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Scripture:

Isaiah 7:10-14
Luke 1:26-38   

Reflection:

Today’s readings are about promise and fulfillment, fear and courage, cynicism and trust.   Just five days before we celebrate the birth of Christ, the readings remind us that the coming of Christ was no accident, no twist of fate.  Rather, the coming of Christ was the fulfillment of a promise made long before.

The first reading tells us about the Prophet Isaiah’s encounter with Ahaz, the King of Judah.  Isaiah is trying to give Ahaz a spine so he can face his enemies who are at the gate.  He assures Ahaz of God’s care and tells him to ask for a sign of God’s favor.  Ahaz can’t imagine how God could make a difference in this crisis so he begs off with the words, “I will not ask.  I will not tempt the Lord.”  Isaiah, in disgust, responds, “…the Lord Himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel.”  The fear and cynicism of Ahaz result in the destruction of his Kingdom.

In the Gospel we hear the story of Mary’s encounter with the Angel of God.  The angel tells her that God has a plan for her that boggles her imagination.  She is told that she will bear a son “who will be called holy, the Son of God…and who will rule over the house of Jacob forever.”  Though she is unsure how these things could possibly happen, her personal courage and complete trust in God move her to respond, “I am the handmaid of the Lord.  May it be done to me according to your word.”  Luke clearly sees that the promise made by God through Isaiah is fulfilled in the “yes” of the Mother of Jesus.

These readings call us to realize that God’s promises are best fulfilled in the hearts and lives of those who are open to Him.  As we prepare for Christmas let our prayer be, “Lord, help us welcome you with trust in our hearts whenever you come.”

Fr. Michael Higgins, C.P. is the director of Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center, Sierra Madre, California.

Scripture:

Judges 13:2-7, 24-25a
Luke 1:5-25

Reflection:

“Do not be afraid because your prayers have been heard.” Luke 1:13

There are times when the Scriptures remind me of great works of art, especially symphonies. Musical masterpieces weave major and minor themes throughout the score. It seems to me, Scripture does the same thing. In this case, the Scriptures weave in the themes of barrenness and fruitfulness.

One of the first Scripture passages that illustrates this for me is the story of Abraham and Sarah in the Book of Genesis, chapter 18. We read how the elderly Abraham welcome some strangers into his tent and gave them something to eat. Sarah did the cooking. As these strangers were leaving, they told Abraham that they would return next year, and by then he would have a son born of his wife Sarah. Sarah was barren. In this account, both Abraham and Sarah laughed at the absurdity of very old woman giving birth. A year later, they were no longer laughing, but taking care of a baby boy, their son, Isaac.

Our first reading is taken from the Book of Judges. It is an account of a woman who is barren but continues to pray for children. Her prayer is heard, and she gives birth to a son. She consecrated him to God and gave him the name of Samson. He proved to be a protector of the people of Israel.

In today’s Gospel reading, we have the dramatic birth of John the Baptist, born of the barren wife of Zechariah, Elizabeth. Her condition was introduced to us just verses before, right before the Annunication to Mary that she was to be the Mother of God. Even though Zechariah and Elizabeth had prayed for children, they had lost hope after Elizabeth had passed her child-bearing years. God let them both know that there is nothing impossible with God! So, a son was born to them, John the Baptist.

Advent is a time of prayer and hope. It is the perfect time for the Church to reflect upon the interplay between barrenness and fruitfulness. There is so many things that seem barren at first glance. In a short, profound book, The Desert is Fertile, Dom Helder Camera, Archbishop of Recife, Brazil, reflected how much life can come from those place in our life we consider barren. Scientists constantly remind us of how much life there is in places where there does not seem to have any life. And if we look deeply within ourselves, we discover that the areas we have named barren have been fruitful after all.

Advent is an invitation to us to look deeper into our own barrenness. The more we pray for the arrival of the God of Life, the more alive we will become. We will realize that Jesus can be born in a stable, that shepherd can hear the choirs of angels singing in the fields, and people from far away countries have gifts to give.

God is always full of surprises!

Fr. Clemente Barrón, C.P. is a member of Christ the King Community in Citrus Heights, California. 

