The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. In days to come the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it.

Many peoples shall come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths." For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!

Responsorial: Psalm 121: 1-2, 4-5, 6-9

R./: Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.

I rejoiced when I heard them say:
'Let us go to God's house.'
And now our feet are standing
within your gates, O Jerusalem. (R./)

It is there that the tribes go up,
  the tribes of the Lord. For Israel's law it is,
  there to praise the Lord's name.
There were set the thrones of judgement
  of the house of David. (R./)

For the peace of Jerusalem pray:
'Peace be to your homes!
May peace reign in your walls,
in your palaces, peace!' (R./)

For love of my brethren and friends I say:
'Peace upon you!'
For love of the house of the Lord
I will ask for your good. (R./)

2nd Reading: Romans 13:11-14

We are to wake from sleep and put on the armor of light

Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us live honourably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy.

Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

Gospel: Matthew 24:37-44

We must make ready for the day when Christ will come again

For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so too will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left. Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.

Another Advent

What's another year? was the name of a song that won the Eurovision Song Contest long ago! Today we start another liturgical new year, with the songs of Isaiah singing the praise of Advent. Our year of prayer will carry through to Christmas, then on to Jesus' Public life, then Lent and Holy Week and the drama of Easter and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Then our time moves towards next Advent, when another year of liturgical prayer begins. This rhythm and pattern can be a blessing for us, providing a spiritual framework of meaning for all the bits and pieces of daily living, during the different seasons. The liturgical year can help us keep our lives grateful and centred on God.

We begin this season of Advent in a spirit of expectation. During this time we look forward not just to the birthday of Jesus at Bethlehem but also for his second coming at the end of time!

Here's an instance of a woman with something to teach us this Advent. Before we had cell phones or WhatsApp or Voicemail, we depended on the humble landline. There was a mother in Mayo whose son in New York used to phone her up at eight o'clock every Sunday evening. As it neared the time her eyes were fixed on the telephone. No call in or out was allowed as she waited! She would not miss the joy of hearing her son's voice and all his news. That woman was a model for our spirit of waiting in Advent ! The key attitude is one of being alert, being ready, so as not to miss the time of his coming, ‘you must stand ready because the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect'. These words sound like a warning as though God were ready to pounce and catch us off guard with our affairs not in order! But they are also a promise, filled with hope. The coming of the Christ was and is the best of good news, a gift beyond imagining! It calls for joy and gratitude. Our response should be not fear, but awe and wonder. John Betjamen has expressed it beautifully in this Christmas poem:

‘Is it true? and is it true,
this most tremendous tale of all,
a baby in an ox's stall?
The Maker of the stars and sea
become a child on earth for me,
that God was man in Palestine
and lives today in bread and wine.'

Let's imagine ourselves in that stable on the first Christmas night. See there a girl from Nazareth with her quiet husband and a new baby. Then go up to Jerusalem and tell the priests what you saw. Say that helpless, newborn baby is the Anointed One, the long awaited Messiah, the Son of God. They would think you were out of your mind; they would accuse you of blasphemy; they would tell you that God is not like that. They have studied the scriptures and they know God cannot be small and vulnerable like that. But the Son of God has chosen to come among us just like that.

That is the great, joyful surprise of our faith. The presence of God among us is not what we expect, not where we expect. That's how we miss it. As we begin Advent, we are invited not to miss the amazing gift of God. Be awake and look for God in the most unlikely places. Find God's call to our goodwill in the doorway where the homeless sleep. Look for God's presence where refugees are coralled. Grace is present not only in comfortable places and spaces! God is looking out from the wrinkled faces of senior citizens. It's great to be alive and wide-eyed like a child, at the beginning of our new year of grace. We can welcome this time of Advent with a heartfelt céad míle fáilte

Sobering thoughts

1. Advent tends to be swamped by Christmas music and Christmas noise. It should be a quiet time, where we step back to the fundamental experience of Israel, the experience of trustful waiting on the Lord's deliverance. It's a desert time, when we try to empty our minds of the clutter of the past and when our hearts learn from the Prophets what are the deepest needs in our lives. Advent reawakens hope and longing for a better future. Not just a secure financial future for me or you, but a future of Redemption for the entire people.

2. Beyond all the worries and impassioned debates of politics and economics today are two deep and growing threats that we don't like to think about. They are threats of an apocalyptic level worthy of the fearful language of today's Gospel. One of these is the threat of nuclear extinction. The other is the threat of climate catastrophe.

The nuclear threat demonstrated its horrific power on the citizens of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and has since been enshrined as the status quo, with superpowers threatening each other with mutual destruction. Since 1945 humanity, as well as all plants and animals, have been a hair-trigger away from nuclear extinction, and there have been dozens of lucky, narrow escapes. Noam Chomsky attributed this remarkable record of good luck to divine intervention. The climate-change threat has grown more slowly, like the rising waters of a tsunami, and awareness of it is muddied by a culture of denial, encouraged by commercial interests. Registering the full extent of the danger one is inclined to cry, "Only God can save us now!" We are tempted to ask, "How could God let his creation get into such a dangerus state? Where is Providence in all this?"

3. The consoling hymns of Christmas hardly engage with harsh issues like those we have mentioned. For this we need the more abrasive words of the Prophets, who often spoke up in times of crisis. Their opening words are often laced with doom, while their final words offer hope and consolation. First they try to wake us up and shake us out of our complacency, but they generally end by affirming that all will be resolved by the power and faithfulness of God. Their language is sometimes so deep that we tend to ignore them and focus instead on things that are of little account. But let's pay special attention to the message of Isaiah, this Advent.

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2nd Sunday in Advent, A

Theme: John the Baptist's life work was preparing the way for our Messiah. Once Christ came, it only remained for John to disappear gracefully. Like John, we should make way for Christ in the lives of others.

1st Reading: Isaiah 11:1-10

The living branch from Jesse's stump is our hope of peace and salvation

A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch shall grow out of his roots.
The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him,
the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the spirit of counsel and might,
the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.

His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.
He shall not judge by what his eyes see,
or decide by what his ears hear;
but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,
and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist,
and faithfulness the belt around his loins.

The wolf shall live with the lamb,
the leopard shall lie down with the kid,
the calf and the lion and the fatling together,
and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze,
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,
and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder's den.

They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain;
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.
On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples;
the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious.

Responsorial: Psalm 71: 1-2, 7-8, 12-13, 17

R./: Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever.

O God, give your judgement to the king,
to a king's son your justice,
that he may judge your people in justice
and your poor in right judgement. (R./)

In his days justice shall flourish
and peace till the moon fails:
He shall rule from sea to sea,
from the Great River to earth's bounds. (R./)

For he shall save the poor when they cry
and the needy who are helpless.
He will have pity on the weak
and save the lives of the poor. (R./)

May his name be blessed for ever
and endure like the sun.
Every tribe shall be blessed in him,
all nations bless his name. (R./)

2nd Reading: Romans 15:4-9

How to live in harmony and share in the promises to the patriarchs of old

For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope. May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus, so that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the circumcised on behalf of the truth of God so that he might confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, and so that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, "Therefore I will confess you among the Gentiles, and sing praises to your name."

Gospel: Matthew 3:1-12

John the Baptist prepares us to welcome Jesus Christ

In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near." This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, "The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.'"

Now John wore clothing of camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance. Do not presume to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our ancestor'; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. "I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."

Preparing the way of the Lord

John the Baptist could be the central figure in our thoughts today. He prepared the way for the people of his time to understand the good news of their salvation. That is the way God normally works; He sends the message of salvation to us through each other. As St Paul once put it, how can people know the truth about God if they have never heard it; and how can they hear if nobody is sent to them?

Jesus found his first disciples among those who were influenced by the preaching of John the Baptist. He had showed them the value of self-control and of prayer; he urged them to listen to the inner voice of God, with repentance and a faithful heart. The high point of John's short ministry was his meeting with Jesus. Not only did he get to baptise Our Lord but he also helped some of his own followers to go with Jesus and become the first Christian disciples. Through him, Andrew and his brother Peter, and Philip and Nathanael became apostles of Jesus.

