocate for peace and nonviolence to a world that is nurtured in conflict and violence. It is an unpopular path but according to the prophets it is the only sure path we have.

• Isaiah 35: 1-6, 10. The prophet sees the desert blooming with new life, as the eyes of the blind our open, the ears of the deaf unsealed, and everyone returns singing to Zion.
• James 5: 7-10. The patience of the farmer is emphasized. He plants the seed in the autumn and waits through the early and late rains till the crop begins to grow in springtime. Remember the patent endurance of the prophets.
• Matthew 11: 2-11. When John the Baptist sent his disciples to ask Jesus, “Are you the one who is to come?” Jesus answered with messianic citations from the Hebrew Scriptures and the praised John.

Thoughts for Your Consideration: By John Gonzalez

I have always maintained that Christianity is a progressive faith. It is forward looking. It certainly honors and reveres the tradition that points to the Divine origin of creation, but essentially its aim and goal is a future reality that is to come. Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation are Divine principles that will define the Kingdom of heaven. Today we strive, as commissioned citizens of this Kingdom, to make these principles real in our lives and in our society so to hasten the arrival of this Divine moment of salvation history. Isaiah and James point to this hope and expectation. But in their message of hope they also exhort patience.

In the Gospel reading John the Baptist is in prison and he sends out his disciples to inquire about the nature of Jesus. John’s ministry has been to preach the message of redemption and reconciliation in preparation for the one who will bring in this Kingdom of heaven. Now in his own despair he wonders if Jesus indeed is the one foretold. Jesus offers an affirmative response with a prophetic testament linking his actions to the prophesy of Isaiah in the first reading.

Throughout the Gospels Jesus consistently honors the Prophetic tradition and the Ten Commandments but outside of that his actions and teachings are forward looking so that through himself he is demonstrating the virtue of living in this future Kingdom. People are healed, forgiven, feed, reconciled and given new life. These are the attributes of God’s coming Kingdom. Jesus offers God’s Justice by offering compassion and forgiveness to all, even to those who do not seek forgiveness “Father Forgive them for they know not what they do.” He never condemns anyone to exile or punishment but instead is always inviting us to be in relationship with God the Father. He Brings about God’s Peace through the message of non-violence and reconciliation ultimately making an example of this virtue through his own life. And He demonstrates the Integrity of all Creation by being open to all people and nationalities and also by exhibiting a unique interrelationship with the natural world.

But even by the time that James is writing his epistle the early Christian community is getting antsy. When will this salvation moment take place? How long must we wait? James reminds the people of the long process that is salvation history by reminding them of the patience and endurance of the Prophets. He exhorts the early community to exhibit the same patience and endurance while assuring them that He is coming. Now, 2000 years later, how do we address the natural impatience of our own people? We can do so by pointing to aspects of God’s reign in our midst. The Kingdom of heaven was brought to our attention through the life and ministry of Jesus, and we await the final culmination of that moment. But for the present we progressively collaborate with God to bring about aspects of the Kingdom in our midst. This progressive development is challenging and often accompanied with social violence of some form or another.

In Passionist spirituality we recognize a formula that is based on the Paschal mystery whereby we go through a spiritual process of accepting a “Mystical Death” in the hopes of accomplishing a “Divine Rebirth.” In this process our own lives are reborn into a more meaningful existence through a period of trial and tribulation. This can happen in periods of our own social history as well. While we saw the devastation of the American Civil War and the Two World Wars we can also point to the progressive reality where we no longer accept the institution of slavery, where we can declare that all humans have established inalienable rights and dignity, and where we attempt to form a global international system for states to discuss their issues rather than to go to war. These are moments or social “Mystical Deaths” and “Divine Rebirths” whereby we as a human community progress towards a social semblance of the Kingdom of heaven. We are not at the end of the journey and it looks like we have quite a ways to go. We too must be patient and make our hearts firm, because the coming of the Lord is at hand.

• Isaiah 11:1-10. After destruction and long waiting, the official spring of David will come as a tender shoot out of the hidden root of Jesse, David’s father; a new paradigm will be enjoyed by all.
• Romans 15:4-9. Everything has been written four our instruction and encouragement, so that we may live in perfect harmony with one another.
• Matthew 3:1-12. John the Baptist appeared, a voice crying in the wilderness, a threat to the powerful, a humble precursor to Jesus. Jesus will gather the wheat into the granary but will burn the chaff with unquenchable fire.