Scripture:

Isaiah 61:1-2a, 10-11
1 Thessalonians 5:16-24
John 1:6-8, 19-28

Reflection

With Christmas only eight days away, it is not surprising that each of today’s readings turns our attention to the birth that brought unconquerable hope to the world. In the gospel we hear the stirring proclamation of John the Baptist: ”I am the voice of one crying out in the desert, ‘make straight the way of the Lord.’”  Those words instruct us to direct our lives to the “one who is coming after me,” one “whose sandal strap I am not worthy to untie.” Indeed, the gospel says that the whole purpose of John’s ministry was “to testify to the light,” Christ, God’s anointed one, who is about to be born among us.

The second reading from 1 Thessalonians could be viewed as a succinct and very practical guide for how to prepare for the coming of Christ.  We are to “Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In all circumstances give thanks” and, perhaps most importantly, “Refrain from every kind of evil.” If we do these things, we will be fully ready to receive the great gift of abundant life and unbreakable love with which God wants to bless us at Christmas.

Finally, the first reading from Isaiah, the powerful Messianic prophecy, tells us exactly what Jesus’ mission in the world will be. He comes not to bring glory to himself and not to exalt himself over others; rather, in Jesus, God enters our world “to bring glad tidings to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners….” He comes to bring a harvest of justice and peace, particularly for those who are most often denied them. If this is so, in the remaining eight days until Christmas, perhaps the best way we can ready ourselves for the coming of Christ is to do now for others the very things he comes to do for us.

Paul J. Wadell is Professor of Theology and Religious Studies at St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wisconsin, and a member of the extended Passionist family.

Scripture:

Sirach 48:1-4, 9-11
Matthew 17:9a, 10-13

Reflection:

From glory to the cross, from high mountain top to the valley, from acceptance to rejection, how often that is the path we must travel. Peter, James, and John had just experienced the transfiguration of Jesus, had seen him conversing with Moses and Elijah and had heard the Father’s voice saying, “This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” Mountain tops are not places to stay.

I remember some years ago, Fr. Jerome Stowell and I hiked to the summit of Mt. Whitney and gazed out over the peaks of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Eyes feasted on the grandeur and wildness spread out before us. Our hearts beat faster and a sense of exaltation thrilled us. But then too soon came the moment to tear our eyes away from the glorious view and begin the descent.

Peter, James and John are descending from a high mountain top with Jesus. They are in conversation about the vision they had experienced. Matthew chooses to recount but one question, “Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” Jesus takes the occasion to explain that John the Baptist fulfilled Elijah’s role and was killed. He then prophesized that he would face the same fate, “The Son of Man will also suffer at their hands.” Here we have the mystery of life: that joy and success are often followed by pain and failure. This is our human condition and it is the law of Christian discipleship. No servant is greater than his master.  A few days ago I celebrated my 85^th birthday. There is much to be thankful for, not the least the wisdom to understand that peace comes when I “listen to him”.

 

Fr. Michael Hoolahan, C.P. is on the staff of Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center, Sierra Madre, California.

Scripture:

Isaiah 41:13-20
Matthew 11:11-15

Reflection:

One of the things I most enjoy during these Advent days is listening to the readings taken from the prophet Isaiah.  Sometimes the message of Isaiah is gentle and loving, for example, “Comfort, give comfort to my people, says the Lord”; at other times, as we see in today’s readings, Isaiah can be bold and challenging as he says, “Fear not, O worm Jacob, O maggot Israel; I will help you, says the Lord; your redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.”  And sometimes, Isaiah poetically paints a picture of a world where justice and peace will reign supreme and God’s promises to his people will be fulfilled.  The lion and the lamb will rest side by side!  In our reading from Isaiah today we hear such promises, all introduced by firm, yet faithful, words, “I will.”  Notice God’s strong promise to his people:

I, the Lord, will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.
I will open up rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the broad valleys;
I will turn the desert into a marshland, and the dry ground into springs of water.
I will plant in the desert the cedar, acacia, myrtle, and olive;
I will set in the wasteland the cypress, together with the plane tree and the pine…

And as we think about God’s promise spoken through Isaiah in these days of Advent how can we not help but think about God’s same faithfulness when he promised he would send to us a Savior who would save us all from sin and darkness and invite us into a kingdom of love, peace, and goodness!  Isn’t this what all of our hearts long for these days?  When I find myself feeling overwhelmed by so much of the political, social, and even global madness, I am able to rededicate my hands and heart to work for and believe in God’s promise because God is faithful.  This is one of the most important Advent themes for me these days, and that is that God is faithful.  He has been faithful in the past and he will continue even in our own day.  We follow that childlike word spoken with such innocence in the enchanting story of The Polar Express and boldly found above the New York Macy’s store:  BELIEVE!  Long ago St. Augustine said it well:

“Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.”