Clearly, God wishes us Christians also to help help other people to know and love him. If in the first place, we were more committed to our own Christian calling, we would be more effective in influencing others towards religious commitment. Parents have the first opportunity to point their children towards God. But their words will only be effective when backed up by the actual example of their own faith and prayer.

People can influence others, for good or ill, in all sorts of ways. A special kind of influence rests with the journalists and opinion-formers who work in the media, press, radio and television and through the internet. But ordinary people outside the media can also influence the views and values of those with whom they talk and live. When looked at in light of today's Gospel, does our way of speaking and behaving in any way help others to share our values, or do we confirm their suspicion that this world is a selfish and cynical place?

And what about fostering vocations to some active form of church service? The ability of our Church to go on as a visible, organised community continuing in the prayer-life and values of Jesus is under serious question today. If people open their hearts to inspiration, Andrew and Philip and Peter, a way will be found to spread the saving message of Christ.

Pre-Christmas contrasts

Being half-blinded by the Christmas lights swaying on the back of a bin truck and the rise in traffic infringements set me thinking about the lead-up to Christmas that is now in full swing. From mid-November, aspects of the impending "ding dong merrily on high" cacophony have been evident. The shops and the roads are significantly busier. Every year at this time we shake our heads and complain about the traffic, the shops, and all the commercialisation. But we go along with it, just the same.

Does the idea of Advent being a time of preparation for Christmas affect us? Isn't it being blared from the rooftops that we should enjoy be out partying as if our lives depended on it. Yet on the other hand some people are facing a Christmas of misery, homelessness and want. But isn't that the world we live in? By the way, a worthy gesture today would be to contribute generously to the St Vincent de Paul annual Christmas appeal. In many ways Christmas is some sort of paradigm of our lives, trying to quell our constant search for pleasure or transient gratification, a state of permanent unease.

We have heard John the Baptist quoting from Isaiah: "A voice cries in the wilderness:/Prepare a way for the Lord, make his paths straight." And in the response to the psalm, we read: "In his days justice and peace shall flourish." Makes me wonder, have we lost our way, with our preparation for Christmas? It's the ideal topic for a good rant. But does it not seem that what we do by exaggerated Christmas preparation is more or less what we do with all aspects of our lives, an element of talking out of both sides of our mouths at the same time?

John the Baptist called for change as he pointed the way towards Christ. Of course, our world is never going to be a paradise, but are we not running riot with double-speak, nowadays? And every organisation, every state, every religious tradition is prone to such behaviour. It requires the prophet, the wise person to stand back and question the culture of the day. Just because we are so caught up in a frenzy of buying and following the fashionable tide does not mean it's what's best for us.

Of course, Christmas, our preparations for it, have great aspects also. But it's too easy to lose all sense of what we are actually celebrating and recalling. These are days of waiting, days of wonder. Remember the lines of Patrick Kavanagh: "We have tested and tasted too much, lover –/ Through a chink too wide there comes in no wonder." Those words might well help us to stop and think for a second as we await our recalling and celebration of the birth of Christ.

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3rd Sunday in Advent, A

Theme: Society finds it so hard to tolerate dissent that those who step out of line are often harshly treated. John the Baptist dared to castigate King Herod for his immoral example, and paid for it with his life.

1st Reading: Isaiah 35:1-6, 10

What God can do: he can open our eyes and turn the barren desert into a blossoming garden

The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad,
the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus
it shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice with joy and singing.
The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it,
the majesty of Carmel and Sharon.
They shall see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God.
Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees.
Say to those who are of a fearful heart,
"Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God.
He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense.
He will come and save you."

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
then the lame shall leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy.
For waters shall break forth in the wilderness,
and streams in the desert;
And the ransomed of the Lord shall return,
and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
they shall obtain joy and gladness,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Responsorial: Psalm 145: 6-10

R./: Lord, come and save us.

It is the Lord who keeps faith for ever,
who is just to those who are oppressed.
It is he who gives bread to the hungry,
the Lord, who sets prisoners free. (R./)

It is the Lord who gives sight to the blind,
who raises up those who are bowed down,
the Lord, who protects the stranger
and upholds the widow and orphan. (R./)

It is the Lord who loves the just
but thwarts the path of the wicked.
The Lord will reign for ever,
Zion's God, from age to age. (R./)

2nd Reading: James 5:7-10

James urges us to follow the noble example of courage shown by prophets

Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near. Beloved, do not grumble against one another, so that you may not be judged. See, the Judge is sanding at the doors! As an example of suffering and patience, beloved, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.

Gospel: Matthew 11:2-11

From his prison cell, John is encouraged by the reports of Jesus' cures

When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?"

Jesus answered them, "Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me."

As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John : "What did you go out into the wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind? What then did you go out to see? Someone dressed in soft robes? Look, those who wear soft robes are in royal palaces. What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written, 'See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.' Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

Joy in the Lord

"Be strong and do not fear! Here is your God." Today is called Rejoicing Sunday. Today the candle on the Advent Wreath is pink, not purple as on the other three Sundays of Advent. It is meant to express our joy at the nearness of Christ's birthday.

Some people seem to be happy by nature; others mournful by nature. Here is the story of a priest who always preached mournful sermons. He was asked by his parish priest to preach about St. Joseph instead, as he was a cheerful man. The following Sunday the priest spoke about Joseph who happened to be a carpenter and as a result spent a lot of his time making coffins and here we go again with sad, sad tales.

Here are three impressions about happiness. First, that happiness is right here and now.. We convince ourselves that life will be better when we get married, have a baby, then another. Then we are frustrated that the kids are not old enough and we will be more content when they are. After that we are frustrated that we have teenagers to deal with. We will certainly be happy when they are out of that stage. We tell ourselves that our life will be complete when our spouse gets his or her act together. The truth is there is no better time to be happy than right now.

Second, ‘If you are happy, let your face know.' Maybe we could begin to be more joyful by taking a peek in the mirror and asking ourselves: does my face look like the face of someone who has heard the good news of the Gospel, namely that I am loved unconditionally by God?

Third, joy will come to us if we set about actively trying to create it for others. If I go about my life demanding that others carry me rather than seeking to carry them; feeding off others rather than feeding them; demanding that others meet my needs rather than trying to meet theirs, joy will never find me no matter how hard I party or try to crank up good cheer.

Could the Baptist have doubted?

Why did the Baptist send from his prison cell that urgent question to Jesus: "Are you He that is to come?" Hadn't John recognised our Lord as the Messiah several months previously, at the Jordan, when he proclaimed Him publicly as the Lamb of God? Did John, faced with almost certain death under Herod, have doubts or second thoughts about Jesus? Some say no, John only asked the question for the sake of his followers, who needed confirmation of their faith from Christ himself. But if John did have doubts, it was because of the peaceful way that Jesus behaved, not at all like the violent revolutionary the Jews expected as their Messiah. The answer to his question came when Jesus told him what God;s messenger would be like: healer of the sick, consoler of the suffering, preacher of freedom and truth to the poor. In this way, John's faith in Jesus was made strong, giving him courage to protest against Herod, and accept a martyr's death.

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4th Sunday in Advent, A

1st Reading: Isaiah 7:10-14

The prophecy about "Emmanuel -- God with us" invites king Ahaz to trust

Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, saying, Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven. But Ahaz said, I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.

Then Isaiah said: "Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary mortals, that you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.

Responsorial: Psalm 23: 1-6

R./: Let the Lord enter; he is king of glory.

The Lord's is the earth and its fullness,
the world and all its peoples.
It is he who set it on the seas;
on the waters he made it firm. (R./)

Who shall climb the mountain of the Lord?
Who shall stand in his holy place?
The man with clean hands and pure heart,
who desires not worthless things. (R./)

He shall receive blessings from the Lord
and reward from the God who saves him.
Such are the men who seek him,
seek the face of the God of Jacob. (R./)

2nd Reading: Romans 1:1-7

This introduction to Paul's major epistle gives the earliest Christian beliefs about Jesus

Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures, the gospel concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for the sake of his name, including yourselves who are called to belong to Jesus Christ, To all God's beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Gospel: Matthew 1:18-24

The virginal conception of Jesus is revealed to the just man, Joseph

Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins."

All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: "Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel," which means, "God is with us."

When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife.

What's in a name?

