Second Sunday in Advent
Advent is a time for us to turn our gaze inward as well as outward. Going within invites us to look at all that defines who we are: our gifts, our growth edges, our own warts, our foibles and basement landscape that we struggle to keep at bay. We are all of us, in need of healing and we might find ourselves afraid and frozen stiff but we need to remember that even stumps have deep roots and reach into good soil. And we are all of us, by the power of God capable of growing new shoots from old stumps.
Today's readings try and address the landscape of all of us: the weak and powerless, the frustrated and cynical, the comfortable and the contended, and the stubborn and determined. John the Baptist was considered a no body, a man out of the loop. But, John the Baptist was a man of prayer, a man of desire for the spiritual rebirth of his people. He begins proclaiming a baptism a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Prepare the way of the Lord! Do these words speak to you? We hear it from John the Baptizer, who speaks to a wilderness that needs to hear Good News!
In the wilderness of our existence, those painful places that do not come from the hand of God, there is a way out. John the Baptist expresses that in his preaching of repentance, forgiveness and change. God is already with us for we are pregnant with God, as Thomas Hoffman writes in "A Child in Winter:” “Standing at the threshold of another Advent we begin our season of growth and expectation--a time to secret ourselves with Mary, to join our hearts with hers, and to grow pregnant with God together. God invites us to a quiet place of reflection and bounty. This Advent, choose some time for silence. Make space within yourself to grow large with the abundance of God's favor. Make this a time to fill your lungs deeply with God so that you can breathe Christ into the world." John was called a voice and not a word, because, through John, God . . . was planning to do something great through human history.
God wants to do something great in human history through you!
Advent blessings
Father William
First Sunday in Advent
Why is this faith preparation for Christmas so important? As I understand the Advent season, it deals with an aspect of the Christian life that none of us can do without. In fact, if that aspect were missing from our lives, we might wonder whether we could still call ourselves Christians. That aspect is hope. One of the greatest blessings of Advent is its insistence that we as a Christian community, and as individual Christians, expose ourselves to hope. Dorothy Day said: No one has a right to sit down and feel hopeless. There’s too much work to do.
Our Advent season is an invitation to hope, a hope that is anchored in God's faithfulness and his all-embracing concern and mercy for us which have taken on flesh in Jesus. It is on this basis that, in the words of the Gospel, we can stand erect and hold our heads high. We can be confident, eagerly awaiting God's always-new beginning with us. That new beginning of God, which is always near at hand, will surely come; and it will transform us into new women and men. It will transform us into makers of peace, doers of justice and lovers of integrity.
Of course, all of us have lots to do before Christmas. But I would ask you not to allow the things we need to do overshadow and suffocate the need we all have of letting ourselves be infected by the Advent summons to hope. Use the little books, reflection books and tools provided to mediate and long for that hope. As a sign of that hope we will light our first Advent candle. May I suggest we do something similar at home, so that in our homes we have a sign that reminds us and all those who enter, that we as Christians have something else on our minds in addition to parties, gifts, and cooking; something that is vitally important to us, namely our hope and confidence in God's promise to make us and our world new. I am sorry I am not there this first Sunday of the New Year. I am in Yellowknife blessing a couple’s 50th wedding anniversary.
As we wait in hope,
Father William
Thirty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Today’s celebration has the grandest sounding title on the church calendar: Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe! With a lead-in like that, any secular holiday would include fireworks and speeches, parades and pageantry. But Christ the King isn’t celebrated like that. This weekend, the last Sunday of the Church’s year, Jesus is summoned before Pilate. He comes before Pilate with no lawyer to present his case. Jesus has no army of soldiers to protect him from being harassed. None of Jesus' "loyal" followers are there to rally behind him and give him moral support.
In today’s gospel Jesus redefines what kingship is all about as he faced Pilate. If Jesus is the best the Jews can offer, Pilate isn’t too worried about Passover this year. Jesus doesn’t dress for success in rich robes or with military armor. Are you the king . . . ? Jesus is clearly a king, but what kind, and of whom? Pilate was chiefly concerned about Jesus as a real threat to Roman political power, which was in fact the charge his enemies made against him in order to condemn him. I could be that, Jesus says, but if that were my purpose those around me would be fighting for me. Rather, “My kingdom does not belong to this world,” and in that other world he is a king: enrobed by the Father with everlasting domain, the Alpha and the Omega, the almighty.
Jesus rules through service of others rather than through the subordination of them. He uses the power of his compassionate and healing love, not physical and damaging force. His kingdom operates within the principles of the beatitudes, and not on some form of economic and utilitarian principles that seem to have such a hold on modern society. The kingship of Jesus finds home in healthy human relationships. The only way we can become fully human persons is by allowing God’s love to influence our words and actions.
It is in acts of love that Jesus wants to direct our attention. It is in acts of love that we find God and what God is doing in our lives. It is in our acts of love that God’s glory and splendor shines through. Either we find ourselves doing God’s glory or we find ourselves receiving that glory. It’s an earthy, practical glory that Jesus wants us to become part of – in how we live and how we love one another. The church calendar cycle B is almost over and we end it today with the celebration of the Feast of Christ the King. Next Sunday, a new year of grace begins as the Gospel of Luke invites us to journey with Jesus in our Sunday celebration of the Eucharist.
A time of new beginnings!
Father William