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Justice, Hope, and Joy: A Reflection on Scripture for the First and Second Sundays of Advent

Posted in Advent, Reflections on Scripture, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on December 6, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Photo by KaLisa Veer on Unsplash
Photo by KaLisa Veer on Unsplash

Readings for December 1st:

  1. Jeremiah 33:14–16
  2. Psalm 25:4–5, 8–9, 10, 14
  3. 1 Thessalonians 3:12—4:2
  4. Luke 21:25–28, 34–36

Readings for December 8th

  1. Baruch 5:1–9
  2. Psalm 126:1–2, 2–3, 4–5, 6
  3. Philippians 1:4–6, 8–11
  4. Luke 3:1–6

What this week’s readings say to me:

The first reading for December 1st foretells the arrival of the long-promised Messiah. The passage from Jeremiah promises that the Messiah will “do what is right and just” (Jer. 33:15). People who trust Him and follow Him will be able to live in safety and security.

The psalm for December 1st recognizes that God has the qualities described in the first reading. It also describes how those who trust God and follow God reflect those same qualities.

The epistle urges readers and listeners to treat each other with charity, as they have been taught to do. It calls us to be more and more vigilant in looking for opportunities to act with charity.

In the gospel passage, Jesus foretells that there will come a time when the world as we know it will be “shaken” (Luke 21:26). He says the events of this time will cause people to “die of fright” (Luke 21:26). But, he says, this doesn’t need to be the fate of His disciples. He teaches them that when they find themselves in the midst of disturbing events, He is near. “[R]edemption is at hand” (Luke 21:28). He says His spiritual family members will be prepared to receive this redemption if they keep returning to His teachings. They must also return to His example whenever life’s distractions, whether pleasant or worrisome, tempt them to lose sight of His Way. He reminds them that prayer is the source of focus and strength in the face of temptations and trials.

For me, the Old Testament reading for December 8th paints a beautiful word picture of the effect God’s salvation and the arrival of the Messiah will have on God’s people. Like the previous week’s Old Testament passage, the one chosen for December 8th is written in future tense.

The psalm selection for December 8th, in contrast, is written in past tense. The first two stanzas would fittingly describe the people’s reaction to the events foretold in the Old Testament reading. There is “laughter” and “rejoicing” (Psalm 126:2). People who trust in God will be lifted up, and everything will be made right. The visibility of the people’s joy gives glory to God, even among those who do not know the God of Israel, as well as the peoples who have been comforted, cared for, and freed by God. The third and fourth stanzas ask for God’s continued care. The narrator trusts that even in difficult circumstances, when he can’t see the fruits of his faith, it will, nonetheless, bear fruit.

In the epistle for December 8th, St. Paul writes to the Philippians about the content of his prayer. He writes about expressing joy in his prayer. His joy comes from the work the Philippians do with him for the sake of the gospel. He describes the affection he has for the recipients of this letter. He conveys that he experiences them not only as coworkers, but as as friends and family members brought together by Christ’s love. He assures them that God, who began the work of salvation in them will continue it and complete it. He prays that they continue to grow in “knowledge… perception” and “discern[ment]… the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God” (Phil. 1:9-11).

The Gospel passage for December 8 echoes the message of the Old Testament passage for the day and prepares to point to Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of the promises of both passages.

Combined, the message of the readings for these two weeks is that justice and security are coming. Don’t give up on this promise. Insist on believing that it’s possible with God. Keep looking for it — no matter how long it takes for you to see its fulfillment. While you cling to this promise, make room for each other. Make room for joy.

What I’m saying (to the readings and beyond) this week:

I feel called to more stillness and fewer words this Advent. I desire more focus, more intimacy with God — maybe more spontaneity with God.

So starting next week, I plan to focus on one passage. I may even concentrate on one word or phrase within the passage. The passage may even be one that’s not part of the Sunday readings. Maybe adjustments such as these will give me more time to sit with the divinely inspired words and to reflect on what they mean for me at the moment. Maybe this approach will allow me to do more listening to what God has to say to me. When I share what I hear, maybe you’ll be able to relate.

What someone else is sharing about this week’s readings:

December 1st

Valerie D. Lewis-Mosley, RN, OPA reflects on the theological theme for the first Sunday of Advent: hope.

December 8th

Colleen McCahill reflects on how, in the epistle for December 8th, St. Paul finds light in darkness. She also reflects on how Advent encourages us to seek light in times of darkness. It is a season that helps us do so.

This week’s prayer:

Lord, help me to seek and to find light amid the darkness that I experience around me and within me. Help me not to fear the brightness of the light but instead to let its fire shape me. Help me to follow the path it illuminates — the path of hope. Amen.