King Ahaz could be honoured as the patron of skeptics. He simply would not rely on God to help him through the greatest crisis in his life. In the crisis facing his kingdom, he preferred to trust in his soldiers and his military plans. Are we much the same? Do we trust only the range of our own power and resources, and turn to the true God only as an extra insurance, a vague source of possible help in moments of crisis? But such faith is weak and inadequate. A fuller kind of faith would see us relying on God's invisible, helping presence, not just in those moments when human support fails us. Real faith accepts the reality of God in every moment of life. It sees God as a dimension of all our experience, literally, the Emmanu-El, God-with-us.

The promise that God is with us was not for Isaiah's time only, it is for our own. Even now the sign of that continuing presence is a young woman and her child, the Virgin Mary and her son Jesus. For Joseph the unexpected pregnancy of Mary was not a sign to confirm his trust either in her or God, it was a contradictory sign. In the hours of his darkness he found the enlightening Spirit of God, the Spirit who teaches us not to judge by what our eyes see or by what our ears hear (cf. Is 11:3.) This gospel shows us that the signs God gives are not always the ones we would choose for ourselves. He gives signs for those who are willing to take on the darkness of doubt in openness and sincerity.

What can a name tell us about a particular person? Not much, usually. Names like Helen, Paula, Sharon or Jason are useful for distinguishing various members of a family, but they don't describe the people themselves. With some Biblical names it is different. For instance, Abraham meant "Father of a great people" (Gen. 17:5) and Moses meant "Rescued from the Waters" (Ex. 2:10.) Above all, our blessed Lord has names which are full of meaning. "Jesus" means "God saves," "Christ" means "God's Anointed Messiah" and the name "Emmanuel" in today's Gospel, means "God in our midst."

How important is Jesus for our religious belief? Be honest. Ask the question what is the heart of Christianity and what will people say? Something to do with loving your neighbour; keeping the law; going to church on Sunday? Will there be any mention of Jesus Christ, who is at the very centre of our faith. Ghandi once said, "If only you Christians took your Christ to heart.."

Jesus shares our lot, our life-experience and our troubles. At Christmas we will concentrate on the simplicity and poverty of Our Lord's birth: how human he was, born of a young woman, not in luxurious comfort, but in the discomfort of a stable. That shows him as one of us, the human side of "Emmanuel." This gospel however mentions the divine origin of Jesus. Although he has a human mother, he has not a human father, but was conceived in Mary by the power of God. This unique way of coming into life, with God as father, and the virgin Mary as mother, underlines who Jesus truly is: both God and man, one of ourselves and yet one with the eternal God.

If this seems mysterious to us, it must have been baffling for St Joseph. Close to Mary as he was, and finding her pregnant without any involvement by him, Joseph could only accept in faith what God's messenger told him, that the child was in her womb by the power of the Holy Spirit. With great patience and humility, Joseph accepted the part for which God had chosen him, as guardian and foster-father to our Lord and Saviour. This kind of faithful acceptance is asked from each of us, when Christ comes into our lives, as "God-with-us."

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1st Sunday in Advent, B

1st Reading: Isaiah 63:16-17, 64:1-8

The prophet admits his people's sinfulness but recalls God's mercy too

For you are our father,
though Abraham does not know us
and Israel does not acknowledge us;
you, O Lord, are our father;
our Redeemer from of old is your name.
Why, O Lord, do you make us stray from your ways
and harden our heart, so that we do not fear you?
Turn back for the sake of your servants,
for the sake of the tribes that are your heritage.
that you would tear open the heavens and come down,
so that the mountains would quake at your presence -
as when fire kindles brushwood
and the fire causes water to boil
- to make your name known to your adversaries,
so that the nations might tremble at your presence!
When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect,
you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.

From ages past no one has heard, no ear has perceived,
no eye has seen any God besides you,
who works for those who wait for him.
You meet those who gladly do right,
those who remember you in your ways.
But you were angry, and we sinned;
because you hid yourself we transgressed.
We have all become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth.

We all fade like a leaf,
and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
There is no one who calls on your name,
or attempts to take hold of you;
for you have hidden your face from us,
and have delivered us into the hand of our iniquity.
Yet, O Lord, you are our Father;
we are the clay, and you are our potter;
we are all the work of your hand.

Responsorial: Psalm 79: 2-3, 15-16, 18-19

R./: Lord, make us turn to you, let us see your face and we shall be saved.

O shepherd of Israel, hear us,
shine forth from your cherubim throne.
O Lord, rouse up your might,
O Lord, come to our help. (R./)

God of hosts, turn again, we implore,
look down from heaven and see,
Visit this vine and protect it,
the vine your right hand has planted. (R./)

May your hand be on the man you have chosen,
the man you have given your strength.
And we shall never forsake you again:
give us life that we may call upon your name. (R./)

2nd Reading: 1 Corinthians 1:3-9

As we await the return of Christ, the grace of God keeps us steadfast

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I give thanks to God always for you because of the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in him with all speech and all knowledge-even as the testimony to Christ was confirmed among you-so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ; who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Gospel: Mark 13:33-37

We do not know the day or hour when the Master will return, to assess us

Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch.

Therefore, keep awake-for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake."

Like people at airports

There are various themes to explore as Advent begins. Isaiah calls us to confess our sins and hope for better days. Paul's thanksgiving to God is upbeat about the future. Jesus warns us against complacency, for the end is coming sooner than we expect. We might go mainly with the first and third readings, about being prepared for the day of the Lord.

Advent invites reassessment of where our ways are leading us. This annual reminder that the world as we know it will one day end, sounds more appropriate in the northern Wintry season, when daylight is short and darkness seems to be winning over the light. But the positive side of this is that a new Spring day is dawning over the horizon, when Christ will come again into our lives with power to save us.

Do you ever watch people at airports, waiting for loved ones to arrive from a flight? They often seem excited, eager for the first appearance of the familiar face, ready with the broad smile of greeting to embrace the returning traveller. We too wait for the Lord's coming with eagerness, because we long for his presence. The waiting is important because, during our life's pilgrimage, we are incomplete. As Augustine once said, "You have made us for Yourself, o Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You." At some deep level of our personhood we are in need, a need that only God can fill.

This is a time to open our hearts and invite the Lord to bring us to completion. We begin Advent, yearning for his coming. Today's first reading puts this yearning into an image, that "We have all withered like leaves… blown by the wind." The whirling, withered leaves of autumn are a familiar scene these past few weeks. Isaiah proposes the dead leaves as symbols of all that is dried up and withered in our lives. But he also calls us to look for a better day. God is still in charge of creation, and our personal lives are under his loving care. We pray this Advent, "Come, Lord Jesus," and make our own the words of the psalm, "Visit this vine and protect it, the vine your right hand has chosen." It is a central plank of our faith that the Lord never abandons His people.

Back to the people at airports waiting for loved ones to arrive. It is an alert, active waiting - keeping an eye on the time. In today's gospel Jesus says, "Be on your guard, stay awake." He wants us to focus on our task here and now. We are to grow more mature in our relationship with others and with him, paying attention to prayer, and living with his message in our hearts. That's what waiting for him should be like. And while we wait, we can enjoy his gifts, as promised, for as Paul assures us: "You will not be without any of the gifts of the Spirit while you are waiting for our Lord Jesus Christ."

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2nd Sunday in Advent, B

John the Baptist prepared the way for Christ by raising expectations. Once Jesus had arrived, there only remained for John to quietly disappear from the scene.

1st Reading: Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11

God is coming to save his people and to open up our way into the future

Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her
that she has served her term,
that her penalty is paid,
that she has received from the Lord's hand
double for all her sins.

A voice cries out:
"In the desert prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be lifted up,
and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
and the rough places a plain.
Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
and all people shall see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken."

See, the Lord God comes with might,
and his arm rules for him;
his reward is with him,
and his recompense before him.
He will feed his flock like a shepherd;
he will gather the lambs in his arms,
and carry them in his bosom,
and gently lead the mother sheep.

Responsorial: Psalm 84: 9-14

R./: Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.

