THE THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT

Zephaniah 3:14-18…Philippians 4:47…Luke 3:10-18

Dear Friends,

The rose candle in the Advent wreath is a symbol of rejoicing expressed tin today’s readings. Paul says, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I shall say it again: Rejoice!” (Phil4:4) We are coming close to the coming of the Lord, the day of salvation. Our God will be faithful to his promises. He will deliver us. The true rejoicing in Advent flows from a trust in God’s promises from the time of Abraham to gift of His Son, our Savior Jesus Christ.

The readings of today offer us a two-fold task. The first is to move out of our sense of self-independence and to trust in the Word of God proclaimed today in Zephaniah, Paul and Luke. At the same time, there is another message. We have to move away from trusting in our possessions as an expression real security and of our self-sufficiency. This kind of misdirected trust removes God from our lives.

John, and Luke after him, stress that we have to do our part in seeking this great gift of the Advent hope. In the first reading, we have a message of why we should rejoice. Zephaniah says, “The Lord your God is in our midst, a mighty savior; he will rejoice over you with gladness, and renew you in his love.” (Zeph 3:17) Paul tells us not to worry, to place our trust in God. “Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” (Phil 4:7)

In the Gospel, John the Baptist tells us why we should rejoice. “One mightier than I is coming.” (Lk, 3:16) This is the message of Advent. This is why we are filled with hope. This is why our Advent prayer is so powerful and so on target, Come, Lord Jesus!

Our world, and each of us, need salvation. It is easy for Paul to tell us not to worry but we know many things cause us distress. It is sickness or the job, our kids or the family. The streets are an every day, every hour challenge. Then there is the growing divide in our society that threatens our basic unity. Hope is not so easy to find in the darkness of our reality.

This is why we have the rose candle. God has not forsaken us. This is why Zephaniah can say, “The Lord has removed judgment against you. He has turned your enemies away…. the Lord is in your midst.” (Zeph 3:15) Hope is the treasure revealed in our Advent celebration.

However, John the Baptist has a very important message that is especially relevant for our situation today. To the crowds, to the tax collectors and to the soldiers John offers a critical admonition. They were invited to give up blackmail, extortion, gouging and acquisitiveness and to begin sharing with the needy. In that way, they would be enacting their repentance, their return to God. This is a truth that pervades Luke’s Gospel. John tells these groups and all his disciples and us the same message: do not let your possessions and your longing for possessions hinder your search for God and hope in God.

John’s wisdom, which is developed by Luke in many eloquent ways in his Gospel, states that a hunger for wealth and more possessions becomes an obstacle to the hope we are celebrating in this Advent Season. It opens us to a centering on ourselves and locking out God. It leads to the mistreatment, even the de-humanization of our brothers and sisters. Likewise, it contributes to the escalating violation of God’s creation. There is a simple truth that Luke’s Gospel proclaims with an urgent consistency. Our possessions easily become our idols and turn us away from God. Our possessions either draw us to God in loving trust or become a major roadblock on our pilgrimage to God that is the authentic Christian life.

This focus on God is a truly challenging truth about our Advent hope. This hope must be rooted in God and not ourselves. God is the Creator. We are the crenatures. Likewise, it should be the measure of how we celebrate Christmas. We need to ask if the possessions of December 26th are going to bring us closer to God or are they going to burden us down and blind us to love of God and love of neighbor?

St Teresa of Avila captured this spirit of trusting in God and not things in her beautiful and classical Bookmark

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

Lk 3:1-6

Dear Friends, The Advent Season, connecting the end times and the coming of the Lord, addresses the Christian understanding of time. We call it Salvation History.

Today’s Gospel heralds the Good News of Jesus coming at a specific time as Luke delineates the political and religious leaders of the known world in that day. He opens to us a new day and invites us into the saving reality of God’s love as the true destiny of time and our lives. The shackles of hopelessness and blind fate are shattered with the Baptist’s announcement. By these words of the Baptist, all that was, all that is and all that is to come are engulfed in a reality that is pregnant with a gracious, irrevocable sense of hope. God has spoken and love will prevail.

On this Second Sunday of Advent, we are invited to meet this hope-drenched reality in the words of Baruch (5:19), Paul (Phil1:4-6, 8-11) and Luke. We are encouraged to look upon the brokenness and burdens of our life and world with eyes of hope and a longing heart seeking God’s presence that continually bursts through the darkness to reveal the light.