Fr. Pat Brennan, C.P. is the director of Saint Paul of the Cross Passionist Retreat and Conference Center, Detroit, Michigan.

Scripture:

Isaiah 35:1-10
Luke 5:17-26

Reflection:

During this Advent season, the Book of the Prophet Isaiah plays a prominent role.  Isaiah, much like John the Baptist, symbolizes Advent and the coming of Emmanuel, of Messiah.  In today’s reading of Isaiah 35, the prophet calls us to prepare for the coming of a loving God who will transform our wilderness into a world that sings with joyful hope and anticipation.

Isaiah’s prophecy was first a song of deliverance for the people of Israel.  The Babylonians had laid seige to Jerusalem in 586 BCE.  They chained the leaders, the affluent, the professional class of the Hebrews and dragged them off into captivity in Babylon.  Those left behind were the weak and poor.  Captive Israel began to lose hope of ever returning home.

But Isaiah urged his people to continue hoping.  He shared with them his vision where all nature will soon sing the glory of God, as the Lord comes to restore his people and lead them across a wilderness into the joy of his salvation.  Indeed, their journey will echo the exodus of their ancestors who walked 40 years through the wilderness before reaching their promised land.  The future for the Babylonian captives is imagined as a new exodus, of God’s people coming home.

During this Advent season, Isaiah calls us to reflect not only on the coming of Messiah, but also on our coming home.  God in Christ came to us more than 2,000 years ago.  We prepare to celebrate his first coming.  But during Advent, we also are called to prepare for the return of Messiah, when we in this wilderness will be made whole and joyful, when the whole cosmos will sing in joyful expectation.

In the meantime, like those in lonely Babylonian exile, we will sing Advent’s anthem of hope — “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel that mourns in lonely exile here, until the Son of God appear.”  We wait in joyful anticipation with them, singing “Rejoice, rejoice!  Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.”

Deacon Manuel Valencia is on the staff at Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center, Sierra Madre, California.

Scripture:

Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11
2 Peter 3:8-14
Mark 1:1-8

Reflection:

I have always loved to hear people’s stories. I travel a lot for business, which means I meet people from all over the world and all walks of life. I meet cab drivers whose families are halfway across the globe, highly successful business people, event planners, hotel staff from the front desk to the housekeepers, people from small towns and from massive cities, and more. I find that no matter who it is, everyone has a story about their lives, their paths, and what shaped them into who they are. And just like John the Baptist with his camel hair garments and his diet of locusts, sometimes the most powerful stories come from those you would least expect.

I recently rode with a cab driver who, despite his impressive presence had the gentlest eyes and most genuine smile. When I asked him about his story, he told me that the most formative experience of his life happened almost 20 years ago. He picked up three men in his cab, and as they drove down a nearly deserted street, the men attacked him, robbed him, and shot him. The bullet tore a hole in his femoral artery, and they left him for dead. But someone heard the shot and called for an ambulance.

He remembers lying in the emergency room, listening to frantic doctors yelling that they were losing him. He tried to talk, but he couldn’t make anything come out of his mouth. He felt like he was about to explode. Suddenly, he saw the ceiling open up before him, and it was such a bright light that he could barely look at it. In the midst of the light, he saw a pair of open hands reaching down toward him. At that moment, the atmosphere in the room changed. The doctors said, “OK, his vital signs are stabilizing. Keep at it; I think we’ve got him back.” He says he doesn’t understand why or how, but for some reason, God reached down and healed him that day.

The point here is not whether you believe his story. The point is that HE believes it with his whole heart. In fact, he was wiping tears from his eyes as he told me, and apologized that it still chokes  him up to tell it after all these years. Then he went on to tell me how it changed his life.