I will hear what the Lord God has to say,
  a voice that speaks of peace,
  peace for his people.
His help is near for those who fear him
  and his glory will dwell in our land. (R./)

Mercy and faithfulness have met;
justice and peace have embraced.
Faithfulness shall spring from the earth
and justice look down from heaven. (R./)

The Lord will make us prosper
and our earth shall yield its fruit.
Justice shall march before him
and peace shall follow his steps. (R./)

2nd Reading: Second Peter 3:8-14

God gives us time to repent and so be ready to meet him when he comes

But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed.

Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire? But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home.

Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish.

Gospel: Mark 1:1-8

John the Baptist prepares the people for the coming of their Saviour

The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

As it is written in the prophet Isaiah, "See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; the voice of one crying out in the desert: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,'" John the baptizer appeared in the desert, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, "The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."

A preacher's vocation

John the Baptist could be the central figure in today's homily. He prepared the minds of people in his circle to welcome the bringer of salvation. That is how God seems to work: sending the message of salvation and meaningful living to us through each other. St Paul once asked two vital questions, "How can people know about God if they have never heard? and how can they hear if nobody is sent to them?" So the vocation to proclaim or preach religious truth is vital, if God is to be known and loved.

Jesus found his first disciples among those who heard John the Baptist preach. It was John who showed them the value of self-control and of prayer, who urged them to listen to the inner voice of God, with a contrite and faithful heart. The high point of John's short ministry was meeting with Jesus. Not only did he baptise Our Lord but he sent some of his own followers to join the Jesus movement. Through him, Andrew and his brother Peter, and Philip and Nathanael became apostles.

God still wants us to help help other people to know and love him. If we were more committed as Christians, maybe we could do more to influence others towards faith in God. Parents can introduce their children to God, with words about trust and prayer. But their words will only be effective if built on the example of their actual life. In all sorts of way, people are in position to influence others, for good or ill. This is clearly so for those who work in the communications media, press, radio and T.V. But ordinary people doing ordinary jobs can also influence the views and values of those they interact with. In light of today's portrayal of John the Baptist, does our way of speaking and behaving help others to share our values, or do we confirm their suspicion that this world is a selfish and cynical place?

And what about promoting vocations to the priesthood or other ministry, or any form of service to the church of Christ? The future of our church as an organised, priest-served community handing on the prayer-life and values of Jesus is under serious question today. But if enough people open their hearts to God's work, like John the Baptist and those first disciples, Andrew and Philip and Peter, then a way will be found to keep the world aware of the saving message of Christ. In the process, our bishops may need to be urged by many practicing Catholics to open up the priesthood to well motivated, devoted married people, as well as to the traditional but diminishing cadre of the voluntarily celibate.

John's challenge to us

The call of John the Baptist is challenging but, ultimately, it is a consoling word, because the Lord to whom John calls on us to turn our hearts is not one who is here to judge us. Rather, he is one who has come to heal and renew us. The voice crying in the wilderness is, ultimately, a voice of consolation. In the opening words of Isaiah in today's first reading, 'Console my people, console them. Speak to the heart of Jerusalem.' At the end of that reading, Isaiah declares, 'Here is the Lord coming with power.' The word 'power' can have negative connotations for us. It can suggest some kind of overbearing presence or a determination to dominate. Yet the power of the Lord that Isaiah speaks about is of a different kind altogether. He is like a shepherd feeding his flock, gathering lambs in his arms, holding them against his breast, and leading to their rest the mother ewes who are soon to give birth. This is a very tender power; it is the power of a faithful and enduring love, a love that gathers and nurtures and gives rest. This is the God whom John the Baptist invites us to rediscover this Advent. It is this God who comes to us in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. In the gospel, the Baptist refers to Jesus as 'more powerful than I am.' He is the more powerful one, in the sense that the first reading defines power. It is Jesus who gives full expression to God's tender love that brings healing to the broken, strength to the weak and rest to the weary. It is this adult Jesus, now risen Lord, whose coming towards us and present to us we celebrate at Christmas. The Baptist calls us this Advent to prepare a way in our lives for the coming of this Lord, this Shepherd, in whom, as the Psalm says, mercy and faithfulness have met, justice and peace have embraced. This is the one we are called to meet this Advent, who can give meaning and depth to all our other encounters.

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3rd Sunday in Advent, B

1st Reading: Isaiah 61:1-2, 10-11

The Messiah, guided by God's Spirit. This text describes Jesus' ministry

The spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me;
he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed,
to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and release to the prisoners;
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn.

I will greatly rejoice in the Lord,
my whole being shall exult in my God;
for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation,
he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

For as the earth brings forth its shoots,
and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up,
so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise
to spring up before all the nations.

Responsorial: Luke 1: 46-50, 53-54

R./: My soul rejoices in my God.

My soul glorifies the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God, my Saviour.
He looks on his servant in her nothingness;
henceforth all ages will call me blessed. (R./)

The Almighty works marvels for me.
Holy his name!
His mercy is from age to age,
on those who fear him. (R./)

He fills the starving with good things,
sends the rich away empty.
He protects Israel, his servant,
remembering his mercy. (R./)

2nd Reading: 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24

The spirit of fervour encouraged among the early Christians

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise the words of prophets, but test everything; hold fast to what is good; abstain from every form of evil.

May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do this.

Gospel: John 1:6-8, 19-28

John the Baptist's testimony to Jesus

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. This is the testimony given by John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, "Who are you?" He confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, "I am not the Messiah." And they asked him, "What then? Are you Elijah?" He said, "I am not." "Are you the prophet?" He answered, "No." Then they said to him, "Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?"

He said, "I am the voice of one crying out in the desert, 'Make straight the way of the Lord,'" as the prophet Isaiah said. Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. They asked him, "Why then are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?" John answered them, "I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know, the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal." This took place in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing.

In a spirit of joyful service

Today's readings are brimful of joy and hope. Israel radiates as a joyful bride coming to her bridegroom adorned for a lavish, oriental wedding. Paul's words to the Thessalonians continue the theme of hope and joy in a community that lives by the life of Christ. And St John, in the gospel, pictures the work of John the Baptist, who came to witness to God's light upon this earth. This is not a joyousness without responsibility. It's a joy that is found when people find and carry out their true mission in life. Isaiah speaks of one anointed and sent to bring good news to the oppressed - words that were adopted by Jesus to describe his own life's purpose - just as they should also be made real in the life of every Christian. Those privileged to share in Jesus' spiritual life must also share in his concerns and desires.

Two key ideas in today's readings go well together:

1. The spiritual joy that marks the Christian faith, that we are waiting for the coming of the Lord, and our entry into a life of eternal communion with God. The other is the willingness to bear our share of the Christian work-load, to do our bit, in our time, to realise the goals of Jesus in our world. I'd like to hear a homily focussed on one of these, without totally forgetting the other. In these times of economic austerity and budget cuts that are endlessly debated, is no harm to be reminded of the blessings in our lives, our reasons to be joyful. Mention, for example, the love we enjoy with our family and friends, the pleasure of meeting new people, of awakening some dormant talent by taking a course of adult education; the solidarity we feel in our local community when people willingly help their neighbours in their needs; the consolation to be found in prayer. Many examples can be named, to illustrate God's blessing in our lives: reasons to be joyful. Like the northern Irish writer C.S. Lewis, we too can be "surprised by joy," and re-discover gladness and meaning in life.

2. Our advent-mission to help the needy, if we are to carry on "the project of Jesus" - the commitment he always showed to people on the margins. Practical examples of his "good news for the poor" can be pointed out, according to the life-situation of the worshippers. Our homilist must try to persuade those whose lives are peaceful and prosperous not to be afraid to let the pain of the needy come through to them and touch them. The sort of carefree joy that lets us shut our eyes to the seamier side of life, and "pass by on the other side," is not the authentic joy announced in today's reading. Care for our neglected neighbours may stand in a certain tension with our personal sense of joy, but the two can and should be blended into the lifestyle of anybody who wants to build their life on Jesus.

Finding our personal truth

Children are great with questions. As any parent knows they can ask the most profound questions in the simplest of ways. We all ask questions because, at heart, we have an instinct for seeking and searching after truth. This is a life-long search. We can never get to the point in this life where we can say, 'I now have the total truth.' The gospel declares that God is truth -- and God is always beyond us. We can never fully grasp God with our minds or our hearts. Yet we have to be faithful to the search for truth, even if along the way we find ourselves making painful discoveries that involve letting go of long-held and cherished convictions. We keep trying to come closer to the truth, the truth about our world, about each other, about ourselves as individuals, and about God. We keep questioning in the hope that our questioning will bring us closer to the truth.