Previous to Biblical times, life was seen as part of a repeating cycle with no discernable beginning and no identifiable end.

Each of today’s readings is rooted in the Salvation History of the Hebrew Scriptures and the Christian gospel revelation, acknowledging the presence of God in time and in the personal history of our lives. This is a clear vision of time that is linear with a clear sense of direction and a final goal. Advent is an invitation into this Salvation History. Advent is calling each one of us to embrace this divine summons to walk with Jesus toward our true destiny, to be one with God.

Advent’s message of the coming of Jesus, delivers us from the hopeless cycle of the endless repetition of life and death. Without the gospel message, it so easy to feel trapped in a relentless cycle that excludes any meaningful purpose of hope. This leads to a sense of abandonment along with a crippling sense of the inevitable. We are blessed to have the saving gift this Advent. This holy Season gives us a clear goal and call to find direction and purpose in Jesus Christ. The Advent offer of hope is at the heart of today’s celebration.

An important part of today’s Advent festivity calls us to the awareness of the coming of Jesus, the completion of the redemption rooted in the Death and Resurrection. The first part of this season puts the emphasis on the second coming of the Lord. Only after the sixteenth of December do we direct our attention to the Incarnation. This initial focus on the second coming also helps us to see the emergence of God in our daily experience. It helps us to center our lives in the great gift of Salvation History.

Our Advent prayer, Come, Lord Jesus!, captures the need for deliverance fills our life and world. We need salvation. “All flesh will see the salvation of our God.” (Lk 6:6) The One we await offers us the glorious possibility of goodness, justice, peace and truth. To prepare for this advent of the Lord we need to open our hearts to change. We must overcome the valleys of our selfishness, the mountains of our many prejudices, the judgement of others and especially the neglect of the poor. We can, indeed, straighten all these difficult and crooked ways by a life in the footsteps of Jesus. The loving response to our daily responsibilities and relationships will open our hearts. It will lead the way to be ready for the coming of Jesus with a joyful hope and a heart longing for a new day. Come, Lord Jesus!

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FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT

Luke 21:25-28, 34-36

Dear Friends, Advent is not primarily a time to prepare for Christmas. The first part of the holy season, up till December 16th, is about the final coming of the Lord, the end of the human venture in its present historical form. The final nine days seek to guide us in celebrating the Word made flesh.

Our great temptation is to mix the truly marvelous spiritual challenge of Advent with the rich and enticing rituals of the Christmas season proposed by Macy’s, Walmart and all the other commercial interests. It is to their bottom line interest to see Christmas as an ever-repeating cycle of good times and wonderful memories.

In the Advent Season, the Church is inviting us to a totally different celebration. We are called into a new day dawning in Jesus Christ. We are called to embrace a new reality that has given purpose and direction to every human being.

Each Sunday of Advent the community of faith is invited to go beyond the alluring rites of the commercial season. Now we are called to a faith-driven encounter of the twofold coming of Jesus Christ.

Advent has us look backward so we can look forward. Both views call us to live in the present with hope for a new day.

The Old Testament prophets, especially, Isaiah and Jeremiah, have a clear and strong message of hope that we recall at this time of Advent. Today, Jeremiah, calls out from the darkness and despair of the Exile: “The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and Judah.” (Jer 33:14)

Luke’s message today and 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. Luke is emphatic: we need to be ready: “And then you will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. But when these signs begin to happen, stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand. (Lk 21:27-28)

This longing for the return of the Lord mirrors the passionate longing expressed in the Prophets. Yet it is incredibly enriched and supported by our gift of the Gospel reality. The second coming is better understood as the completion of the redemption that Christ has already begun. So, we join together in our liturgies and in our lives to proclaim the great Advent yearning: Come Lord Jesus!

In the meanwhile, Jeremiah (Jer 33:14-16), Paul (1 Thes 3”12-4:2) and Luke 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 do know the present. We are called to live the gospel with acts of mercy and forgiveness, with concern for justice and peace, and a passion to care for the gift of God’s creation. In the constant struggle Paul encourages us with these words “May the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all…at the coming of our Lord Jesus.” (1st Thes 3:12)

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, in the grace of the present moment, for tomorrow is in God’s hands. We indeed need to cry out, Come Lord Jesus! But a life seeking to walk with Jesus right now makes our cry 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!


In Christ,
Fr. Tracy O’ Sullivan O. Carm

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