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Monday of the Second Week of Advent 

Scripture:

Isaiah 35:1-10
Luke 5:17-26

Reflection:

Today’s first reading expresses the excitement and anticipation of God’s coming into our midst. Notice where God’s blessings come about. In the desert and parched land. There in the desert the people will rejoice with joyful song. Isaiah had a radical vision of what it would be like to discover joy. It was joy found in the desert. The desert, usually a place of dryness, of emptiness, and of death, would suddenly come to life with joy. In his vision, he foresaw the coming of one who would offer us a new way of living, one who would bring us overflowing joy, one who would offer us salvation, hope, peace and joy.

During this Advent season it might help us to examine the places where we believe we can find joy, the places where we think our joy should be coming from. We would naturally think that our joy should come from family, friends, career, vacation, hobbies, entertainment or stuff. These places of joy seem natural to us. But often we come away empty. The world says you need more stuff. More stuff will keep you happy. And then your stuff starts to get old and needs dusting or repairing. It’s not as impressive (joyful) as it once seemed. Stuff doesn’t lead to lasting joy – the kind Isaiah was talking about. There are seasons when joy abounds in families. And it’s great. We should find joy in our family. But there are other times when family is less of a joy. When there is illness, when aging parents need to be cared for or a death occurs, when someone squabbles with someone else or disowns someone in the family. Then, family is no longer a joy. It’s work. It’s a burden.

Isaiah reminds us in a prophetic way what it’s like to have Christ come into our life. It’s like joy in the desert! Joy comes by welcoming the Christ child into your life, into your heart, and following in his new way of living, that gives true joy, joy overflowing, like streams bubbling up in the desert.

"I say to you, rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home." Pick up your disillusionments and disappointments, broken dreams and broken hearts and go home to Christ. Invite the King of Kings to be in residence in your life. Walter Knight wrote: "Joy is the flag that flies over the castle of our hearts, announcing that the King is in residence today."

 

Fr. Don Webber is Provincial Superior of Holy Cross Province and resides in Chicago.

Second Sunday of Advent

Scripture:

Isaiah 11:1-10
Romans 15:4-9
Matthew 3:1-12

Reflection:

Today we light the second candle of our Advent wreath as the darkness of the northern hemisphere settles upon us earlier than it did just one week ago.  We continue to call and chant, "Oh come, oh come Emanuel."  It is as if the calling and chanting will illumine the darkness of our own hearts and the light of yet another candle can awaken us to a hope beyond what this world offers.

Today, Matthew reintroduces us to the prophetic voice in the desert of John the Baptist.  John after all, is not a stranger to us.  We have listened to his prophetic message in previous years.  Yet today we are in a different place than when we last encountered him.  His message is very simple, "Repent for the  Kingdom of heaven is at hand."  To repent doesn’t mean to feel bad for something that happened in the past.  Feeling bad for a past event frequently keeps us stuck in the past.  Repentance is more focused on having a change of heart.  If a person changes their heart for the better today, then that person is immediately in a different place, emotionally, and spiritually.  And the Kingdom of heaven begins to shine a little bit brighter.

This is the Second week of Advent.  Last Sunday the message was short and clean.  We were told to stay awake.  I think that all of us like to believe that we are awake.  Personally, as I get older, I’m more convinced that God spends considerable energy trying to wake me up.  Sometimes we may have to
go through a significant ordeal or even a major loss before the question gets asked, "What more does God have to do to get your attention?"  That is the "stay awake" we heard last Sunday.  I believe these four Sunday gospels of Advent are linked together.  They are not merely four isolated weekends
that tell us in four different ways to get ready and be prepared.  I see them interconnected, leading us on a journey.  If John the Baptist is God’s messenger announcing the coming of the reign of God,  it can only be heard  if the person is awake.  So when the First Sunday of Advent tells us to "stay awake," it is because there is a message to be given to us. As we listen to John the Baptist today, hopefully we will hear something new because we are "staying awake."  We will never hear any messengers of good news if we are sleeping.  

May your Advent journey continue with the truth, the Kingdom of heaven is
at hand, on this day.

