Claire Smith

Third Sunday of Advent

Scripture:

Isaiah 35:1-6a, 10
James 5:7-10
Matthew 11:2-11

Reflection:

The Third Sunday of Advent is referred to as “Gaudete Sunday.” “Gaudete” means “Rejoice!” We rejoice because the coming, the advent, of our Savior, is near.

And so we have these uplifting words in our first reading from the prophet Isaiah (35:1-6a, 10) about the coming of the Messiah; “The desert and the parched land will exult; the steppe will rejoice and bloom…Strengthen the hands that are feeble, make firm the knees that are weak, say to those whose hearts are frightened: Be strong, fear not! Here is your God, he comes with vindication…Those whom the Lord has ransomed will return and enter Zion singing, crowned with everlasting joy; they will meet with joy and gladness, sorrow and mourning will flee.”

Our hope and joy are in Jesus Christ. But I found myself wrestling with our Gospel reading (Matthew 11:2-11). In that reading, John the Baptist is in prison, and he sends his disciples to ask Jesus this question: “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?” I can see why John asked the question. If you remember the Gospel reading from last Sunday, John spoke harshly to the Pharisees and the Sadducees who came to the Jordan River. The Baptist spoke about the ax at the root of the trees and the Messiah with a winnowing fan in his hand to separate the chaff from the wheat. But Jesus hadn’t done any of that. The Pharisees and the Sadducees were still around. So was Herod, and John himself was still in prison. If Jesus was the Messiah, why were things still the same?

But Jesus responds that things were not the same: “the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them.” The Messiah’s coming would not be demonstrated by the destruction of the wicked, but by the uplifting of the afflicted.

But I wonder whether Jesus’ response was enough for John. After all, John would never leave prison, and would later be beheaded. Even if John did recognize the truth of Jesus’ answer, there are people who may wonder whether Jesus is the One. They may be asking themselves where they can find joy and hope. What is the source of joy for people in that situation?

The answer is still Jesus. It’s still Jesus because no matter what we may be going through, we know we are not alone. We know that God can lift us up, and that probably God has lifted us up before. We know we can leave it all at the foot of the Cross, and so we can have peace even in the midst of chaos, and joy even in the midst of pain.

And maybe a source of joy for people in distress could be ourselves in Jesus Christ. Could we help others see that they are loved? Could we help others hear an encouraging word? Could we not only proclaim good news to the poor, but listen to them as their voices have been muted for so long because of the world’s indifference?

Could the joy and hope we have in the birth of Jesus flow into seeking joy and hope for others?

May we rejoice in Jesus Christ and be ambassadors of hope in our world.

Fr. Phil Paxton, C.P., is the local superior of the Passionist Community in Birmingham, Alabama. 

Scripture:

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

Reflection:

Are you familiar with “confirmation bias”? It’s the universal human tendency to find what we’re looking for. We accept data that confirms what we already believe and dismiss anything contradictory, searching for experts who reinforce our current perspectives. This bias generates unhealthy relationships if, for instance, we ignore red flags about a person we’ve decided is “the one” for us, or when we’re so adamant in our positions that we’re blind to those who disagree and may have something to teach us.

We do the same thing with God. We search for a God who fits our existing definitions and labels, and dismiss other possibilities. We want comfort rather than challenge, doubt, and transformation. We don’t see God among us and refuse to listen to God’s prophets because they are not who or what we expect. We find what we’re looking for, but not what we need or are meant to find.

During Advent, I’m deepening in my spiritual practice by consciously setting aside daily time for contemplative prayer. I’m hoping to counter some of my confirmation bias by opening my heart to let God more authentically reveal Godself to me. While it’s important to tell God what I’m experiencing and what I want, that needs to be balanced with silent presence, because my words are always inadequate, insufficient, and even skewed. God is ever bigger than I can define or imagine. I want to immerse myself in God’s truth, not my own ideas of truth.

So, I sit still and upright in a space I’ve set aside for prayer. I practice breathing into and through my heart instead of my mind, inviting the Spirit’s breath into the core of my being. Then I let go of words, worries, thoughts, and questions, breathing them out into the One who knows what to do with them. I try to get out of God’s way to allow God to see me and be seen by me.

It is really challenging! I was raised to think I have to DO something rather than passively sit in God’s presence. Yet slowly, and often without my “feeling” it at the time, God is loving, healing, growing, and guiding me. The more I pray, the more I am drawn to prayer, and the more I long for God to be my source and center.

What can you do this Advent to open your heart to God? May we each find new and deeper ways to let God be revealed. May we spread compassion, kindness, acceptance, and justice. May we commit ourselves to letting go of all forms of confirmation bias so God’s truth and light can be born anew in our hearts and radiate out to the world.  

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:

Genesis 3:9-15, 20
Ephesians 1:3-6, 11-12  
Luke 1:26-38

Reflection:

The Immaculate Conception

Today is the day we honor our Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and her immaculate conception. From her very conception she was filled with God’s grace. She was never stained by original sin. She was never separated from God’s love, not even as she was formed in her mother’s womb.

