FrNikola

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.

2nd Week of Advent, Friday

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In today’s Gospel Our Lord invites us to go beyond the superficial in the Advent season and seek not only merriment or consolation, but a source of true and lasting joy. If Advent is characterized by John the Baptist, someone calling for repentance and conversion, the superficial see this as crazy, and just keep looking for a drinking buddy with which to drown their sorrows, not believing a path back to joy is possible. With so many dramatic family situations in the modern world Advent and Christmas are a painful reminder of a joy ever never possessed or lost, with nothing during the holidays to distract oneself from sobering realizations.

Christmas is characterized by Our Lord, a time for celebration, but also a time to find something deeper than the next party, treat or present before the season is over. If Advent is an opportunity to seek a deeper source of joy, the superficial see a little holiday happiness as enough, and then back to work and the daily grind. They can experience a similar emptiness to those drowning their sorrows, but they try to ignore it by keeping the party going.

Our Lord reminds us in the face of these attitudes that wisdom is justified by her works. Wisdom is what we’re looking for to find not only joy, but a source of joy. Jesus is the Wisdom of God (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:24) and also God’s power: he is able to help us go deep and tap the source of true joy that can sustain us in happy or sad moments. Feelings come and go, but joy remains. During Advent we prepare for the coming of the Prince of Peace, and, as he reminds us, his peace is not like the world’s (cf. John 14:27). Let’s continue to live this Advent as a time to prepare and welcome the Prince of Peace who’ll take us beyond happiness or sorrow to a deep joy.

Readings: Isaiah 48:17–19; Psalm 1:1–4, 6; Matthew 11:16–19. See also 24th Week in Ordinary Time, Wednesday.

2nd Week of Advent, Thursday

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To understand the momentous revelation Our Lord makes today for his listeners we have to imagine what it was like to hear prophet after prophet promise, generation after generation, century after century that the Messiah was coming, only to have to keep waiting. Today Our Lord tells them, and us, that the wait is all but over: John the Baptist is the last prophet, the prophet who would come as a new Elijah right before the arrival of the Messiah. A promise made through the prophets for centuries is about to be fulfilled in Jesus.

In Advent we celebrate that long wait drawing to an end, but also that events are about to take a dramatic turn for the better. When Our Lord describes John as least in the Kingdom of heaven, he is telling us that if we considered John blessed to be a prophet with a special mission and relationship with God, we would be even more blessed if we believed in Our Lord and formed a part of his Kingdom, a Kingdom he’ll inaugurate with his incarnation and birth.

Advent is a time to help us grow in joyful expectation and hope. Let’s ask Our Lord for a great faith that his promises will be fulfilled in our lives if we believe in him. Let’s ask for his blessings as we prepare for Christmas.

Readings: Isaiah 41:13–20; Psalm 145:1, 9–13ab; Matthew 11:11–15.