FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT

Mt 1:18-24

Dear Friends, No matter how much we try, it is a truly an uphill battle to truly grasp, “Jesus is the reason for the Season!”

Over our lifetimes we have been the recipients of billion upon billions of advertising dollars to immerse us in a neatly packaged idea of a commercial Christmas. It is a subtle and attractive enticement. In the end, however, it has little, if anything to do with the Christ of the Gospels.

In the opening prayer of today’s liturgy, the Church, like a voice in the wilderness, is calling us back to Jesus in the stark beauty and wonder of the gospel message. It directs us to be aware of the Angel’s message of the Incarnation. Then, in almost shocking contrast to our vision for the Season, has us pray that we may “by his Passion and cross be brought to the glory of his Resurrection.”

It is a message that cuts through all the fluff and deception. It tells us if we really are going to enter the mystery of the Babe in the crib, we need to accept the totality of the message. This is actually only possible by accepting the Crucified and Risen Christ. In this broader view, we are able to grasp the genuine truth of the Bethlehem experience. It is the beginning of the final battle of good and evil that is opening the darkness of our life and world to a new Light of the World that is Christ.

In this approach to the Christmas mystery, Dec. 26th or any other day of the year is not a letdown of the emotional high when we clean up the mess left by the commercial event. The true experience of Christmas engulfs us in a message of hope every day.

So, today, in this final Sunday before Christmas, we are invited to ponder two clearly comforting and revealing phrases in our Scriptural lessons.

In today’s Gospel story the two phrases are, “be not afraid” and “Emmanuel” which means God is with us. These phrases mark the change in focus of the Advent message. The Incarnation of the coming Christmas Season is moving to center stage. Each of today’s readings is on this theme. Emanuel is born in time to be forever with his people as the new presence of a loving and saving God.

While the phrase “be not afraid” is used over three hundred times in Scripture, the Infancy narratives of Luke and Matthew convey this expression four times. It is always related to the supportive presence of God in a challenging situation such as Joseph’s dilemma with Mary’s pregnancy.

Just like the almost destructive ambiguity that Mary and Joseph faced, our lives are never free of the consequences of evil. Sickness, ignorance, prejudice, violence, and hatred come at us in all manner of ways. This is the reality of living with the seemingly endless battle of good and evil in the events of our day. No sooner has Covid been reduced as a threat, than we have Putin’s war in the Ukraine or the apparently endless violence in the Middle East. These incredible horrors confront us with human carnage, destruction of the environment, threat of nuclear disaster and the waste of all these resources to the neglect of the poor and hungry. This gross manifestation of evil affects everyone.

“Emmanuel” reveals God’s faithfulness and involvement in all human reality. God is always present calling us into the mystery of new life and new love amidst the evil. On this fourth Sunday of Advent, we begin to recall the great event of God becoming human in the person of Jesus. This is the ultimate revelation of God’s saving involvement in our broken world. Our challenge is to be open and accepting of the call on God’s terms.

While “be not afraid” and “Emmanuel” are profoundly comforting statements, Mary and Joseph needed all the support they could get. If you do the minimal analysis of their situation, the challenge to their relationship was enormous. Anytime the betrothed says she became pregnant by the Holy Spirit, where does the dialogue go from there? Add the fact that the child is to be the Savior of his people, the only saving grace would have to be divine intervention. That’s what happened!

Mary and Joseph had to dig deep into the comforting and reassuring message of the angel to make any kind of sense of the reality of their poverty and uprooting that was to be part of the crisis that surrounded them. It truly challenged them to look with faith on the baby who needed a diaper change and see hope for the world.

On this fourth Sunday of Advent as we recall the wonder of God’s becoming flesh, we are invited to embrace the great gift of Emmanuel. God is with us in love, mercy and saving grace in the person of Jesus, the son of Mary. Our challenge is to respond to this call of love on God’s terms.

For Mary, it was just the beginning of a long journey of confusion and bewilderment. Only her faith and trust could comfort her in the midst of a perplexing series of events that ultimately brought her to the foot of the Cross.

When you think about it, it is similar to our journey! It is no wonder that the great prayer of Advent is so relevant to our life. Come, Lord Jesus!

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THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT

Mt 11:2-11

Dear Friends,

In today’s Scripture, Isaiah draws a poetic picture of the Jews walking away into freedom after fifty years of anguish and exile in Babylonia. He uses his beautiful and poetic language to mirror the great event of the Old Testament, the Exodus from slavery to the Promised Land.