Thoughts for your Consideration: By Fr. Stephen Dunn, CP

Advent strengthens our sense of anticipation.  The readings of the liturgy today look toward a heroic personality who will lead the people.  He will provide an extraordinary and positive experience of the richness of the earth: 

The child lay his hand on the adder’s lair.
…the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the LORD,
as water covers the sea.

He will reform human society too, drawing on:

A spirit of wisdom and of understanding, a spirit of counsel and of strength,
…he shall judge the poor with justice,
 and decide aright for the land’s afflicted. He shall strike the ruthless … he shall slay the wicked.

Those Scriptures, St. Paul indicates in the second reading, are “for our instruction”.   The endurance we learn and the encouragement they give will provide us with hope. In the Gospel, St. Matthew tells us how the anticipation of that ideal was shaping “real life” ministry paths.  John the Baptist was so successful at that project in his austere but convincing life-style that he was drawing significant crowds to the River Jordan to hear his message. He offered a Baptism to purify the people for the role of “judging the poor with justice” and “deciding aright for the land’s afflicted”.  It was in this context that Jesus was about to begin his own life of ministry.  What might these Scriptures be giving us today by way of instruction?  Do we need to reconsider our personal or collective version of Isaiah’s prophetic image of the leader who would establish justice, peace and the integrity of creation?

The other day, while shopping in a religious bookstore, I was taken aback by an unusual title: “The North End Lives”.  It caught my interest because I was born and raised in a neighborhood called the “North End”.  Surely it was not the same one (Hamilton, Ontario, Canada).  But yes it was!  It was a collection of stories of incidents that occurred in the thirty year social ministry of Hugo Neufeld, a Mennonite who moved into the area with his wife and children to learn about and assist those living “below the poverty line”. My family actually had that experience.  But I’ve tended to identify more with a newspaper description quoted in the book: “[The North End]… is a complex mix of grit and gritty characters, tough problems and big-hearted neighbors”.  So, bubbling up from my sub-conscious, I was wondering: do we really need someone from British Columbia to “set up shop” to help us out of our “tough problems”?  

That sparked reflections about what might be different about this Mennonite mission and what the Passionist, Fr. Rick Freshette, is accomplishing in Cité Soleil in Haiti (admittedly with much more physical peril).   Other Passionists, too,  are responding to a similar sense of mission in the U.S., Jamaica, and other locales. The difference, I suppose is confronting the reality that such a mission is in the place you call “home”….where you were raised … where you were educated … where you learned to be counted (with pride), among the “gritty characters”.   Scriptural scholarship now allows us to see clearly that some such thinking was going on in the mind and heart of John the Baptist and indeed Jesus himself. 

St. Matthew gives us a lot to consider.  He fills in the picture of John’s expectations of this ideal leader: with “winnowing fan in his hand” he would be ready to “clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire”.   The Baptist came upon this emphasis in his idealism honestly, because he was born into the “poor” of the Jerusalem scene. That he belonged to an ordinary priestly family rather than being able to claim descent from the high priesthood of the Jerusalem elite spoke volumes.  He presented himself to the people of the lower classes as one who understood their suffering and was in solidarity with them.

That identification gave him outspoken courage.  To the Pharisees and Sadducees he said:  “Ye brood of vipers” and denied them what they presumed was the pride of their descent: “do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father’.  The militancy of his just cause against the imperial oppression and those who colluded with it at the Temple was plain and evident. 

However, as Matthew will relate further on in the Gospel story, John’s subsequent questioning of Jesus’ mission made it clear that the Baptist’s personal anticipation differed from the path Jesus was taking.  At stake was the ideal of the champion of the poor.   Today’s Gospel gives a first indication that the way Jesus, the “shoot” Isaiah predicted would “sprout from the stump of Jesse” would present himself would be at variance with the anticipation of the Baptist.

Today’s Advent exploration of Isaiah’s ideal of the one who will lead his people in justice, peace and the integrity of creation puts very important questions before us.  Perhaps the most poignant is whether we can bring our own expectations into the crucible of our own “North End”, as Matthew indicates was occurring for both John the Baptist and Jesus – as they were probing the authenticity of their respective missions to those oppressed by Empire and Temple in Jerusalem and Galilee.