Works cited:

Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc. “1st Sunday of Advent — Sunday 1 December 2024: Readings at Mass.” The New American Bible, 2001. Universalis for Windows, Version 2.196, Universalis Publishing Ltd., 6 Nov. 2024, https://universalis.com/n-app-windows.htm.

—. “2nd Sunday of Advent — Sunday 8 December 2024: Readings at Mass.” The New American Bible, 2001. Universalis for Windows, Version 2.196, Universalis Publishing Ltd., 6 Nov. 2024, https://universalis.com/n-app-windows.htm.

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Passages Provide Multiple Perspectives on the Passion(s)

Posted in Ordinary Time, Reflections from Other Writers and Speakers, Reflections on Scripture, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on September 20, 2024| Leave a Comment »

This week’s readings:

  1. Wisdom 2:12, 17–20
  2. Psalm 54:3–4, 5, 6–8
  3. James 3:16—4:3
  4. Mark 9:30–37

What this week’s readings say to me:

The first thing this week’s readings say to me is something I heard in the homily last week: (I paraphrase here, even though I’m putting the following in quotation marks): “Read all Scripture in light of Christ.” If I apply this instruction, Jesus Christ is “the just one” and “the wicked” are those who crucified Him (The New American Bible, Wisd. 2:12) It also characterizes “the wicked” as:

  • finding it extremely distasteful when someone else takes a stand against the self-serving things they do and voices opposition to these activities, holding them accountable and wanting their actions to reflect the good they’ve been taught to do
  • trying to trap the person who does justice, make that person look untrustworthy and to stop others from doing what he does and says
  • taking the name of God in vain, in a way, by talking about God as if their faith in God excused them from acting with justice themselves
  • Plotting to break the resolve of just one through violence and then justifying their actions by saying that God would spare him from this violence if, in fact, God were on his side.

The psalm is written from the perspective of a person of faith who strives to act with justice. It acknowledges the power of God — even the power of God’s name. It calls out to that power for help. The speaker is frank with God about the suffering he’s experiencing. But after talking to God about his suffering, he reminds himself that God “is [his] helper, by resolving to give of himself to God and to just causes, and to recall God’s faithfulness even in the midst of circumstances that tempt him to doubt.

The epistle gives answers as to what leads to the “wicked” behavior described in the first reading: “jealousy and selfish ambition” (Wisd. 2:12; Jas. 3:16).

Behavior that’s inspired by wisdom from above, on the other hand, is “first of all pure, then peaceable, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, without inconstancy or insincerity and the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace for those who cultivate peace” (Jas. 3:17).

Conflicts great and small come from “passions” — selfish desires, the passage says (Jas. 4:1). The footnote on James 4:1-3 in The New American Bible Revised Edition says:

Passions: the Greek word here (literally, “pleasures”) does not indicate that pleasure is evil. Rather, as the text points out (Jas 4:2–3), it is the manner in which one deals with needs and desires that determines good or bad. The motivation for any action can be wrong, especially if one does not pray properly but seeks only selfish enjoyment.

In the Gospel passage, I see the apostles struggling with letting their “passions” get the better of them (Jas. 4:1). When Jesus tells them he “is to be handed over to man and they will kill him” (Mark 9:31). I imagine the apostles’ primary response to have been fear. Maybe doubt and discouragement joined the fear.

Maybe their desire to counteract these uncomfortable feelings tempts them to be jealous and selfishly ambitious. The passage tells us that after Jesus warns them that he won’t resist the violence of his opponents, and this lack of resistance will lead to his suffering and death, they discuss “among themselves…who is the greatest” (Mark 9:34). Jesus tells them that the one who is “the greatest” is the one who doesn’t wish or strive to be and instead serves everyone else, especially those who are humblest and most vulnerable.

What I’m saying (to the readings and beyond) this week:

I’ve heard or read most of the passages often enough that I accept their teachings as truth, even though my desires don’t always counteract what the first reading describes as “wicked[ness] (New American Bible, Wisd. 2:12). The first reading feels less familiar. It also uses the sharpest language. Maybe that’s why I reacted most strongly to it.

The passage prompts me to ask myself when someone rubs me the wrong way, why is that? Is he or she mirroring my flaws, and some part of me knows that? Sometimes that’s what’s going on.

Am I tempted to highlight or to bring out someone else’s flaws to avoid confronting my own flaws and to make me feel better about myself? Too often.