In our search for our own personal truth, two of the big questions that drives us are, 'Who am I?' and 'Why am I doing what I am doing?' We seek after our identity, in the broadest sense of that term, and we try to clarify for ourselves the ultimate purpose that drives all we do and say. In today's gospel, those two big questions are put to John the Baptist by the religious authorities, 'Who are you?' and 'Why are you baptizing?' In answer to the first question, John began by declaring who he was not. He was clear that he was not the Christ, the Messiah. John did not try to be more than he was. Later on in the gospel of John, using an image drawn from a wedding celebration, he would say of himself that he was not the bridegroom, only the friend of the bridegroom who rejoices at the bridegroom's voice. In today's gospel John declares himself to be the voice crying in the wilderness; he is not the Word, only the voice; he is not the light, only the witness to the light. When John was asked why he was doing what he was doing, why he was baptizing, he declared that he baptized to make known the 'one who stands among you, unknown to you.' He did what he was doing to open people's eyes to the person standing among them, to the Messiah who was in their midst without their realizing it. There was a great light shining among them that many were unaware of, and John had come to bear witness to that light. John did what he did because of who he was. The answer to the question, 'Why are you baptizing?' flowed from the answer to the more fundamental question, 'Who are you?'

'Who are you?' is a question we can answer at many different levels. We can simply give our name, or give or parents' names; we can answer it by giving our professional qualifications, or by naming the role or the position we have in life. Yet, the deepest level, the most fundamental level, at which we can answer that question is the spiritual level. Who am I at that deepest, most spiritual, level of my being? Who am I before God? Who is God calling me to be? Here, John the Baptist, the great Advent saint, can be of help to us. He articulates for us who each one of us is in virtue of our baptism, who God is calling us to be. No more than John the Baptist, we are certainly not the Messiah. We are not the light. We know only too well the areas of darkness in our lives and in our hearts. However, like John the Baptist, we are a witness to the Light. Even though we are all far from perfect, we are, nonetheless, called to be a witness to Christ.

John the Baptist says in today's gospel, 'there stands among you, unknown to you, the one who is coming after me.' The Lord stands among all of us, but he remains unknown to many. Our calling is to make him known, to allow him to shine forth in our world through our lives. John spoke of himself as a voice crying in the wilderness. John used his voice to make known the light. We too are asked to use our voice to make Christ known. It does not mean that we stand in the main street and preach. Rather we use the gift of communication that we have, the gifts of speech and writing, to proclaim the person of Christ, his world view, his values and his attitudes. In what we communicate and how we communicate it, we allow the Lord to communicate through us. Who we are as witnesses to the light, as the voice for the Word, shapes how we live and explains why we live the way we do. The answer to the question, 'Who are you?' grounds the answer to the question, 'Why are you doing what you are doing?' Advent is a good time to reclaim our fundamental identity, our Christ identity. If Jesus is to be born anywhere today, it will be in each one of us.

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4th Sunday in Advent, B

1st Reading: 2 Samuel 7:1-5, 8-12, 14, 16

The prophet Nathan promises that God will raise up the house of David - a dynasty completed by Jesus

Now when the king was settled in his house, and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies around him, the king said to the prophet Nathan, "See now, I am living in a house of cedar, but the ark of God stays in a tent." Nathan said to the king, "Go, do all that you have in mind; for the Lord is with you."

But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan: Go and tell my servant David: Thus says the Lord: Are you the one to build me a house to live in? Now therefore thus you shall say to my servant David: Thus says the Lord of hosts: I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep to be prince over my people Israel; and I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may live in their own place, and be disturbed no more; and evildoers shall afflict them no more, as formerly, from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.

I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. When he commits iniquity, I will punish him with a rod such as mortals use, with blows inflicted by human beings. Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever.

Responsorial: Psalm 88: 2-5, 27, 29

R./: For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.

I will sing for ever of your love, O Lord;
through all ages my mouth will proclaim your truth.
Of this I am sure, that your love lasts for ever,
that your truth is firmly established as the heavens. (R./)

'I have made a covenant with my chosen one;
I have sworn to David my servant:
I will establish your dynasty for ever
and set up your throne through all ages.' (R./)

He will say to me: 'You are my father,
my God, the rock who saves me.'
I will keep my love for him always;
for him my covenant shall endure. (R./)

2nd Reading: Romans 16:25-27

Praise of the God whose salvation is revealed in Jesus Christ. This good news must be spread everywhere

Now to God who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but is now disclosed, and through the prophetic writings is made known to all the Gentiles, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith-to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever! Amen.

Gospel: Luke 1:26-38

The annunciation to our Lady, and her total Yes to God

The angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end."

Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I am a virgin?" The angel said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God."

Then Mary said, "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word." Then the angel departed from her.

Choosing that special person

If you were to ask a married couple how they came to fall in love, or asked two good friends how they came to be friends, they may have difficulty answering and might say something like, "It just happened." In one sense that may be true. In another sense it didn't just happen. If two people are in a significant relationship with each other, be it marriage or friendship, it is because they have chosen each other. Why does someone choose one person rather than another as a spouse or friend? Why does someone choose to share his or her life with someone else? This is the mystery of human freedom, human preference. The more significant relationships cannot be forced. Love is freely bestowed by one person on another; the other freely receives what is bestowed and freely reciprocates, and a new relationship is born. There is a depth about all that.

If there is mystery in the relationship of one human being with another, even more so in the relationship between God and us. Why did God choose Mary to be the mother of his Son? Why this particular woman in this small village at this particular time of human history? It was the mysterious freedom and preference of God. Yet, there is a difference between God's choice of Mary and the choice any one of us might make of another. When any one of us chooses another to love or to befriend, there is always, of necessity, an exclusive element to that choice. We choose this person rather than any number of others. Although we choose several people in the course of our lives in each case our choice of one excludes others.

God's choice of Mary was not exclusive in that sense. In choosing Mary, he was choosing all of us. He chose Mary for all our sakes. God chose her to carry God's Son on behalf of us all, because her future child was God's gift to us all. That is why how Mary responded to God's choice of her was not just a matter that concerned herself. It concerned us all. We all had a vested interest in how she responded. Her response would also be our response. In a sense we looked to her to make an appropriate response on behalf of us all to God's choice of us.

The good news is that Mary did not let us down. Although initially disturbed and perplexed by the message, she eventually surrendered fully to that mysterious choice of God. Having been graced in this mysterious way, she responded wholeheartedly, "Let it be to me according to your word." God freely chose her, and she in turn chose to place her freedom at God's service. God's choice of Mary, and her choice of God in response had the most wonderful consequences for all of us. She went on to sing, "the Almighty has done great things for me." And because of her response to God's choice, we can all sing, "the Almighty has done great things for us." We have all been graced through Mary's response to God's choice of her.

Receiving the Grace of God

The readings today draw attention to God's gracious initiative towards us. Their focus is not what we must do for God but rather what God wants to do for us. In the first reading David wanted to do something really big for God, no less than to build a beautiful temple as a house of worship. King David was an achiever who had accomplished a great deal. Yet, the prophet Nathan says that God did not want the king to build him anything. Rather, it was God who would do something for David; into the future David's descendants would lead God's people. David had to let go of his great plans and learn to allow God to grace him.

Receiving from others can be difficult for us. We like to be the givers, the organizers, the achievers. To let others give to us is to acknowledge our need, our dependence, our limitations, and that does not always come easy. Maybe we sense that to allow ourselves to be graced by others is to put ourselves under obligation to them and we are slow to do that. That reluctance to receive can carry over into our relationship with God.

The heart of the good news is that God is a gracious God who wants to give us all things. As Paul says in his epistle, 'God who did not withhold his won Son, but gave him up for all of us, will also with him give us everything else!' This is the special time of year when we allow God to be the God of abundant grace in our regard; it is a time when we come before him in our need and open ourselves to his gracious love and presence.