• Isaiah 2: 1-5. Isaiah prophesizes about the future glory of Jerusalem. “They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; one nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again.”
• Romans 13: 11-14. Paul reminds the Romans that they must be awake and ready for the immanent salvation. The people should conduct themselves properly and “throw off the works of darkness.”
• Matthew 24: 37-44. Jesus tells the disciples that the coming of the Son of Man will be like the days of Noah and the Flood. We must be prepared for we do not know the hour when the Son of Man will come.

Thoughts for Your Consideration: By Fr. Phil Paxton, CP

Every year around this time, I reflect on the distinction between preparing for the holiday of Christmas and preparing for the holy day. Preparations for the holiday have already begun. Christmas decorations are adorning the stores, and shoppers are listening to Christmas music. People are buying gifts and looking for the best deal, whether it’s in a store or online. Trips and visits are planned, and menus for Christmas dinner are getting set. This Sunday marks the beginning of the season of Advent, and the time of preparation for the holy day of Christmas, when we celebrate the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ, into the world, and wait for Him to come again. Both kinds of preparation can be positive. I still enjoy giving and receiving gifts. I enjoy hearing about how friends and family are decorating their homes or getting ready to bake dozens (hundreds!) of Christmas cookies.

When we look at what’s going on in the world, or in our lives, the preparation to celebrate Jesus’ birth and to await His coming again becomes more and more important. Advent is a time of waiting, but not passive waiting. We are to get ready. As Jesus says in our Gospel reading from Matthew, “Therefore, stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.”

How are we to get ready? In our second reading from Romans, St. Paul exhorts his fellow Christians: “You know the time; it is the hour now for you to awake from sleep. For our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed; the night is advanced, the day is at hand. Let us then throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.” To get ready for the day when Jesus comes, we are called to get out of certain things (“the works of darkness”), and get into others (“the armor of light”).

Our Scripture readings point to some of the “works of darkness” that are all around us, and keep us from the “peace” and “good will among all” that this time of year calls to mind. In our first reading from Isaiah, we hear the prophet look forward to a time when “One nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again.” Violence is a work of darkness that has proven difficult for us to throw off. So often we seem to turn to violence almost as a first, rather than as a last resort. In the reading from Romans, St. Paul writes, “let us conduct ourselves…not in orgies and drunkenness, not in promiscuity and lust, not in rivalry and jealousy.” Another work of darkness that seems prevalent is self-indulgence. We are tempted to want more and more and more, despite the consequences to others or even to the whole earth.

In our Gospel reading, Jesus points to another work of darkness. He says, “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. In those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day that Noah entered the ark. They did not know until the flood came and carried them all away.” For me, Jesus warns against complacency. In some ways, this can be the most seductive work of darkness of all. We can be tempted to let our comfort determine our attitude toward others and to the world. As Christians, we can never be satisfied with what is. When it comes to the environment or poverty or violence, we really can’t wait to “conduct ourselves properly as in the day” (Romans 13:13), or beat our “swords into plowshares,” and our “spears into pruning hooks” (Isaiah 2:4)! We are called to act at this time in our lives!

We cannot throw off the works of darkness on our own. As St. Paul says, we are to put on “the armor of light.” We are to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” Only in the grace and love of Jesus Christ can we let go of violence and self-indulgence and complacency. In sharing Jesus’ love we can work for peace and justice in our world. To paraphrase the words of Isaiah, we are being called: “O Church, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!”

 May God continue to bless us all, and may we prepare ourselves for Christ’s coming.

• Micah 5:1-4. Not from mighty Jerusalem but from insignificant Bethlehem would come the ruler of Israel; his origins reached back to most ancient promises.
• Hebrews 10:5-10. What was prefigured in Israelite sacrifices reached a fulfillment in the body of Jesus and his desire to do always the will of the Father. By this “will” we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for everyone.
• Luke 1:39-45. At the Visitation, Elizabeth declared to Mary: “Blessed is she who trusted that the Lord’s words to her would be fulfilled.”

