Third Week

3rd Week of Advent, Friday

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In today’s Gospel Our Lord warns the incredulous Scribes and Pharisees that if John was a lamp meant to light the way, Our Lord is a sun. As Advent winds to a close John’s mission draws to a conclusion and Our Lord’s is about to begin, and his phase of salvation history is a quantum leap, because he is its culmination.

Today’s First Reading reminds us that if we want Our Lord’s arrival to be a blessing it requires something on our part. It requires that we live uprightly. In Isaiah that is described in terms of religious observance, but the situation in today’s Gospel reminds us that religious observance can be severed from charity and living an upright life. In those sad circumstances it becomes empty and pointless. Advent is a penitential time to prepare for the Messiah’s birth; it is a moment for conversion, for turning our hearts back to the Lord, remembering that he never turns in heart away from us.

The difference between empty observance and fervent devotion is love we put into our relationship with Christ. Let’s not just put Christ back into Christmas, but our love for him back into it as well.

Readings: Isaiah 56:1–3a, 6–8; Psalm 67:2–8; John 5:33–36. See also 4th Week of Lent, Thursday.

3rd Week of Advent, Thursday

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In today’s Gospel Our Lord identifies John using the prophecy of Malachi: “Behold, I send my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts” (Malachi 3:1). This prophecy epitomizes the season of Advent: today Our Lord tells his listeners that John is, in fact, the messenger who’d come to prepare the way for him. That makes him more than a prophet; he is the prophet who would prepare for the Messiah’s coming. John was conceived in Elizabeth’s womb only a few months before Our Lord was conceived in Mary’s. In the Feast of the Presentation we remember when the Lord came “suddenly” to his temple: a baby coming for circumcision. John’s mission began from the moment of conception, just as Our Lord’s did.

Today’s First Reading from Isaiah captures the joy of a new arrival due in the family. It’s time to make room. Yet Isaiah’s imagery doesn’t stop there: the arrival of a newborn is a sign of reconciliation in his family. Some estrangement between husband (the Lord) and wife (the People of Israel) has ended, and love has reunited them and born fruit in new children. Through Baptism we were reborn as sons and daughters of God, the fruit of the reconciliation between the Lord and his beloved People through the mediation of his Son.

Most of us don’t remember the day of our Baptism, but, like John and Our Lord, our mission as Christians began that day too. It’s no coincidence that the octave of Christmas ends on New Year’s Day: it’s never to late to renew our desire to understand the Lord’s will for our lives and take up the mission he has prepared for us.

Readings: Isaiah 54:1–10; Psalm 30:2, 4–6, 11–12a, 13b; Luke 7:12–30.

 

3rd Sunday of Advent (Gaudete Sunday), Cycle A

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Advent represents all of salvation history leading up to the Incarnation of Our Lord, and sometimes we lose sight of the fact that after the Fall the world was a harsh and unforgiving spiritual desert for a long time. Generations of prophets encouraged, harangued, explained, and warned God’s chosen people, and other than a faithful remnant the appeals on the Lord’s behalf fell on deaf ears. In today’s First Reading Isaiah paints the coming of the Lord as dried and arid land coming into full bloom, of people withered by poor health being restored, and of the pain of injustice being addressed and lifted.

John described himself as a voice crying out in the desert; in today’s Second Reading Paul describes the prophets as suffering hardship and showing heroic patience, waiting for their fruits of their work to be seen. John’s in the dungeon this Sunday and he’s waiting for some sign of the “precious fruit of the earth” Paul describes. In Our Lord’s works John sees something starting to sprout, and Our Lord tells him through his disciples that there are signs of new life coming into bloom in order to help him persevere in faith and hope.