How often do I think of prayer as a substitute for doing something to solve a problem rather than as a way of discerning how I can take part in solutions? Sometimes – because I like comfort. I get extremely anxious about the cost of taking stands. At other times, the problems just seem too big, and I can’t see how to break them into small parts, to take part in the small steps.

Are my decisions based on wanting to be a minister of justice? What does being a minister of justice means to me? It means being fair and merciful, seeking to take part in righting wrongs. As I’ve written on this blog before, the quest to right wrongs must be about more than punishing the person who makes poor choices and harms others.

What someone else is sharing about this week’s readings:

While often translated as “betray,” the meaning of “to be handed over” [in the Gospel passage] can be understood—as one scripture scholar notes—“as the idea of God’s plan unfolding.”

Carolyn A. Wright in her reflection on the readings for September 22nd.

Ms. Wright explores what the way we translate that phrase means for our understanding of God and the roles in bringing about God’s vision.

This week’s prayer:

Lord, You know I’m neither totally wicked nor perfectly just. Thank You for allowing me and everyone around me to bear Your image. Grant us the grace to become better and better servant-leaders. Thank You for the servant-leaders among us, of which You are the foremost. Amen.

Works cited:

Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc. ” 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time — 22 Sept. 2024: Readings at Mass.” The New American Bible, 2001. Universalis for Windows, Version 2.192, Universalis Publishing Ltd., 30 July 2024, https://universalis.com/n-app-windows.htm.

The New American Bible Revised Edition, Kindle edition, Fairbrother, 2011.

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How Can We Take Now Part in What’s Coming?

Posted in Advent, Reflections from Other Writers and Speakers, Reflections on Scripture, tagged , , , , , on December 10, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Photo by KaLisa Veer on Unsplash

This week’s readings:

  1. Isaiah 40:1–5, 9–11
  2. Psalm 85:9–10, 11–12, 13–14
  3. 2 Peter 3:8–14
  4. Mark 1:1–8

What this week’s readings say to me:

This week’s readings remind me that for God there are no obstacles. It’s on account of the Divine Nature, which is love, that God doesn’t override our freedom to reject God or to invite God into our lives.

Comfort, give comfort to my people . . . .
A voice cries out:
In the desert prepare the way of the LORD!
Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!
Every valley shall be filled in,
every mountain and hill shall be made low . . .

Isaiah 40:1 and 4

No canyons or soaring peaks can get in God’s way. God is neither held back, nor propelled forward, nor weighed upon by time.

Like a shepherd he feeds his flock;
in his arms he gathers the lambs,
carrying them in his bosom . . . .

Isaiah 40:11

And yet you and I are. And so we wait for God to level the steep climbs and fill in the craters, wondering when the Prince of Peace is going to see to it that justice and peace reign. We wish God weren’t delaying so long in making this reign happen.

The third reading suggests the delay is thanks to God’s love. The landowner hasn’t returned to call for an how we’ve managed his resources because he wants as many people as possible to have the chance to use them to heal and to grow. He knows that if we do our part to bring about the world we want to see, the effort will bring about peace and justice within us. Figurative and literal mountains may be obstacles for us, but obstacles can be good for us if we ask God to help us look at them with clear, eternal eyes and to see them as opportunities to give, to depend on God, and to open ourselves to the Holy Spirit.

Kindness and truth shall meet;
justice and peace shall kiss.

Psalm 85:10

That’s what this week’s readings say to me, but the readings themselves express their message were beautifully than I can. I think there are verses in this week’s passages that are familiar and cherished by many, regardless of how regularly someone revisits Scripture passages. So I decided to include pull quotes of my favorite verses from these readings in this post. Also, I suggest that the readings as a whole might be sat with throughout Advent.

. . .we await new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

2 Peter 3:13

What someone else is sharing about this week’s readings:

Sarah Hansman reflects on how practicing patience doesn’t conflict with taking an active part in prepar[ing] the way” for Christ to renew all that is by entering into it (Isa. 40:3).

Beyond this week’s readings:

Fr. Roderick Vonhogen shares what it means to have the grace of an Advent mindset year-round.

The theme of waiting for God’s coming to live among us and offering salvation, even as we are invited to take part in bringing about that salvation calls to my mind “The Serenity Prayer,” especially the well-known first stanza. It also brings to mind “A New Serenity Prayer” by Fr. James Martin. To give proper credit to the sources of these prayers, rather than typing them here, I’m just going to link to them and close this post by wishing you a fruitful, grace-filled week of active waiting. As I write this prayer, also on my mind is anyone waiting in suffering and grief. Come to those who are sorrowing. Comfort them with Your presence, Lord Amen.