Our first reading today reminds us that the very first sin ruptured that perfect connection between God and humans. God had wanted us all “to be holy and without blemish,” as Paul put it to the Ephesians. But not until the Blessed Virgin Mary, who was chosen by God to bear God’s Son, was someone born without the stain of original sin. Filled with God’s grace, she chose to accept God’s will, impossible as it seemed at the time. God’s plan included all beings choosing to remain sinless. God introduced free will, giving us the ability to disobey, but did not introduce sin itself or death into the world. In Mary, God chose a woman who would once again have that initial choice. Unstained by original sin, she was offered the same choice as Adam and Eve. She chose to accept God’s plan. May we all choose to accept God’s plan.

At Mary’s conception, the Lord was already preparing the world for the Incarnation of his Son within her virginal womb. Mary’s purity, moreover, makes her closer to us than anyone else, for sin is what divides, while grace unites and heals. Mary loves us with perfect, maternal selflessness. The Immaculate Conception overcomes the trickery of the serpent, begins God’s recreating work of salvation, and renders Mary, in a new way, “the mother of all the living.” Immaculate Mary, your praises we sing!

Deacon Peter Smith serves at St. Mary’s/Holy Family Parish in Alabama, a retired Theology teacher from Holy Family Cristo Rey Catholic High School in Birmingham, a retired soldier from the US Air Force, and a member of our extended Passionist Family.

Scripture:

Isaiah 40:25-31
Matthew 11:28-30

Reflection:

Though young men faint and grow weary,
and youths stagger and fall,
They that hope in the LORD will renew their strength,
they will soar as with eagles’ wings;
They will run and not grow weary,
walk and not grow faint. -Isaiah 40:30-31

Recently, a good friend sent several visuals that spoke to me and to many of the people to whom I forwarded them. One picture of an abandoned, emaciated two-year-old child being coaxed to take nourishment from a woman of a different tribe especially spoke to my heart. Alongside that visual was another picture of that same child sometime later who was now healthy and in the arms of that same beautiful compassionate woman who eventually adopted him.

What I find so mesmerizing in this vision is that it’s not a big powerful healthy, beautiful, well-clothed, prosperous, executive (something I once thought I wanted to be) who moves my heart. No, it’s the (and I’m crying as I write this) weak, needy, malnourished, little baby reaching out for love that moves me. Hallelujah! God sends this woman, an aid worker, who responds with love, and voila, we have new life. In all our great deeds (no doubt there are many), and with all the money our world spends on weapons of mass destruction and instruction (trillions and trillions) I never have felt so much hope.

God, help me gratefully respond to the gifts (the poor, the needy, the marginalized, the powerless…) you send me today and “to run and not grow weary” as Isaiah tells us to do in today’s scripture selection and as the lady mentioned above so well demonstrated.

Dan O’Donnell is a Passionist Partner and a longtime friend of the Passionists.  He lives in Chicago. 

Scripture:

Isaiah 40: 1-11
Matthew 18:12-14

Reflection:

Advent invites us to ponder deeply who we are in light of God becoming one of us, flesh and blood in real time and space… the Incarnation.  No other faith tradition even attempts to claim this as truth in the way Christianity does. In the first century, the Incarnation set the disciples and others in the Christian communities apart from the Jews, the Samaritans and other Middle Eastern neighbors as well as from the Greeks and the Romans. It still sets Christians apart.

Why did God become a human? To do something that was foretold, in retrospect in Isaiah, that answers every human longing, every human fear: Jesus liberates us from all slavery, especially the enslavement caused by our fear of the great unknown, death.

Today’s Gospel emphasizes the tender outreach of Jesus to everyone who is lost and scared. The lost sheep is another metaphoric way Jesus tells us how God loves us and how we are to love. This Good Shepherd spends time and energy to risk finding the one sheep who has gone it alone. He goes to the margins to find the animal, save the dumb creature from multiple threats in the wilderness, including the threat of death, and places it in the protection of the flock (i.e., the Christian community) and the Shepherd.

To imitate the Good Shepherd, we need look no further than our families, parishes, neighborhoods and cities to find people lost, excluded, threatened and scared. Jesus asks us to notice them, seek them out, listened to them, extend a hand, and pay attention…to value them.

Today’s first reading Isaiah addresses those returning from Babylonian captivity to Jerusalem. It adds to our understanding of tending to lost sheep: “Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God.” And “Like a shepherd he feeds his flock; in his arms he gathers the lambs, carrying them in his bosom, leading the ewes with care.”

In our abiding in Jesus, in John’s 15^th Chapter, we are commanded to do something. Let that doing be to find lost sheep all around us who need comfort, feeding, carrying and to be led. This is the fruit of our union with our Good Shepherd.

Taking time today to listen to our Shepherd and then do what we are instructed to do is glorifying God. There is no greater work in the world today. This work, done in union with the God-man, offers comfort to us in our own fears, worries and doubts.

Take a few quiet moments to ponder abiding in Jesus the Good Shepherd and letting him abide in you.

Good will result.

Jim Wayne is a board member of the Passionist Solidarity Network (PSN), and author of The Unfinished Man. He lives in Louisville, Kentucky.