Claire Smith

Scripture:

Baruch 5:1-9
Philippians 1:4-6, 8-11
Luke 3:1-6

Reflection:

For the Second Sunday of Advent, our Gospel reading introduces us to John the Baptist. In our Gospel reading for this Sunday (Luke 3:1-6), Luke tells us that “the word of God came to John,” and that he “went throughout the whole region of the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins,” fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah: “A voice of one crying out in the desert: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.”

Why did John preach repentance to “prepare the way of the Lord?” One way to look at it would be to scare the people to get right with God before the Messiah comes, especially if you think of the Messiah as some kind of avenging angel. But another way to look at it might be to consider that the way we really open our hearts to God is to acknowledge our own sinfulness and woundedness. When we are convinced of our own righteousness, or in denial about our need for healing, we actually wind up shutting Jesus out instead of letting Him into our hearts and lives.

To acknowledge our need for repentance does not mean we sink into shame and despair about ourselves. Instead, we turn back to God who can heal us. I love these words from our first reading from Baruch: “For God has commanded that every lofty mountain be made low, and that the age-old depths and gorges be filled to level ground.” God loves us so much to want to bring down the “lofty mountains” of defense that we put up to protect us from feeling vulnerable. He so wants to heal the “age-old” wounds which we may have been carrying for much too long!

Dare we live in hope? Dare we open our hearts and “make straight” the way for Jesus to come in and heal us? Dare we let God, in the words of our second reading from Philippians (1:4-6, 8-11), “complete” the “good work” begun in us and through us?

And moving outward from ourselves, would we dare to let God bring down those “lofty mountains” we have created between those we consider “us” and those we consider “them?” would we dare let the love of God in Jesus Christ heal the “age-old depths and gorges” of hate and fear and greed?

Again, in the words of our second reading; may our love “increase ever more and more in knowledge and every kind of perception, to discern what is of value,” so that we “may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ…” May we live for the day, in the words of Isaiah, when “the winding roads shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”

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

Scripture:

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

Reflection:

Jesus sent out these Twelve after instructing them thus,
“Go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.’
Cure the sick, raise the dead,
cleanse lepers, drive out demons.
Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.”

There I was, twenty years old, going to college largely due to the financial and moral support of two neighbors who we as children growing up called Aunt Jerry and Uncle Tom, when I got a call from another supporter, Fr. Joe. Fr. Joe was just assigned to Immaculate Conception (IC), the local Passionists’ Parish. Our friendship went back to my seventh grade at IC. He was Confrater Joe then, a major seminarian at the Monastery to which IC was attached. We got to know each other through the John Bosco Club, a club somewhat like The Boys and Girls Clubs that are prevalent today.

Anyway, now Fr. Joe was calling me to ask if I would be willing to teach a High School CCD class starting next Tuesday evening at 7:00 pm. I objected, saying I didn’t know anything about teaching catechism. Fr. Joe replied: “That’s ok. I don’t know anything about running a high school catechism program, but we have 200 high school students coming next Tuesday, and I need someone to take 20 of them.” I said okay, and prayed for the best, as I’m sure Fr. Joe did then as well.

That gift (there was no recompense) of my time lasted many years. In fact, many more years than Fr. Joe remained at IC. Today, sixty years later, many of the friendships I made then are still with me today. Just as important, that agreeing to volunteer led to a lifetime vocation – teaching that I ran away from screaming: “It doesn’t pay!” In truth, it paid many more times than any dollar and cents salary could have paid.

God, thank you for the many people in my life who have freely served me and helped me grow. Please help me see Your gifts not in dollars and cents. As important as those things are in our world today, what I believe is much more important is the opportunities to serve and love You, one day at a time by serving and loving the people (gifts) You put in my life today.

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

Scripture:

Isaiah 29:17-24
Matthew 9: 27-31

Reflection:

Perhaps you, like me, sense that we celebrate Christmas doing the opposite of what brings peace and joy. Christmas entertainments, shopping, decorating, traveling, cooking, and trying to meet what my Mother called “social obligations,” easily fill our days and nights during this Advent season.

All this hub-bub blinds us to the message of the season. We struggle to find time alone in silence, to slow down to enjoy small details of life around us. To listen to God.

When Pope Francis addressed the U.S. Congress in the fall of 2015, he highlighted three Americans for us to study: Martin Luther King, Jr., Thomas Merton, and Dorothy Day.

Each of these 20th-century pilgrims took time to prayerfully and critically analyze what is right and what is wrong with our way of life in America. They each acted on what they noticed. In their time they were condemned as disrupters, Communists, and worse. One was murdered.

Studying their lives, I have learned they each saw (their eyes were open) how the Gospel applies to a nation that prides itself on military strength, higher profits, efficiency, material comforts, possessions, self-sufficiency, while ignoring and devaluing the weak and marginalized.

These American values run counter to Jesus’ message of humility, sharing, serving, listening, non-violence, poverty, respecting God’s time, sacrifice, and total trust in God.

In today’s reading from Isaiah we are told the deaf, blind, lowly, and poor will be healed and exalted. I like to imagine Christ reading these words in the scrolls in the local synagogue. I think of him sitting alone in that sacred place, next to a window, sunlight streaming in, listening to birds and people on the streets of the sleepy town of Nazareth. There he lets the words penetrate. Over time . . . many years, in fact . . . he understands what his Father is calling him to do. His eyes are open. At the right moment he stands up in that same synagogue and quotes Isaiah to his family and fellow Nazarenes: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me. He has sent me with the commission to announce good news to the poor, to proclaim release to captives and recovery of sight to the blind; to send off the oppressed with liberty.”

Not long afterward, in today’s Gospel, a couple of guys shouted at him on the road, asking him to pity them. Jesus immediately gave them sight. They were so thrilled that they defied his request to not speak of the miracle. Instead they whooped it up, letting everyone know what had just happened.

But more astounding was the passage that follows (verses 32-34), not included in today’s Gospel. The sighted men could see another who needed healing. They saw a mute man possessed by a demon and brought him to Jesus. What did Jesus do? He healed him, of course.

Marinating in a culture that blinds us to pain and threats everywhere, we need Christ’s healing. Making space to deeply reflect on the challenges of our time, the way that King, Merton, and Day did, will open our eyes to the urgent need to protect of our environment, ban all nuclear weapons, condemn of racism, welcome (not demonize) refugees and immigrants, curb the greed of corporate titans, insist everyone has a home, healthcare, a living wage, and an excellent education. It will also open our eyes to people right around us who are lonely, scared, hurt, sick, addicted, cold, and hungry.

We can so easily be blinded by honors, riches, power, comforts, commercial distractions, and “social obligations” of this season. Let us each ask Christ, as the two blind men pleaded, “Son of David, have pity on us!” and really believe, as they did, that He can open our eyes.

None of us can fix all that ails this world. But God is calling each of us to some noble act, however small or large, that “helps make the world a place where it is easier for people to be good” (Dorothy Day’s words).

What do you see that needs your attention this day?

“And their eyes were open.”

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