 

Fr. David Colhour, C.P. is on the staff at Christ the King Passionist Retreat Center, Citrus Heights, California.

 

Scripture:

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

Reflection:

Today’s Gospel presents a very touching scene:  Jesus moves among the towns and villages, teaching, proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom, curing disease and illness.  To underscore just how personally involved Jesus was in this ministry, Matthew writes that Jesus’ "heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd."  The troubled, the abandoned, the lonely, the wanderers…Jesus had come into the world as a gift to such people — people like ourselves.  Jesus’ knew the depths of their hearts…and ours!

Afterwards Jesus spoke to his disciples about the abundant harvest of souls, and he expanded his outreach by calling his disciples to share his authority and help carry on his mission:  to make the proclamation that "the Kingdom of heaven is at hand" and follow it with action on behalf of those in need.  The final words cited in today’s Gospel selection are especially encouraging:  "without cost you have received; without cost you are to give."  God has freely given us faith in Jesus, and this gift is not to be hoarded but rather freely shared…shared with the same intensity that "moved" Jesus.

The gift of faith is so different than the material gifts that draw most attention during this Christmas season.  For example, if you give someone a gift of money, you necessarily have less money yourself.  However, if you give someone the gift of faith, you not only do not have less — you actually have more!  In fact, to grow in our Christian life, we must share our faith with others…families, coworkers, neighbors, even the "stranger" we meet as we do our holiday shopping.  Our words, our good example, our interest in people – arising from our faith — speak volumes and make real the person of Jesus who loves us unconditionally.  Faith shared is faith on-the-grow.

Advent is a time of hope, of anticipation, growth, and celebration – the gift of Jesus’ life and love are so real these days as Advent moves us into the celebration of Christmas 2010!  May we make our own Jesus’ clarion call:  the Kingdom is at hand!  May our hearts be moved to greater care for our sisters and brothers, especially those most in need.

 

Fr. John Schork, C.P. is the local leader of the Passionist community in Louisville, Kentucky. 

 

Scripture:

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

 

 

 

Reflection:

Living with Our Eyes Open

Today’s Gospel selection presents Jesus dealing with the blindness of two blind men who called to Him for help with their blindness.  Jesus asked about their faith in Him, and, having affirmed their faith they were cured!

If we had to be deprived of one of our human faculties, most of us would probably be least willing to give up our sight.  To miss out on seeing people, the beauties of nature, movies, television – even this computer page – is indeed so threatening.  We can close our eyes for a while and try to imagine what totally blind people experience, but our experience is limited as we can simply open our eyes and see again.  Trying to see without our glasses or contact lenses is perhaps most challenging for us.

The Scriptures frequently present sinfulness in terms of blindness, and redemption in terms of seeing.  In our baptism our eyes were opened to see the Lord in faith.  That Baptism experience was most likely years ago, and so this Advent Season 2009 today asks us:  Are we keeping our eyes open?  Do we see our redemption at hand?

God is present for us everywhere, especially in people.  His joy is in the smile of an infant, His acceptance of us in the affection of a child, His vitality in the energy of an adolescent, His power in the strength of an athlete, His beauty in the loveliness of a human being, His concern in the devotion of a parent, His wisdom in the prudence and insight of the elderly.  What experiences, what "sights"!

This Advent encourages us not to close our eyes to God’s presence, or to live in darkness and gloom.  As did the two blind men, we’re invited to profess our faith in Jesus, to acknowledge His presence and power, and to keep our eyes open and follow Him as 21^st century disciples.  Today’s responsorial psalm proclaims:  "The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?…wait for the Lord with courage; be stouthearted and wait for the Lord."

"Come, Lord Jesus.  Help us to see."

Fr. John Schork, C.P. is the local leader of the Passionist community in Louisville, Kentucky. 

Scripture:

Isaiah 26:1-6
Matthew 7:21, 24-27

Reflection:

It is hard to reflect on the reading from Isaiah and the reading from the Gospel of Matthew and not realize how timely these readings are for us in the United States of America today.