Today’s Gospel is about John the Baptist’s question, “Are you the one who is to come?” This plunges us into the mystery we celebrate this Advent season. Each of us in the depths of our heart has a basic yearning for Jesus. We long for him to bring salvation for us and for our world.

The message of Advent has many rich and beautiful dimensions. Most center on the coming of the Lord. Today we are called to experience this coming in the saving acts of Jesus as seen in the past and experienced in our life today. Faith will draw us into the wonderous truth that Jesus is truly the one for us and our world.

We have to see our life’s struggles in this context of these biblical journeys to freedom and healing. Jesus says, “Go tell John what you hear and see.” (Mt 11:4) The real message of Advent makes us able to see that not only are the blind given sight but the lame who now are able to leap like stags are even ready to go Dancing with the Stars. This is because the Advent message tells us that our reality is pregnant with a graciousness. The Advent implications for today reveal Jesus as still bringing restoration on the way to our original innocence. We are, indeed, being set free in our lives today. We do need to let the cry of Advent burst forth from our hearts: Come, Lord Jesus! Even more, we need to let this hunger in our hearts for a new day direct us to live the Gospel message. We have to walk in the footsteps of Jesus today. Our lived commitment brings the transformation of reality we yearn for right now. A life lived in love is the answer to our Advent prayer: Come Lord Jesus! The fullness of salvation we long for in the future will take place now when we walk in love in the footsteps of Jesus.

Jesus’ message to John in today’s Gospel is clear. There is a new day breaking through in his conquest of evil and the demonic power in his healing miracles. Just as the return of the Exiles from Babylonia mirrored the freedom of the great act of deliverance in the journey of people out of Egypt, God continues to manifest the great saving action of Jesus in our day. We need to see with eyes of the heart. The salvation we long for is taking place right now when we are sharing the compassion and love that Jesus continues in our day. This calls us to tear down the barriers. This calls us to work for reconciliation always and everywhere. This calls us to hear the cry of the poor and the cry of the earth.

The gift of hope leads us out of fear and despair to a life of action and commitment to the wonder of the Gospel message.

The battle of good and evil still dominates our world. The pull to freedom, the search for happiness and security still only find a lasting solution in Jesus. Jesus alone still possesses both the message and the power to draw us into eternal life. We still are the blind, the lame and the sinners that need healing and mercy. The answer to our cry for deliverance from the overwhelming power of evil in our day awaits us. That is what we pray for in our Advent prayer, Come Lord Jesus!

While we wait, we have to address our life situation now. St. Teresa of Avila gives us the direction in her classic Book Marker Prayer:

Let nothing disturb you,

Let nothing make you afraid.

All things are passing.

God alone never changes.

Patience gains all things.

If you have God you will want for nothing.

God alone suffices.

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SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT

Matt 3:1-12

Dear Friends. Advent is an invitation to ponder the Christian perspective on time. Time, for the Christian, is not the relentless and isolated moving of the the hands on the clock. It is not the mindless and purposeless waiting for Godot. The Christ event has made time pregnant with the endless possibility of new life. Time is the messenger of God calling us into a gracious future where a new day will prevail.

In Advent, we see the mystery of time intimately connected to the past, present and future in the Christ event. The past recalls in the Incarnation of the Word. The present is the encounter with God’s grace leading us to walk with Jesus. The future is the final completion of Christ’s victory in his Second Coming, the final fulfillment of both our personal destiny and human history.

To understand this mystery of time, we look back to the events of our saving past. Today, it is Isaiah who presents the beautiful passage of hope that foreshadows the coming of Christ. These seemingly impossible relationships will only be possible by the divine intervention of the Messianic presence in Christ both at Bethlehem and at the conclusion of our historic venture

“Justice shall be the band around his waist,

And faithfulness a belt upon his hips.

Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb,

And the leopard shall lie down with the kid;

The calf and the young lion shall browse together,

With a little child to guide them.

The cow and the bear shall be neighbors,

Together their young shall rest;

The lion shall eat hay like the ox.

The baby shall play by the cobra’s den,

And the child lay his hand on the adder’s lair.

There shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain;

For the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the Lord,

As water covers the sea” (Is 11:5-9).

Advent, more than anything else, is a time of joyful and purpose-filled waiting for God who has assured us of his coming. Because we already know the one we are waiting for, the best way to anticipate his coming is to become like him. We need to let our life express the joy and hope that is the central message of the Advent season. We need to be the instruments of peace and justice, of service and healing that anticipate the new day we long for.