Surprised by God

A few days before Christmas a woman received a beautiful string of pearls in the mail. She could only guess who sent the gift. But when she didn't find any message with the present she burst into tears. Three times she turned the packet inside out and upside down. But there was no note, no words, and no message, wrapped up with the gift. What she really wanted was a card that said 'You mean a great deal to me. I love you!' That message would have meant more to her than the pearls themselves. By contrast, when Gabriel, God's messenger, greets Mary, the first thing Mary hears is words of love from God (words made slightly more explicit here): 'Rejoice, Mary! The Lord is with you. God has chosen you. You are special, you are precious, and you are loved.' God, then, doesn't leave out the important words.

On hearing those words of God's special love for her, Mary can only rejoice. But joy is not her only response. Here she is, a girl about fourteen, living quietly in an out-of-the way village of Galilee, far from the rich and famous and the movers and shakers of this world, and yet hearing those amazing and stunning words from God! 'What is God up to?' she wonders. The gospel could not be clearer when it says: 'She was deeply disturbed by these words and asked herself what the greeting could mean.'

The messenger of God reassures her: 'Don't be alarmed! Don't be afraid, Mary! Listen to what I have to say! Of all women on earth, God has chosen you to be the Mother of the Saviour of the World!' But Mary is a virgin and so she asks the perfectly obvious and reasonable question: 'But how can this come about, since I am a virgin?' The messenger answers: 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will cover you with its shadow.'

Mary doesn't ask any other question. She doesn't need to. She simply responds freely and deliberately to the God of surprises, the God who has picked her out for the greatest mission in the world: 'I am the servant of the Lord,' she says, 'I say "yes" to God. I accept my part in God's plans. Let what you have said be done to me.' From that moment Mary conceives the child Jesus in her womb. From that moment 'the Word of God became a human being and dwelt among us.' St Augustine comments that Mary first conceives her child in her heart and only then does she conceive him in her body. Our Preface today makes the beautiful observation: 'The virgin mother longed for him with love beyond all telling', i.e. with indescribable love.

We are living in an age when many people find it difficult to make permanent commitments to others, commitments that require life-long love, fidelity, perseverance and endurance. So it's particularly appropriate for us to wonder and marvel today at Mary's total commitment to God, and to all the changes her pregnancy will bring to all her plans for the future. What a striking example she is, then, of living that motto for life, 'Let go and let God.' She teaches us to put our faith and trust in God at all times, but especially in difficult, demanding, and seemingly impossible situations. But she also teaches us to be people who bring Christ to others, just as Mary set out immediately to bring him to her elderly cousin, Elizabeth.

Year by year we are painfully aware of how much darkness there is in our world as well as how much light. In the rituals we have watched on TV for people killed or maimed in particular catastrophes, we have noticed that grieving people always light candles of remembrance. Those small pieces of self-consuming wax and flame say that the light in our world is stronger than the darkness. That is the message too of the lighting of the four candles today of our Advent wreath. Those candles will burn out, but our commitment as his followers to be the light of Christ in the darkness of insensitivity and indifference, ignorance and malice, should never burn out or never be put out.

During the rest of our Eucharist, we can renew our commitment to be that Light of Christ that drives out the darkness of evil, and especially for those for whom Christmas is more a time of darkness, sadness, depression and desperation than an experience of light, joy, love and peace. I'm thinking particularly of people who are homeless, separated, bereaved, friendless, or abused. At this time of Advent and Christmas they especially need our commitment to be the light and love of Christ to them. May we, like God, surprise and encourage them with our loving words and loving care!

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1st Sunday in Advent, C

Theme: Advent is a time for new thoughts, new beginnings, new projects, as we start a new year of Christian prayer and worship. The Gospel calls us to be ready to welcome Jesus as the anchor of our lives, our true Saviour, and prepare for his return at the end of time. It's an open invitation to make a new start in our personal spiritual journey

1st Reading: Jeremiah 33:14-16

In those days [my people] will live in safety

The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.

In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. And this is the name by which it will be called: "The Lord is our righteousness."

Responsorial: Psalm 24:4-5, 8-9, 10, 14

R./: To you, O Lord, I lift my soul.

Lord, make me know your ways.
Lord, teach me your paths.
Make me walk in your truth, and teach me:
for you are God my Saviour. (R./)

The Lord is good and upright.
He shows the path to those who stray.
He guides the humble in the right path;
he teaches his way to the poor. (R./)

His ways are faithfulness and love
for those who keep his covenant and will.
The Lord's friendship is for those who revere him;
to them he reveals his covenant. (R./)

2nd Reading: 1 Thessalonians 3:12—4:2

Paul's prayer for Christians to grow in fervour and holiness

And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we abound in love for you. And may he so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.

Finally, brothers and sisters, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus that, as you learned from us how you ought to live and to please God (as, in fact, you are doing), you should do so more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus.

Gospel: Luke 21:25-28, 34-36

Making ready for the final day when Christ will come as judge

[Jesus said to his disciples]: "There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see 'the Son of Man coming in a cloud' with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near."

"Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day catch you unexpectedly, like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man."

Starting a new Liturgical Year

There is a note of urgency and summons to alertness in both the second reading and the gospel today. These might provide one with a jumping-off point for some reflections on the start of the liturgical year.

Conversion: One might adapt or make use of Paul's imagery of throwing off the bed-clothes and dressing for the daytime. The whole image is one of getting ready to take on another day. There is a hint here of the struggle that some people experience in trying to get up in the morning -- a symbol for conversion. The day that has to be faced is the new day of Christ's final coming. The real question to be faced is "Can we face Christ?" "Have we really cast off the deeds of darkness/self-interest, in favour of living in the light of the gospel?" The gospel faces us with this question about how alert we are to our real selves. We are supposed to belong to Christ; have we really lived as if that were true? Part of the struggle of taking on a new day is the struggle to hope that it may be better than the failures of the day before. The process of conversion, turning from the darkness to the light, is only made possible by the gift of the light itself. It is the rising of the sun that calls us to get up. It was the coming of Christ into the world as its light that makes true conversion possible.

The renewal of the old: Part of the process of beginning a new liturgical year is a reflection on time, the relationship between past, present and future. The "time" that we celebrate in Christian liturgy is not the static time of repeated patterns that never change from year to year. What we celebrate centrally in our worship are events from the contingency of history; events that we claim to represent. Starting a new year we need to remember that the saving events of Christ's life, death and resurrection, have to be made present in life as well as liturgy. It is in the changing circumstances of new life and new history that the mystery of salvation will unfold. In this new year we will all change, both individually and as community; we pray today that the change will be for the better realization of Christ's presence among us. It is important for us to be able to focus on this hope-in-change for the sake of the young people in the community who sometimes experience the church community as a relic of the past, "unreal" and isolated from the dynamics of history.

Seeking a new world: Today we are presented with an old vision of a new world. It is so old that some people think it will never become real. It is the vision of a world at peace (first reading.) The challenge of that lesson is addressed to each of us, the challenge to walk in the light of the Lord. It is only through seeking his revelation and living it out that the peoples of the earth will find the way to this new world of peace. The task of building this reality is given to all people but especially to Christians who follow the ultimate peace-maker (cf. Eph 2:11 ff..) The challenge and the urgency of the call to build peace is not confined to the scriptural word of God. Contemporary analysts tell us of the importance of transforming the instruments of war into tools for the development of a world at peace.

The new liturgical year offers us the hope that we will be better peace-makers in the future. It offers us the hope that if we do "put on Christ" our young people will not lose heart, and our liturgical celebrations will be turned not merely towards the past but towards a living presence and a real future.

Advent Patience

Advent reminds us of the three comings of the Lord -- the coming in history over 2000 years ago; the coming in glory at the end of time when God's dream for human kind will be realised; the coming in mystery in the happenings of daily life.

If we can learn in these weeks of Advent the importance of patient waiting we have learned one of the great lesson in life. This is hard for us, especially in the West. We live in an instant age -- instant food, instant this, that and the other. We even speed up nature: with artificial light we fool the hens to lay two eggs a day! We are in too much of a hurry in having every possible experience too early in life -- the morning-after pill for eleven year olds!

The most important things in life cannot be rushed and require patient waiting. Patient waiting is required from the mother to bring the child to birth, and then from babyhood to adulthood; the teacher requires it with the slow learner; the politician requires it not to give up on the peace process, and everybody requires it to build loving relationships. We wait not mournfully, but in joyful hope for the coming of our Saviour Jesus Christ.