Work cited (but not linked to)

Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc. “Sunday 10 December 2023: Readings at Mass.” The New American Bible, 2001. Universalis for Windows, Version 2.183, Universalis Publishing Ltd., 31 Oct. 2023, https://universalis.com/n-app-windows.htm.

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Humility and Justice Go Hand in Hand

Posted in Ordinary Time, Reflections on Scripture, tagged , , , , , on October 1, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Photo by Austin Kehmeier on Unsplash

This week’s readings:

  1. Ezekiel 18:25–28 
  2. Psalm 25:4–5, 6–7, 8–9
  3. Philippians 2:1–11
  4. Matthew 21:28–32

What this week’s readings say to me:

The third reading says the following:

. . . humbly regard others as more important than yourselves, each looking out not for his own interests, but also for those of others.

Philippians 2:3

I think this clause ties together this week’s readings. It takes humility to trust and to be in harmony with others and God and to be at peace when situations don’t go the way I want them to. So far, I’m sorry to say, I don’t seem to have given the virtue of humility the upper hand in my life.

The first reading tells me that if I did, I wouldn’t complain to God that what happens to me is unfair. My vision doesn’t have the expanse that God’s vision does, so who am I to make a judgment about what someone else deserves and what I deserve. When I cooperate with God, God lives in me and works through me. When I don’t, the Holy Spirit has to carve an alternate path within and around me. And even when I cooperate, I do so only with the help of the Holy Spirit. I wouldn’t be alive without the Spirit, and so I don’t deserve anything.

I don’t say this to be negative and self-effacing. Another way to frame this sentiment would be to say that there is nothing that I alone am entitled to. I have dignity because I live, and I live because of God. So does every other living thing. Every living thing lives because God’s nature is relationship, and relationship requires more than one. That’s why I’m thinking that I don’t deserve anything. I may or may not be prevented from receiving something good by one factor or another. Sometimes that factor is me; sometimes it isn’t, and my perception of what would be good for me is often distorted and is always limited. Given this distortion and limitation, how can I say what I or anyone else deserves?

One part of the Good News is that God doesn’t operate in terms of what’s deserved. I didn’t need to deserve to live before I came into being. And if I humble myself, God doesn’t let any negative consequences that may spring from my actions or anyone else’s to destroy me. Instead, if I ask Him and accept the crosses that will come with the answer, He’ll show me how to turn unpleasant or even painful consequences into something positive — in other words — in other words something that cooperates with His will, Hs work. As the psalm puts it, He guides the humble to justice / and teaches the humble his way (Psalm 25:9).

Another part of the Good News is that, while God wants us to know that making room for Him in our lives means humbling ourselves, he doesn’t ask us to do it alone. He does it with us. As Philippians tells me:

Have in you the same attitude that is also in Christ Jesus,

who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
something to be grasped.
Rather, he emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
coming in human likeness;
and found human in appearance,
he humbled himself,
becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross.

2:6-11

The Gospel reading offers a lesson in contrasts to teach me how to live with an attitude of humility. It teaches me that to live with an attitude of humility means to understand that no group I belong to and nothing about my past determines whether God works in my life and whether that life reflects God. It’s humility that makes room for God in my life. So if I keep returning to humility, eventually when death puts its fingers on me, its grip won’t be able to contain the truth and power of who I am in God. For me, this image of the fingers and the grip unable to stay closed is one way of thinking about eternal life. I saw a quote on the Hallow app today that gave me another way of thinking about eternal life. The quote advises me to:

Begin now to be what you will be hereafter.

St. Jerome.

Lord, help me to remember that intentions and plans mean nothing and do nothing if they aren’t put into action — and not just in the future but now. After all, though I can’t understand how, for You, everything is happening now. Help me to live in union with You and Your other children, not just some time today but at this moment and in the next. Amen.

Works cited

Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc. “Sunday 1 October 2023: Readings at Mass.” The New American Bible, 2001. Universalis for Windows, Version 2.182, Universalis Publishing Ltd., 21 Sep. 2023, https://universalis.com/n-app-windows.htm.

St. Jerome. “Begin now to be what you will be hereafter.” 30 Sep. 2023, https://hallow.com/daily-quote/2023-09-30/.