Thoughts for your consideration: By John Gonzalez

In a spiritual pamphlet that St. Paul of the Cross wrote and shared with members of religious life entitled “Mystical Death” the founder of the Passionist community describes a difficult process as the ultimate goal of a Christian: Union with the Divine Will.

I will be resigned and ready to do the Divine Will by desiring nothing, and I will be equally happy with His every will. I will strip myself of everything by a complete abandonment of myself to God. I will leave the care of myself entirely to Him.    

In the Gospel reading for this Sunday we celebrate Mary’s visitation of Elizabeth and her joyful reception by both Elizabeth and the unborn John the Baptist. In the readings Jesus and Mary are noted for accepting the Will of God. The Prophet Micah reminds the reader that the restoration of Israel will come from the humble origins of Bethlehem. It will be from this unexceptional region that the servant of the Lord will follow the Divine Will, “[he] shall reach to the ends of the earth; he shall be peace.” In the letter to the Hebrews the author describes how the sacrifice of Jesus has replaced the sacrificial rituals of the Priests which had been the mediation for the people with their God. And how does Jesus become our salvation?  “Behold, I come to do your will.” …By this “will,” we have been consecrated through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”

This week we celebrate the actions of Mary and Jesus who said the ultimate yes to God — which is to fully adopt the Divine Will in lieu of their own passions and desires. What St. Paul of the Cross is telling his religious and the lay people to whom he offers spiritual direction is that this exercise is not restricted to Jesus and Mary. As part of our baptismal calling we are all called to say Yes to God and to resign ourselves to a cosmological Will that is beyond our own passions and desires. It is part of our faith not only to accept that through the Word of God creation came into existence, but also that creation has a Divine purpose and an ultimate plan.  

In Catholic teaching we are offered the social principle of the “common good” as a way for us to comprehend in our society how our social goal is not the good that we individually seek and want but the common good that serves us all and from which we can all truly benefit. This weekend lets us contemplate the Divine Will that Mary and Jesus followed and which we too are called to follow. This being a traditional season of peace let us consider the social issues that concern us and adopt the framework of the “common good”, considering those issues not from our own self-interest but from the interest of the Cosmological Christ who, we pray, will become incarnate again in us.

• Zephaniah 3:14-18a -The prophet composes a hymn of hope for Jerusalem and the temple where “the Lord is in your midst.”
• Philippians 4:4-7 – Rejoice in the Lord always … The Lord is near. Present your needs to God. Then God’s own peace, beyond your comprehension, will stand guard over your hearts and minds.
• Luke 3:10-18 – John the Baptist preached reform within people’s daily round of duties and announced the one who would baptize with the Holy Spirit.

Thoughts for your consideration: by Fr. Sebastian MacDonald, CP

On December 10^th, there was a celebration of Human Rights Day.  This should be a reason for rejoicing, in the spirit of this Sunday’s joy (Gaudete Sunday) that the Messiah’s coming is near at hand.  For the emergence of human rights as a distinctly recognizable feature of human existence has been a long time coming.

But wouldn’t you know that, just as it emerges out of the dust bin of history, it encounters the danger of another immersion into forgetfulness. The concept of human rights seems to be taken for granted and people pick and choose which rights they wish to defend and which ones they wish to violate. Some promote economic rights while others defend only political rights. Some skip over human rights and prioritize the rights of animals and trees. This process of “dumbing down” universal rights to subjective preferences reduces its significance to the point of asking: why get wrought up over rights when they are as commonplace as dirt?

Perhaps we do better to follow the route laid out by John the Baptist in Luke’s gospel account today, as John engaged in his preaching ministry by the river Jordan.  He chose not to proclaim rights, but obligations.  The word “should” in this account betrays his approach: the crowds ask him: “what should we do?”  And he replied that whoever can should share with another who has nothing.  Likewise, with those lacking food.  And the tax collectors’ question about their “should”, is followed by the soldiers’ similar query.

What’s interesting about this account is that John’s listeners, instead of being “turned off” by John’s list of “shoulds”, “were filled with expectation” because he sounded just like what the Christ ought to be proclaiming: meeting human needs.  For as this account concludes, it points to the “good news”, in John’s remark about a coming baptism with the Holy Spirit and fire, to cleanse, purify and fill the barn.