Expect the Unexpected

Today, the first Sunday of Advent , marks the beginning of a period of preparation for the celebration of the birth of Christ, our Saviour, at Christmas. All the readings in the Mass advise us most urgently to make ourselves ready, to be on the alert, to turn aside from our sinful ways, and give more time to God in our lives."Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord," Isaiah says in the first reading. We must not live lives of darkness and of sin, St Paul admonishes his listeners; but let us put on the armour of God's grace, and appear in the light, meaning that our consciences should have nothing to hide at any time, but rather be open to the promptings of the Holy Spirit directing them."Be vigilant, stay awake," the gospel warns, at any moment you may be called upon to make an eternal choice, and that as unexpectedly as the people who were swallowed up by the Flood, in the time of Noah.

Outwardly, people may appear the same, like the men working in the fields or the women grinding at the millstone, but inwardly they have responded differently to the graces God has given them. So they are in varying states of preparedness for what is to come, with the result that while some will be taken into God's kingdom, others will be left or rejected. This is true of every single individual, for as we pass through life we are all being faced with a choice between two ways, either that of slavery to evil tendencies in our lives, which we call sin, or, on the other hand, that of grace, which is allowing Jesus Christ be our guide and exemplar in all that we do.

It is only when we sincerely try to model our lives on that of Christ that our spirits will experience real freedom. Jesus himself said to the Jews (Jn 8:32), "If you persevere in my word, you will indeed be my disciples. You will learn the truth, and the truth will make you free." Persevering in the word of Jesus demands that we listen to it, as it comes to us from out the scriptures and from within our consciences; also that we think about it and study its requirements, and that we put into action what we have learned. The true disciple of Christ asks the question, "What am I setting before myself as the main purpose of my life?" My career, the gaining of material possessions, the pursuit of pleasure, or the service of God and my neighbour? The truth of Jesus will teach us what things are really important and what are not. Furthermore, discipleship of Christ brings its own rewards. It brings freedom from fear, fear about oneself, fear about one's ability to cope with life, fear about contradiction and opposition from others, fear about death and the uncertainty of life thereafter."In love there can be no fear," St John wrote (1 Jn 4:18), "but perfect love casts out fear; because to fear is to expect punishment, and anyone who is afraid is still imperfect in love."

If we end up having no love or reverence towards God, no respect or consideration or pity towards others, then we will have reached the stage of choosing to be lost, as Jesus, in his prayer at the Last Supper, said of Judas."Father, I kept those you had given me true to your name. I have watched over them, and not one is lost except the one who chose to be lost." This is what should really frighten us, that the choice of our own destiny for all eternity rests entirely with ourselves.

Advent is a time for listening."Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord," the first reading tells us, "so that he may teach us his ways, and that we may walk in his paths." The second reading is the one that finally brought about the conversion of St Augustine after he had opened the New Testament at random at that very passage, and please God it will help us to look into our own lives and, if needs be, change them too.

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2nd Sunday in Advent, C

1st Reading: Baruch 5:1-9

God will level out a highway for the exiles to return

The Lord says this:
Take off the garment of your sorrow and affliction, O Jerusalem,
and put on forever the beauty of the glory from God.
Put on the robe of the righteousness that comes from God;
put on your head the diadem of the glory of the Everlasting;
for God will show your splendor everywhere under heaven.
For God will give you evermore the name,
"Righteous Peace, Godly Glory."
Arise, O Jerusalem, stand upon the height;
look toward the east,
and see your children gathered from west and east
at the word of the Holy One,
rejoicing that God has remembered them.
For they went out from you on foot,
led away by their enemies;
but God will bring them back to you,
carried in glory, as on a royal throne.
For God has ordered that every high mountain
and the everlasting hills be made low
and the valleys filled up, to make level ground,
so that Israel may walk safely in the glory of God.
The woods and every fragrant tree
have shaded Israel at God's command.
For God will lead Israel with joy,
in the light of his glory,
with the mercy and righteousness that come from him.

Responsorial: Psalm 125

R./: The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.

When the Lord delivered Zion from bondage,
it seemed like a dream.
Then was our mouth filled with laughter,
on our lips there were songs. (R./)

The heathens themselves said:
'What marvels the Lord worked for them!'
What marvels the Lord worked for us!
Indeed we were glad. (R./)

Deliver us, O Lord, from our bondage
as streams in dry land.
Those who are sowing in tears
will sing when they reap. (R./)

They go out, they go out, full of tears
  carrying seed for the sowing:
  they come back, they come back, full of song,
  carrying their sheaves. (R./)

2nd Reading: Philippians 1:3-6, 8-11

Unity, perseverance and witness to Christ and the Gospel

I thank my God every time I remember you, constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now. I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.

For God is my witness, how I long for all of you with the compassion of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.

Gospel: Luke 3:1-6

Prepare a way for God, through sincere repentance

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the desert.

He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah,

"The voice of one crying out in the desert:
"Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
Every valley shall be filled,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low,
and the crooked shall be made straight,
and the rough ways made smooth;
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.'"

Good times coming

We are in a dark time of the year. The mornings are dark and the evenings darker still. Light is scarce, and we have yet to reach the shortest day of the year. It is within that darkness that we have lit our second Advent candle today. The days may be getting shorter, but our Advent wreath is getting brighter. The brightness of our Advent readings draws us toward the great feast of light, Christmas, the birthday of the one who is the light of the world. With the birth of Jesus, the light of God's love shines out. In today's first reading, the prophet Baruch looks forward to a day when ‘God will guide Israel in joy by the light of his glory.'

Advent is a hopeful season. Hope is an important virtue, deeper than simple optimism of temperament. We can feel optimistic about all kinds of things, but, strictly speaking, the true object of hope is union with God. We are hopeful God can bring life out of death, light out of darkness. It is above all in Winter that we need hope. And we pray for anyone going through dark days at the present time, for people insecure in their jobs or their health or their home life, and displaced people and refugees, who wait at barbed wire borders, hoping to get to a better life.

The second reading (from Philippians) came out of a very dark situation. St Paul. was chained in a Roman prison, probably in Ephesus. And he he wasn't sure of getting out of prison alive. Yet the letter is the most hopeful and joyful of all Paul's letters. It shows that one can remain hopeful even when things look dark. From his prison cell, Paul is grateful for his friendship with the Philippians and is hopeful for their future. He cheerfully recalls their progress so far as a local church. They were no more perfect than other people, but Paul chooses to celebrate their generosity. He praises them for helping to spread the good news from the days they first heard it.

We can be tempted in dark times to look at everything with bleary eyes. Paul bids us to look at life, and, especially, at people with hopeful eyes, even in dark times. To see people through hopeful eyes makes us aware of the good in their lives. Let's recognise what they have done rather than what they have failed to do. Paul hopes that God who began this good work among them would bring it to completion. He had high ideals about what people could become with God's help.

Let's see ourselves with hopeful eyes. God's good work has only begun in us. We are a work in progress God will bring the good work to completion. We just need to co-operate with the working of grace. By the end of our life this work will be complete, and we will have reached ‘the perfect goodness which Jesus Christ produces in us'.

We are all Advent people

Poor old Advent. It gets stampeded. It is overrun. Who cares about Advent – it is only an unruly intruder on the way to Christmas. But it isn't. Advent drags us back to basics. The very essence of humanity means patience. We can easily get overwhelmed by the ‘fast lane of life.' We are in such a hurry. We want everything now. We rush from experience to experience. We can't cope with the bigness of life. Stop. Look. Listen. The simple message of Advent is to glance back at the Jews, waiting for the Saviour to come. If we have (similar) feelings; we can feel with them. We can easily link up our own waiting in life, to their waiting.

Waiting for a child to be born. Waiting for day to come. Waiting for buses. Waiting for an appointment in a hospital. Waiting in A&E is a very good indicator of Advent. Waiting for the end of winter. Waiting for the sun to shine. Waiting to get well. Waiting for pain to go. Waiting to grow up. Waiting for visitors. But above all, it is learning not to live just in the present moment. It is stopping ourselves being addicted to the concerns of only today. Advent reminds us to be much bigger in our thinking. Look around. Stop. Think of the past. Look at nature. Look at the companions of life. Be grateful. Never be consumed by NOW. See the broader picture. . . (Seamus Ahearne).