In today’s Gospel, once Our Lord sends a response to John, he tells his listeners that the least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than John. We’re preparing during this Advent to commemorate at Christmas when the first shoots of new life began to appear, hidden in a cave at Bethlehem, that would blossom into salvation through our Messiah. We can still live in a spiritual desert, but that’s because we don’t let the Gospel bloom in our hearts. Let’s not make John’s work or Our Lord’s be in vain in our lives. Let’s start patiently sowing his Word in our hearts, watering it through prayer and the sacraments, and not giving into discouragement when the fruits seem long in coming. John didn’t see the fruits of his labors sprouting until the end of his mission; at Advent’s conclusion we too can see something beautiful bloom, if we keep at it.

Readings: Isaiah 35:1–6a, 10; Psalm 146:6–10; James 5:7–10; Matthew 11:2–11. See also 2nd Week of Advent, Thursday and 3rd Week of Advent, Wednesday.

3rd Week of Easter, Saturday

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Today’s readings provide a great way to take spiritual inventory of how we our living our lives when faced with adversity and difficulty in matters of faith. Today’s First Reading shows the blessed aftermath of the persecution that began with Stephen’s martyrdom and ended with Saul’s conversion. The Church was at peace, growing, and strengthened by the Holy Spirit. Peter was performing miracles in Our Lord’s name just like Jesus did. It was a Church full of dynamism and enthusiasm that had weathered difficulties and remained strong in faith.

In contrast, we have today’s Gospel, years earlier. The teaching on the Eucharist was too much, and many disciples abandoned the life Jesus had taught them. Their faith when challenged was anemic, and Our Lord already knew who was welcoming grace into their hearts and who wasn’t. Those who did persevere in faith and in living as Christ taught were blessed in abundance. We can imagine what was going on in Peter’s heart in the First Reading today when he was kneeling before the corpse of  Tabitha and praying for the Lord to restore her to life. Who knows whether they had called him just to pray for their deceased friend or for a miracle, but a miracle is what they got.

Our Lord continues to work miracles through his Church. Just as Our Lord performed wonders, and Peter after him, he has entrusted his Church to continue teaching and breathing new life into believers. Today’s individualism often tempts us to try and work out spiritual matters on our own, a la carte, on our terms, and without anyone else’s “interference,” but as the First Reading reminds us today, the Church has been established so that believers can help believers. Let’s examine our life today and see whether we’ve drifted from what Our Lord has taught or doubted that his teaching now continues through his Church. Many times this results from a teaching difficult to accept. Like Peter in today’s Gospel, let’s believe first, in order to then be convinced through grace that Jesus is the Holy One of God.

Readings: Acts 9:31–42; Psalm 116:12–17; John 6:60–69. See also 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B.

3rd Week of Easter, Friday (2)

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This week’s First Readings have shown a clear trajectory from witness, to martyrdom, to persecution. At Stephen’s martyrdom we see a young zealous Jew named Saul come onto the scene who goes from watching over cloaks to spearheading the persecution of Jesus’ disciples. Saul was zealous, observant, and organized, but his zeal was misguided. He strove to do what he thought was the Lord’s will, and that set him on a collision course with what the Lord’s will truly was and who Jesus truly was.

As Our Lord explained to Ananias today, he would put Saul’s talents to good use. Saul would go from pursuing minim (heretics) of his own religion to preaching the Gospel of Christ among the gentiles, all those non-Jewish people who, according to Jewish interpretation of Sacred Scripture, were second-class citizens at best in the Lord’s plan of salvation. Saul’s values were profoundly challenged: his fasting while suffering blindness was a spiritual means to process everything that had happened. When Ananias came for him to heal him and baptize him he really could see things clearly for the first time in his life, and his zeal for the Lord was put back on the right course.

The way we live our faith can put us on a collision course with Our Lord too; maybe we’re not blind, but an “astigmatism” due to our pride may be misguiding us. As the Lord today to help you see any wrong turns you make have taken. Saul had to work in a vacuum, since Christianity was something new and strange, but we have many resources and people who can help us regain our sight.

Readings: Acts 9:1–20; Psalm 117; John 6:52–59. See also Conversion of St. Paul, 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time,Cycle B, and 3rd Week of Easter, Friday.