In other words, the obligations the Baptist laid on his hearers were the foundation of the rights they had every reason to expect at the hands of the Messiah: spiritual rights to freedom from sin, human rights to freedom from foreign occupation.  The roots of the U.S. Bill of Rights and the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights lay hidden here.

So on this Gaudete (rejoicing) Sunday let us make our own the upbeat expectations of the crowds, the tax collectors, and the soldiers that the obligations they acknowledge trigger a sense of the rights to be cherished.  This joy reflects that of the prophet Zephaniah who sees the Lord removing judgment from his people, by turning away the enemies who trampled their rights.  And it unites us with the Philippian Christians in their joy that “the peace of God that surpasses all understanding” will endow their hearts and minds—another basic entitlement as Christians.

Human rights are fundamental freedoms coming into their own, once the obligations facing us are satisfied.  When the primordial obligation owed God is met, freedom of a religious kind is born.  For freedom of religion is humankind’s basic freedom, underlying all the rest.  The opportunity to approach God endows the human person with a dignity unsurpassed by any other quality the human person might come by, whether that be the faculty of reason or freedom.  People argue over rights vs. entitlements vs. privileges vs. merits vs. benefits vs. gifts.  But, on a scale of 1 to 10, the ability to approach God through religious practices rates a 10, ahead of any other human endowment.  That is why the very first sentence in the very first of the 27 Amendments to the U.S. Constitution (the first 10 of which are called The Bill of Rights) reads: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”  And for this reason we rejoice on this Sunday as, with the people around John the Baptist, we await one mightier than he, who is coming as the center of our religious faith, and the origin of our rights.

• Baruch 5:1-9.  The Glory breaks over the new Jerusalem and God’s people return to their homeland.
• Phil 1: 4-6, 8-11. Paul prays for the completion of God’s holiness and charity among these, his favorite converts.
• Luke 3:1-6. John the Baptist is introduced amidst the data of world history.

Thoughts for your consideration: By John Gonzalez

The readings for the second week of advent offer us a peaceful meditation on hope. All three readings are based on the theme that God’s ultimate restoration of our broken humanity will take place. In the first reading Baruch offers a joyful image for Israel’s restoration from the Babylonian exile. Israel’s hope for God’s glory to once again shine on Israel with mercy and justice will again take place. Baruch follows the prophetic tradition. The Prophets like Jeremiah and Isaiah prepare Israel for eminent destruction and desolation because Israel has not followed God’s commands. But the Prophets also place all this within the greater context of God’s ultimate mercy, justice and compassion. There is a light at the end of the tunnel and Baruch, who is writing after the exile, is now consoling Israel that God’s glory will come again.

The second reading takes us to Paul’s later days when he is imprisoned and awaiting trial. Paul’s thoughts, as he writes this letter, are with the community he has left behind. As he fondly considers them he places himself and his cherished community within the ultimate hope that Christ will come again. The gospel reading by Luke sets the stage for the public ministry of John the Baptist. John’s preaching did not occur in an historical vacuum and Luke takes the effort to describe the political and theological setting that leads up to the appearance of John in the Jordan region. It has been 500 years since the Jewish people returned from exile and they are again facing another oppressive political reality. John the Baptist, who prepares the way for Christ, is introduced as part of the prophetic tradition who is now going to break upon the scene of this current historical reality.

Now, 2000 years after the events of John the Baptist, Jesus and Paul, we are again contemplating this peaceful meditation of hope in our time. Christmas has become a highly commercialized holiday. Even those of us like me and my family, who intentionally support the buy nothing alternative to what has become known as black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving), still find ourselves caught up in the frenzy of commercially preparing for the Christmas season. We owe it to ourselves as people of faith to take some time to contemplate our hope. Like our predecessors of the first century AD or the fifth century BC we too are living in uncertain times. Advent and Christmas offer us a great opportunity that surpasses any material hope we may have. It offer us the opportunity to center ourselves in these troubled times in the faith filled hope that God’s glory will break in again in our lives and that somehow the economic, emotional, and even physical sufferings of the moment can find meaning in a holistic future that we can build based on the experience of our suffering. In his second encyclical Spe Salvi, Pope Benedict XVI reminds us that:

His Kingdom is not an imaginary hereafter, situated in a future that will never arrive; His kingdom is present wherever he is loved and wherever his love reaches us. His love alone gives us the possibility of soberly persevering day by day, without ceasing to be spurred on by hope, in a world which by its very nature is imperfect. His love is at the same time our guarantee of the existence of what we only vaguely sense and which nevertheless, in our deepest self, we await: a life that is “truly” life.    