Both of these readings challenge some of the common notions of what makes for a Godly strength.  The "city" in Isaiah’s passage is brought to ruin because of the way it disregarded the poorest and weakest of its citizens.  "It is trampled underfoot by the needy, by the footsteps of the poor".

In Matthew, the passage comes after the "Sermon on the Mount," the proclaiming of the "Beatitudes"…which must not remain slogans, but which must be converted into patterns of behavior.  Those beatitudes remind us that there is strength in weakness and greatness in humility.  Listening to the words of Jesus and not putting them into action will be like a person whose house is built on sand, and which will come tumbling down in the next storm.

As the new legislature gathers to make the decisions which will prevail in our country, and as we put our support behind those whom we have elected, let us also remind them that our strength will be built on the way that we respond to the real needs of those whose lives are lived in poverty and in weakness.

December 2, 2010, is the 30^th anniversary of the killing of Sister Maura Clarke, M.M., Sister Dorothy Kazel, O.S.U., Sister Ita Ford, M.M., and Jean Donovan, a lay missionary, in El Salvador, Central America.  They were a voice for the poor and an expression of the beatitudes-in-action.

Their deaths followed by nine months the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero in San Salvador.  Nine years later, on November 16, six Jesuits and a mother and daughter were executed at their residence in the Jesuit University of Central America.  Archbishop Romero and the Jesuits were a loud voice for justice, and a condemnation of the evil being delivered on the people of the nation.

The United States played a decisive role in that country’s civil war.  U.S. Dollars, arms and leadership steered the decision-making that kept the poor and needy populace of El Salvador under threat of death for more than ten years.

A strong nation does not derive its strength from trampling on the poor, or from waging war on a weak nation.  The voice of Isaiah is heard crying out: "He humbles those in high places, and the lofty city he brings down."  Matthew’s refrain echoes: "Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the Kingdom of heaven…"

 

Fr. Arthur Carrillo, C.P.  is the director of the Office of Mission Effectiveness for Holy Cross Province.  He lives in Chicago, Illinois. 

Scripture:

Isaiah 25:6-10a
Matthew 15:29-37

Reflection:

I received an e-mail recently, with this subject: "Tell me how he did it, and I’ll give you a thanksgiving turkey."  The "it" was a video of a card trick that was truly amazing; it seemed to nullify any effect of shuffling the cards, which were dealt out in an obviously pre-arranged order.  But, like any card trick, there was a skillful manipulation of cards and audience in order to make something appear to be what it was not.  The e-mail made me consider how easily we pass from "wonder" at our observations, to the skeptical, "tell me how he did it". 

Today’s readings (Isaiah 25:6-10a and Matthew 15:29-37) are like that.  We read in the Gospel of Matthew that Jesus cured persons who could barely walk, whose eyes did not work, whose joints were misshapen, and whose speech was held back.  "They placed them at his feet, and he cured them."  In Isaiah’s passage, the mortality of the people, the sentence of death under which we all live, is cancelled; "the web that is woven over all nations" and the "reproach of his people" will be removed.

Our human curiosity and desire to know drive us to ask "how did Jesus do that?"  How does Jesus bring healing into our lives?  How did Jesus satisfy the hunger of thousands on the Galilean mountainside overlooking the Sea of Galilee?  Surreptitiously, we pass into the skepticism that makes us want to know "how".  Perhaps if we only knew how Jesus performed his saving miracles, then we might be better positioned to share in his healing, in his satisfying of our hungers, in his gift of everlasting life.  Perhaps if we knew "how" Jesus performed these wonders, then we might better believe that he is truly "the Son of God."

The truth of the life-giving work of Jesus is not found in the knowledge of "HOW he did these wonders".  It is in our faith’s insight into the fact "THAT he did these wonders".  The "how" may tantalize us, but the "that" of Jesus as our Savior has saved us.  Let us remember the conversation of the women on their way to the tomb on Easter Sunday morning, "Who will roll the stone away?", of Mary at the sight of the one she believed to be the gardener, "If you took him away, tell me where you laid him."  These questions and doubts are erased by the conviction THAT Jesus is raised, he goes before them.  May we find in today’s Scripture, the encouragement to place our faith in what God, through Jesus, does for us daily; and in the conviction that God will continue to heal, comfort and nourish us forever.