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Readings for When Faith and Suffering Wrestle

Posted in Ordinary Time, Reflections on Scripture, tagged , , , , , on June 25, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Photo by Chris Chow on Unsplash

This week’s readings:

  1. Jeremiah 20:10–13
  2. Psalm 69:8–10, 14, 17, 33–35
  3. Romans 5:12–15
  4. Matthew 10:26–33

Fortunately, I suppose, unlike Jeremiah, I don’t currently “hear the whisperings of many saying . . . “Let us denounce [her] (Jer. 20:10, The New American Bible, 2001 Edition). But at times, I’ve perceived myself as surrounded by such “whisperings.” (Jer. 20:10). Was I more hurt because I felt someone was rejecting me, or because I thought that person was rejecting God? I suspect that more often than not, the answer was the former. “[Z]eal for [God’s] house” doesn’t “consum[e] me” as I assume it did Jeremiah, though Jeremiah isn’t the name given for the narrator of this week’s psalm (Ps. 69:10).

Jeremiah’s emotional response, his anger, is understandable. But in contrast with what Jeremiah seems to request of God, I don’t want God to “take vengeance” on anyone, or to witness anyone taking vengeance on anyone else (Jer. 20:12). After all, the Webster’s New World College Dictionary defines vengeance as “the return of an injury for an injury, in punishment or retribution” I want to see wrongs made right. In the many situations where what’s lost cannot be recovered, I want to see efforts made to prevent the same harm from happening again. I don’t want to see “the return of an injury for an injury in punishment or retribution.”

And even if I had an experience that changed my mind and my heart about vengeance, it wouldn’t bring back what I’d lost. Also, I have a hard time believing that a God whose very nature is a self-emptying love that we humans struggle to imitate would want to take vengeance on people who hurt me. Why? Because God is the source of their lives as well as mine, God wants to remove anything that might distance them from himself. Now that removal might be painful and difficult for a person to go through, just like breaking oneself of a bad habit or putting distance between oneself and toxic people might be extremely hard to do. Still, I wouldn’t think of actions such as these as vengeance. I would consider them lifesaving in the long run. On the other hand, in the long run, the rejection of such life-saving actions would be its own punishment.

It helps me to put the Old Testament passage into perspective if I consider that the words are attributed to Jeremiah. They aren’t attributed to the voice of God. I believe that God speaks to us through the Scriptures, but so do the other people in them. Not everything in the Bible is God’s will because the people whose stories the Bible hands on to us are subject to rash judgment and limited understanding just like we are. I believe Jeremiah is not excluded from these human weaknesses, and that’s why he asks God to let him witness God taking vengeance on the people who persecute him. He’s likely in grave danger, and he wants to get out of it. I would want the same “rescu[e],” were I in his situation (Jer. 20:13). Perhaps the only way he can imagine God alleviating his suffering is for God to take vengeance on the people causing it.

Despite whatever ways Jeremiah’s spiritual vision may be limited, he’s ahead of me in the faith department because he can say, ” . . . Praise the Lord,/for he has rescued the life of the poor/ from the power of the wicked (Jer. 20: 13)!

This declaration is, more often than I would like, difficult to make my own. I hear too often of those with trusting natures being defrauded of their savings by strangers. The world over, the rich get richer while the poor face food insecurity or even famine, and some leaders sacrifice truth and countless lives on the altar of holding onto and increasing their power.

Does “the LORD [hear] the poor,” as the psalm says (Psalm 69:34)? Undoubtedly, but Jesus died not only so that his brothers and sisters could have eternal life through Him but also so that they could have a clearer understanding of their own dignity and live for more than themselves, becoming conduits of His justice and mercy (qualities that are intertwined with each other) generation after generation. It is receiving and sharing these gifts of Christ’s sacrifice that give eternal life to a soul even though a body can be killed. This receiving and sharing also allows Paul to declare, “For if by the transgression of the one, many died, how much more did the grace of God in the gracious gift of the one man Jesus Christ overflow for the many” (Rom. 5:15).

Lord, I often struggle to share Paul’s faith in the gifts you have given me and anyone open to them. And yet, “I do believe; help my unbelief” (Mark 9:24, The New American Bible Revised Edition). Help me to remember that “[e]ven all the hairs on [my] head are counted (Matt 10:30, The New American Bible, 2001, Edition). Everyone’s are. Nothing happens without [our] Father’s knowledge. Even though so much that happens is unpleasant or unjust, the final victory is not doesn’t belong to these events. Guide me as to how to make this truth tangible for myself and for others. Help me and others to be conduits for more of what you are offering us. Amen.

Works cited

Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc. “Sunday 25 June 2023: Readings at Mass.” The New American Bible, 2001. Universalis for Windows, Version 2.179, Universalis Publishing Ltd., 26 Feb. 2023, https://universalis.com/n-app-windows.htm.

The New American Bible Revised Edition, Kindle edition, Fairbrother, 2011.

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