Contemplation is a valuable gift. If we take the time to contemplate and be reflective then we are taking the time actually consider what “truly” life is. Reflection and contemplation are gifts that can not only help us individually but also as a social community. Soon the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross will have a conference on “Free Enterprise, Poverty, and the Financial Crisis.” In promoting this conference the director of the Acton Institute, Samuel Gregg, observes that “there is plenty of talk about global poverty and yet it is striking how much of the conversation is very unreflective.” Mr. Gregg goes on to say, “Another problem is that a great deal of development economics is underpinned by deeply materialistic ideologies and deformed anthropologies of man. But we know that diminished poverty is only partly an economic and material question. It has moral, spiritual, legal, cultural, and institutional dimensions.”

During the second week of Advent let us take the time to reflect on God’s ultimate restoration for us and our society based on the hope that God loves us all and that we in turn can offer that same love and dignity to each other.

• Jeremiah 33:14-16. God will raise a tender shoot or branch from the seemingly dead root of the Davidic royal house. Because God wonderfully fulfills his promises to Jerusalem, the city of David will be renamed: “The Lord our justice.”
• 1 Thessalonians 3:12 – 4:2. We are exhorted to keep our hearts blameless for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
• Luke 21:25-28, 34-36. The day of the Lord will be accompanied with terrifying signs. Watch and pray that you may escape the terrors and remain with the Lord.

Thoughts for your consideration: (The following reflection is taken from “Biblical Meditations for Advent and the Christmas Season” by Fr. Carroll Stuhlmueller, CP)

Advent assures us that Jesus must come. He will appear as he is and strike fear within us. Jesus must come if God is to remain just. The promises have been made, and as the word of God they cannot be revoked.

Old Testament prophets struggled fiercely with some of these divine oracles. For instance, God has pledged himself to King David: “Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever before me; your throne shall stand firm forever” (2 Sam 7:16). This assurance is repeated elsewhere in the Bible (2 Sam 23:5; 1 Chron 17:13; Ps 89:29-30) yet it raises very serious problems of faith when the incumbent king was an apostate like King Ahaz (2 Kings 16:3-4) or a weakling like King Zedekiah (Jer 38). In desperation the prophets concluded that God must cut the dynasty down to a seemingly lifeless and useless stump or maybe leave only the roots hidden within the earth (Is 11:1; Jer 23:5). In some mysterious way God will then breathe new life into the dead stump or hidden roots and so

A shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse [David’s father] and from his roots a bud shall blossom (Is 11:1)

Prophecy, interpreted in this way, shows that good people are not to be victimized by those who possess promised security and special privileges. Kings cannot quote the Scriptures to Isaiah or Jeremiah and conclude: “We can do whatever we please, because the Scriptures say, ‘Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever.’” God will certainly remain true to his promises and fulfill his word, but in a just way and in a surprising way. With a deliberate play on words Jeremiah manifested this liberation of faith from the false use of Scripture. He took the name of the reigning king, Zedekiah, and applied it to God whom he invoked as “Yahweh our justice,” in Hebrew Yahweh Zidkenu.

Jesus speaks of the fear and terrifying signs to accompany his appearance. This gospel reading may seem out of place for Advent and the preparations for Jesus’ birth. Yet a newly born infant must always stir a healthy fear in everyone, particularly in the family that is receiving it. Father and mother, brothers and sisters, all those in the relation are so careful in handling the child, lest they hurt the tender life. Fear incites people to second guess what the child needs or wants; it is not yet an adult who can explain and argue. Infants cry easily for they know nothing about compromises. Children and especially babies speak the simple language of yes and no.

Advent asks us, in the name of the Lord Jesus, to extend the same delicate and “fearful” concern to everyone. In each person and event Jesus is certainly coming to us, with a presence that we accept without compromise, and nurture carefully, even delicately. The Lord will raise up a tender shoot where we least expect life and the fulfillment of promises. We will cry out Yahweh Zidkenu! The Lord, our justice!