Father Arthur Carrillo, CP, is the director of the Office of Mission Effectiveness and Mission Director for Holy Cross Province and resides in Chicago.

Feast of St. Andrew, Apostle

Scripture:

Romans 10:9-18
Matthew 4:18-22

Reflection:

Do you know what a relay race is?  One runner runs with a baton, a special stick, and when he or she finishes their part of the course, they hand off the baton to another runner who runs, and then hands it off to a third runner, then a fourth runner and so on.  A race may even go on for a full day and go over a hundred miles.

In a sense, there is a race which began 2000 years ago with messengers we call the apostles.  They started in Jerusalem in the upper room at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came upon them.  These apostles were sent out to proclaim a very important message.

St. Paul summed it up when he said, "I preach Christ and him crucified."  When people wondered how much God’s loved them, the apostles could simply remind them of the crucifixion and say, "This much."

The apostles proclaimed this message, and then passed it on to the next generation of messengers, and then to the next generation of messengers, down through the centuries to our own day.   

You and I became official proclaimers of this message when we were baptized.  The baton given to us was the crucifix.  We were baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  The sign of the cross was made on our foreheads by the priest and our parents.  We were sent out to proclaim the same message that the apostles proclaimed.  "How much does God love?"  We can point to a crucifix and say, "This much."

Most Christians don’t preach this message with words from a pulpit or ambo as I do.  Most preach it by example.

At the Last Supper, Jesus took bread and wine and gave them to his disciples.  He said "This is my body and my blood given for you….   Do this in memory of me." Do what in memory of him?  Give your life for others like Jesus did.  Give generously of your time, of your talents, and of your possessions for the happiness of others. Be kind.  Speak the truth.  Be just.  Help one another.  Share your blessings.  Share your heart.  In other words, love one another.

When people see us, the followers of Jesus, loving others so totally, they will wonder.  Then they will conclude that the God we serve must be a God of love.  If our lives have said that, we’ve said it all.

 

Fr. Alan Phillip, C.P. is a member of the Passionist Community at Mater Dolorosa Retreat Center, Sierra Madre, California  http://www.alanphillipcp.com/

 

 

First Sunday of Advent 

Scripture:

Isaiah 2:1-5, 
Roman 13:11-15
Matthew 24:37-44 

Reflection:

"Stay awake!" We begin our new year in the Church with these words. 

How apt for our world today with the many distractions, with the busy-ness that keeps us moving 24 /7!  We may not actually be sleeping, but we certainly need to get the wake up call.  We have numbed our souls with so many other activities, that we are, in today’s vernacular "out of it!"  Matthew calls us to stop and be aware.  This is our wake up call.  Stop!  Listen!  Learn the ways of the Lord.   Climb the Lord’s mountain, walk in His path.  Prepare…

I am struck by the many contrasts in today’s readings.  A God who wipes out most of humanity in the great flood; a God who is warning his people that there is a 50/50 chance they won’t make it in the last days, but then we hear this God tell us through Isaiah that swords will be turned into plowshares; that all peoples shall stream toward the mountain of the Lord!  That there will be no more war!  And if that isn’t enough, God calls us to get ready because he is going to send His Son to save us!   

And so, we stay awake and we prepare…we get ready for the coming of  our Savior, we get ready for the judgment day, we get ready for the Kingdom.  We get ready by following Jesus, by doing whatever we can to bring about a better world. 

How are you preparing this Advent?  Perhaps you will stop and listen to the Word.  Perhaps you will do something to help "turn swords into plowshares."  Perhaps you will find ways to stop the insanity that has become the way our culture celebrates Christmas. 

 As we begin Advent, a time that has not yet seen the Promise fulfilled, we prepare to continue in a world that does not yet recognize the hope of the promise and we prepare our hearts for the coming of Our Savior.  And we remind ourselves that God wants us to stay awake, to stop and listen. 

May you be blessed with many graces during this Advent season!

 

Mary Lou Butler ([email protected])is the administrator of Christ the King Passionist Retreat Center in Citrus Heights, California.