He said he saw in that moment a higher power that is pure love, and realized we are all a part of it. Although people have free will and they use it to make terrible choices and bring so much evil into the world, he refuses to judge anyone. He figures they just haven’t experienced the overwhelming, personal, unconditional love of God, and don’t yet know that we are all part of that same God, called to be kind, healing, and helpful to each other. He says God cries over the ways we treat each other, and wants us to change so we can spread light, forgiveness, and love instead of hatred, suspicion, and evil. He long ago forgave the men who attacked and shot him (they were never caught), and he prays for them daily. He prays for our world, and tries every day to do whatever he can to spread the love that he believes will save us.

What an Advent message! I will likely never meet this man again. I don’t even know his name. But from the mouth of a “lowly” cab driver just doing his job came the wisdom of the ages. He was John the Baptist in my world that day.

As a result, I resolve even more strongly this Advent to make straight the way of the Lord. In big and small ways, I will try to be a prophetic voice of reason and care crying out in a wilderness that is filled with division, hate, mass shootings, inequitable laws, and injustice.

You and I have been given what we need to serve. No one is too “lowly”. Please join me as together we pave our God’s path. Find a way, no matter the circumstances of your life, no matter where you are and no matter your level of resources. Gather the lost in your arms, spread the love that is the only thing that can save us, and bring light to the world. Forgive. Hug. Offer aid. Defend. Advocate. Act. Just think of the difference we could make if all Catholics, all Christians, did the same.

We dare not wait. Now is the time. Let’s take seriously our baptism with the Holy Spirit and with fire, and help Christ be born again this day for all people.

Amy Florian is a teacher and consultant working in Chicago.  For many years she has partnered with the Passionists.  Visit Amy’s website: http://www.corgenius.com/.

Scripture:

Isaiah 30:19-21, 23-26
Matthew 9:35-10:1, 5a, 6-8

Reflection:

My Little Juan

Our readings from the first week of Advent, especially Isaiah, could be addressed to the people of Juan Diego’s Mexico. In simple agricultural language we meet the God who is gracious when we cry out, who will give water and bread, rain and seed. This God, full of tenderness, says to a crushed and lost people, “This is the way; walk in it”.

Advent gives us an orientation, a ‘how’ to come to Our Lord, a way to welcome the birth of our Savior.

Only 49 years after Columbus’ first voyage to the New World and ten years after Cortez defeats the Aztec people of Mexico, an unexpected, world changing meeting takes place. On the hill of Tepeyac, which was a place of devotion to the Aztec goddess, Tonantzin, a humble man named Juan Diego meets Mary the Mother of God. It is hard to imagine what has happened to the people of Juan Diego’s world. In a generation their traditional world has been dismantled. Their gods have abandoned them and are being abolished by a new religion. Those who preach this new God of love are part of a savage world that is now enslaving them. In the words of Isaiah they are a people who cry out, have no teacher, they weep and are wounded. They are lost.

When Mary appears to Juan Diego she says to him, “Juan, my little one”. Would Mary have remembered teaching her little one, Jesus, about the the faith of Israel and the Father? Would she have treated Juan as she did her son, but tell him now about Jesus and his love that would lead the Mexican people to the Father’s love for them? And more than any words Juan experienced a mother’s love that made him feel special the Mary who chose him, knew his embarrassments and needs, and was quick to care for them as a mother would her child. Can’t we feel a mother’s tenderness as Mary  arranges the flowers in his tilma to present them bishop. Juan him the same assurance of any boy going out the door after mom straightens his shirt, pushes back his hair and knowingly gives the boost of courage with her smile that says, ‘you are all set’.

The beautiful story of Juan and Mary gives a new orientation for the people of Mexico. Now they know a loving mother, La Morenita, the little woman with the dark complexion, who really cares for them and leads them to Jesus,

Madeline L’Engle describes Advent as the season that blooms bright and wild, had Mary been filled with reason there would have been no room for the child. Advent  orients us through darkness to the light of Jesus. It is a time of hope and comfort for all of us who feel pain and loneliness. Our remembrance of Juan Diego, and all of us like him who search and long, and the appearance of the Virgin of Guadalupe and her gift  us of a mother’s love, bring to our Advent journey something beyond reason. We are watched over and cared for by a mother’s love. Our Mother loves us as she did her son  through all the stages of his life, and she loves us with a love uniquely hers, learned and shared from her Son, who is our Savior.

Fr. William Murphy, CP is the pastor of Immaculate Conception parish in Jamaica, New York.