Month: December 2015

3rd Week of Advent, Wednesday

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In today’s Gospel we see a glimpse of when the Advent and Christmas party is over. John the Baptist has dedicated himself to his mission of prophet to the Messiah, and now he’s in a dungeon for it at the whims of a cruel tyrant whose “wife” wants him dead. He also knows that prophets usually don’t live to a ripe old age. So the doubt comes: was it worth it? Is Jesus really the one? John’s disciples are bringing him news, but it’s no surprise that in the gloom of a dungeon your outlook can get equally gloomy.

What he decides to do shows great humility: imagine sending your own disciples to ask whether you’ve been prophesying the right thing all along. This shows humility, but also faith: he asks Jesus with simplicity whether he is the one or not, and doesn’t demand proof. Our Lord responds by connecting his miracles with the prophecies of Isaiah, with one important omission and one important addition. He omits the prophecy about freeing the captives, but he makes a point of mentioning that he has raised people from the dead. Therefore he tells John that his liberation from prison is not forthcoming, but that he has power over death itself. John should not expect freedom in this world, but he shouldn’t fear death either. For John that is enough to prepare himself for martyrdom.

How many Advent and Christmas seasons have you lived? If a fresh hope in the coming Savior has given way to a gloomy routine of another holiday season that will come and go too quickly, now is the time to ask Our Lord to remind you of all the miracles he has worked in your life in order to re-fortify your hope. Don’t be shy about asking him.

Readings: Isaiah 45:6c–8, 18, 21c, 21c–25; Psalm 85:9ab, 10–14; Luke 7:18b–23.

3rd Week of Advent, Tuesday

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Advent is a season for conversion, for getting back on track if we’ve gone “off road.” Our Lord in today’s Gospel reminds us that the true measure of success is not what we say, but what we do. Going “off road” means not doing what we set out to do.  It can be pretty wild, even exciting, but in the end we don’t really go anywhere. A believer who says “yes” to God’s will but doesn’t do it in the end goes off road and, therefore, goes nowhere. His lips may have said “yes,” but in the end his heart said “no.”

Conversion means leaving behind that “no” to God’s will and getting back on the road. The action’s that follow our decisions are the true measure of our “yes” or “no”: they indicate whether our hearts are saying “yes” or “no.” Our Lord is telling the chief priests and scribes today, as well as us, that we’ve all had “no’s” in our life, but what matters is being sorry for them and getting back on track. Advent for some can be a season of remembering regrets, but it shouldn’t be a season of wallowing in them; rather, it means welcoming Our Lord back into our life, just as he was welcomed into the world at Bethlehem.

Let’s live this Advent season changing the “no’s” to God of the past into the “yes” to God of our actions.

Readings: Zephaniah 3:1–2, 9–13; Psalm 34:2–3, 6–7, 17–18, 19, 23; Matthew 21:28–32. 

3rd Week of Advent, Monday

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In today’s Gospel we can re-cast the question Our Lord posed to the chief priests and elders: what is, for us, the real reason behind the season of Advent? Is it a human reason or divine one? The chief priests and elders wimped out and avoiding answering the question because they knew whatever they said would be unpopular.  Does that sound familiar? Are we afraid to take a position on the reason for this season, or are we playing both sides to avoid trouble, observing more secular Christmas traditions with some and more religious ones with others?

This apparent paradox is woven into this season and reflects what is really behind it: what’s coming is not only due to God and from God, but, rather God himself is coming. God is coming after assuming a human nature: something from God has become something of man too. The danger is discounting the divine part in favor of the human: then we’re celebrating the birthday of someone who had a great impact on the world a few thousand years ago, and not the birthday of Our Savior. It’s the difference between giving witness to God being behind the season and simply considering it another social convention to follow.

Even in Advent God is on the move. Let’s share that joyful news and what it means to us and to the world. He is coming to save us.

Readings: Numbers 24:2–7, 15–17a; Psalm 25:4–5ab, 6, 7bc, 8–9; Matthew 21:23–27. See also 8th Week in Ordinary Time, Saturday.

3rd Sunday of Advent (Gaudete Sunday)

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The Third Sunday of Advent is also called Gaudete Sunday because of the first word of the entrance antiphon. Gaudete is Latin for rejoice; each reading today is an invitation to joy because the Lord is near or in our midst. In today’s Gospel people are flocking to John because expectation is building that a change for the better is at hand. People from all walks of life are approaching John and asking advice on the right thing to do. They’re willing to share and willing to be fair in their dealings with others. A better society is at hand, which is why they start asking themselves whether John is the Christ.

John tells them that the Christ is coming and promises something even better than what he is calling for: a salutary shake-up. Winnowing fans were used to toss grain and straw into the air: the straw and chaff would blow away, leaving the grain to fall back onto the floor. The “grain” is everyone and everything good and just, while the “chaff” is burned as bad and useless. Even if a shake-up was coming, it was for the sake of good, not evil.

Just as John is preparing the way and telling them the Lord is close, so Advent has now reached it’s fourth week. Let’s follow John’s advice: let’s share with others and strive to be more fair to them in this Advent season.

Readings: Zephaniah 3:14–18a; Isaiah 12:2–6; Philippians 4:4–7; Gospel Luke 3:10–18.

2nd Week of Advent, Saturday

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Today’s Gospel is just after the Transfiguration, an experience of Our Lord on the mountain where the disciples caught of glimpse of his divinity and glory and saw Elijah and Moses at his side, representing the prophets and the the Law that testified to him. This experience confirmed their faith that Jesus was the Messiah, but also raised a question: in the Old Testament it was foretold that Elijah, one of the greatest prophets who was taken up into Heaven on a fiery chariot at the end of his mission, would return before the coming of the Lord. This thought captivated the imagination of the Jews (see Malachi 4:-56 and today’s First Reading, Sirach 48:1ff.), so they were on the lookout for a great prophet before the Messiah came, and some thought Jesus was that prophet when he began his public ministry.

Our Lord helps the disciples understand that the sign of the coming of the Lord they were expecting had already happened: John the Baptist was the prophet who announced the immediate arrival of the Lord (see Luke 1:16–17). He was the greatest prophet because he was the last prophet: on his watch the Lord came, and he rejoiced at that, even in his mother Elizabeth’s womb. Advent is an Elijah moment in this sense. John the Baptist is a little baby, but that little baby points to the little baby about to be born on Christmas, just as he rejoiced at his presence in his mother’s womb.

We already know the story that is playing out each Advent and Christmas. Let’s also rejoice, like John the Baptist, that the Lord is coming soon.

Readings: Sirach 48:1–4, 9–11; Psalm 80:2ac, 3b, 15–16, 18–19; Matthew 17:9a, 10–13.