The Gospel today draws us to John the Baptist. It is a call to prepare for Christ as the total mystery of the Word made flesh, not a nostalgic return to the beauty of Bethlehem. We need to recall the entire Jesus event. This includes his challenging message and the saving events of the death and resurrection. In longing for Jesus, we understand John’ message, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt 3:20). This demands that we change our lives as we prepare for the coming of the Lord.

These changes will happen as part of personal and communal conversion. Along with our personal and communal transformation, we recognize that we are responding to the imitative of God’s call. This Advent season reminds us of the overwhelming mercy that is revealed in the coming of Jesus into our life and into our history.

The waiting of Advent is not like the drudgery of getting stuck in traffic nor is it the seemingly endless line in the market. Nor is it the anxiety-driven time waiting for the results of a test or other life-changing news from a doctor. Advent waiting is a joyful anticipation of new life. This new life demands a creative openness that leads to repentance and conversion. It means we welcome the God who continually comes and knocks at the door of the human heart. Advent leads us to develop a spirituality of watchfulness that opens to the appreciation of the giftedness of today and hope for tomorrow. We prepare for all of this Advent waiting with the special prayer of the season, Come, Lord Jesus!

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FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT

Matthew 24:37-44

Dear Friends, Advent invites us into a new year in which we journey with the Gospel of Matthew. This is a graced time when we are summoned once more to an encounter with Christ as our Savior and Lord. The Advent Season first guides us to prepare for the Second Coming and, in the final days, to plunge into the mystery of Word becoming flesh.

Advent has us look backward, so we can look forward. Both views call us to live in the present. Advent is not a penitential season but a celebration. We are called to rejoice in the gift of Christ. We recall He is coming today just as He came in the poverty of the first crib. A special element of Advent is the challenge of making the Second Coming produce consequences for our daily living. Jesus emphasized the suddenness and surprise of the final hours. There will be a swift judgement that sifts good from evil with a decisiveness that is final and absolute. However, he did not call us to do anything different beyond the utter importance of our ordinary responsibilities and relationships. Both in the incarnation and the Second coming we have a powerful invitation to embrace the gift of today, the now of the present moment, as a concrete opportunity to walk with Christ.

Isaiah is the featured Old Testament author of the Advent Season. The beauty of his poetry is filled with hope for deliverance and longing for the final expression of God’s saving power.

Matthew’s message in this time of Advent, is based on the fundamental confidence flowing from the Christian message. Christ will return in glory and with him will come the fullness of redemption. A new day is coming. Matthew is emphatic: we need to be ready.

This longing for the return of the Lord mirrors the passionate longing expressed in Isaiah. Yet it is incredibly enriched and supported by our gift of the Gospel reality. Paul tells us, “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the desires of the flesh.” (Romans 13:14) So, we join together in our Advent liturgies and in our lives to proclaim the Advent yearning: Come Lord Jesus!

In the meanwhile, Isaiah, Paul and Matthew have a clear and simple message for us. Live today in faithfulness to the Lord. Enter into our reality. We do not know the future but we are gifted with the present. We are called to live the Gospel with acts of mercy and forgiveness, with concern for justice and the constant struggle “to beat the swords into plowshares and the spears into pruning hooks.” Isaiah 2:4)

Swords and plowshares are not our ordinary arsenal in our daily battles with one another. We often have looks and words and attitudes that are up to the job of antagonizing our neighbor. Our anger and resentments join with our prejudices to create walls of isolation and hostility. We have a way of making our time, interests and convenience the measure of our actions, all to the detriment of fraternal charity. More often than not this is done with a facade of righteousness. Advent is a time to put away the weapons of hostility and division and isolation. It is a time to pray with a truly humble heart, “Come, Lord Jesus!”

Advent challenges us to look at the lost opportunities, the time wasted and misdirected. We all have more than enough to account for. Advent calls us to gather ourselves together and live today, with the gift of the present moment. Tomorrow is in God’s hands. We indeed need to cry out, Come Lord Jesus! A life seeking to walk with Jesus right now makes our Advent Prayer all the more real and focused.

God is very capable of keeping the schedule. He will do his job of finishing the program at the appropriate time. It is quite normal for us to use that familiar question of our youth, Are we there yet? God will let us know. In the meanwhile, our task is to be faithful to the Gospel message and express the hunger in our heart for a new day with the beautiful Advent prayer, Come Lord Jesus!

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