Make his Paths Straight

During Advent we are meant, like the Baptist, to prepare the way for Jesus as our Saviour. We need to see what in our lives needs straightening out. The imagery of filling in the valleys and leveling hills is a call to care about justice for all God's people. One could say that the Baptist called for a level playing field for all, so that everybody has fair access to the amenities of this world. He was against hoarding, dominance and aggression. Isaiah offers hope that "all people will see the salvation sent to us from our God." God's word has a message for me. I am to turn from my sins, and to prepare the way for him. I am to help ensure fair play and justice for others.

Filling valleys, leveling mountains, straightening the crooked road, preparing a pathway for the Lord. All this is our preparation for Christmas. Of course it involves decisions, and these decisions from of the realities of my life. God is always calling for a response. Responding to him is to become responsible.

Many parishes have a Penance Service during Advent. It may be called "Confession of sins without listing them" To some people, this seems too simple, too easy. But let's not forget the purpose of the Penance Service. Sin has a community dimension. When I do wrong, I fail other people by failing to live up to my Christian vocation. The community is diminished by my sin, so there should be a community aspect to my repentance. So it's right to make a public acknowledgement of my sinfulness and my need for the grace of God as part of my preparation for Christmas. In the season of peaceful good-will, we need to restate our good-will, and act on it. We try to do our part in making his paths straight!

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3rd Sunday in Advent, C

1st Reading: Zephaniah 3:14-18

Jerusalem rejoices because salvation is near and God himself will protect his people

Sing aloud, O daughter Zion; shout, O Israel!
Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter Jerusalem!
The Lord has taken away the judgments against you,
he has turned away your enemies. The king of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst;
you shall fear disaster no more. On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: Do not fear,
O Zion; do not let your hands grow weak. The Lord, your God, is in your midst,
a warrior who gives victory;
he will rejoice over you with gladness,
he will renew you in his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing
as on a day of festival.

Responsorial: Isaiah 12:2-6

R./: Cry out with joy and gladness: for among you is the great and Holy One of Israel.

Truly, God is my salvation,
I trust, I shall not fear.
For the Lord is my strength, my song,
he became my saviour.
With joy you will draw water
from the wells of salvation. (R./)

Give thanks to the Lord,
give praise to his name!
Make his mighty deeds known to the peoples!
Declare the greatness of his name. (R./)

Sing a psalm to the Lord for he has done glorious deeds,
make them known to all the earth!
People of Zion, sing and shout for joy
for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel. (R./)

2nd Reading: Philippians 4:4-7

Rejoice in the Lord, be free of anxiety and live in a spirit of prayer and thanksgiving

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Gospel: Luke 3:10-18

John the Baptist urges various groups of people to works of justice and charity

And the crowds asked John, "What then should we do?" In reply he said to them, "Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise." Even tax collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, "Teacher, what should we do?" He said to them, "Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you." Soldiers also asked him, "And we, what should we do?" He said to them, "Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages."

As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John , whether he might be the Messiah, John answered all of them by saying, "I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire." So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people.

Communicating Joy

The lead-up to Christmas has a sense of happy anticipation, an excitement matched in today's readings. We are invited to a truly joyful proclamation of the Good News. About The Joy of the Gospel, pope Francis wrote:

One cannot but admire the resources that the Lord used to dialogue with his people, to reveal his mystery to all and to attract ordinary people by his lofty teachings and demands. I believe that the secret lies in the way Jesus looked at people, seeing beyond their weaknesses and failings: "Fear not little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom" (Lk 12:32); Jesus preaches with that spirit. Full of joy in the Spirit, he blesses the Father who draws the little ones to him: "I thank you Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes" (Lk 10:21). The Lord enjoys talking with his people; preachers should try to communicate that same joy to his listeners.

An Advent examen (from The Pilgrim's Almanac, by Edward Hays):
"Advent is the perfect time to clear and prepare the Way. Advent is a winter training camp for those who desire peace. By reflection and prayer, by reading and meditation, we can make our hearts a place where a blessing of peace would desire to abide and where the birth of the Prince of Peace might take place. Daily we can make an Advent examination. Are there any feelings of discrimination toward race, sex, or religion? Is there a lingering resentment, an unforgiven injury living in our hearts? Do we look down upon others of lesser social standing or educational achievement? Are we generous with the gifts that have been given to us, seeing ourselves as their stewards and not their owners? Are we reverent of others, their ideas and needs, and of creation? These and other questions become Advent lights by which we may search the deep, dark corners of our hearts."

Gaudete Sunday

This Third Sunday in Advent is full of comfort and joy. In our Latin past it was called "Gaudete Sunday," (gaudete meaning rejoice.) The liturgy bids us be happy, not to worry, for the Lord is near. And if we want the peace of God in our hearts, that peace will be ours, if we ask God for it. St Paul says, "There is no need to worry; but if there is anything you need, pray for it, asking God for it with prayer and thanksgiving." He tells us not to wait until after God has granted our requests before saying thanks. Even as we ask, we should be giving thanks. One of the things to thank God for at the end of this year is all the good done by so many good people in our time.

Wherever there is evil, God will see that brave, resolute souls rise up to combat it. Such was the work done by St John the Baptist, as described by St Luke. People were prepared to walk all the way from Jerusalem down to near Jericho in the deep Jordan valley, on the edge of the desert -- all of fifteen miles each way -- in order to see John, this charismatic figure living as an ascetic in the desert around the Dead Sea. Having heard him, many stayed to be baptised by him. But they were full of the uncertainty that can surface in all of us if we take time to cast a critical eye on the kind of life we are leading.

"What must we do?" they asked him; and John spelled out his answer in no uncertain terms. While their request showed their willingness to change, it also showed that they were lacking in clear insight about what is right human behaviour. "Love and do what you will," was to be the motto of St Augustine, meaning that if people have total inner commitment to God, then they will be incapable of doing wrong, they will know instinctively what is right from the promptings of the Spirit within them.

John the Baptist tried to change his listeners' hearts by telling them not to be grasping, not to take from others more than a just return for services rendered, but rather to help those in need. "If anyone has two cloaks, he must share with the man who has none." "Give your blood," the ancient monks in the desert used to say, "and you will possess the Spirit." The society to which John was addressing himself -- as indeed Jesus did later -- was to collapse because of its lack of spiritual depth, its over concern with externals, as evidenced by the Pharisees, its pursuit of a narrow-minded nationalism, as seen in the Zealots who resorted to violence and assassination in their hatred of the Romans.

The greatest danger to the continuation of any society becomes a reality when most of its members become motivated by selfish concerns, greed and covetousness. The message that our own society invariably highlights is not, alas, that of sharing cloaks, but of wearing outfits that are better, more comfortable, more in keeping with the size of one's pay differential. The sad thing is that all this unbridled seeking for earthly comforts, this concern with the cares of life, pulls us further and further away from the yearning for himself, that God has placed within all of us. It turns us away from the things of the Spirit, and from the pursuit of religious idealism. Prayerfully then, and in the presence of God, let us give thanks to the Father in this Mass, for the gift of his divine Son, who in its celebration makes us one with himself. Let us ask for the peace of God, as Sacred scripture urges us, for that abiding peace which is so much greater than we can ever understand, so much greater than anything this world can ever offer us. And we can be assured that for all who faithfully do this the reward will be everlasting.

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4th Sunday in Advent, C

1st Reading: Micah 5:2-5

Salvation would come from insignificant Bethlehem -- to unite the nation under God

The Lord says this: But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah, who are one of the little clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to rule in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days. Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labour has brought forth; then the rest of his kindred shall return to the people of Israel. And he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall live secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth, and he shall be the one of peace.

Responsorial: Psalm 79: 2-3, 15-16, 18-19

R./: Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.

O shepherd of Israel, hear us,
shine forth from your cherubim throne.
O Lord, rouse up your might,
O Lord, come to our help. (R./)

God of hosts, turn again, we implore,
look down from heaven and see.
Visit this vine and protect it,
the vine your right hand has planted. (R./)

May your hand be on the man you have chosen,
the man you have given your strength.
And we shall never forsake you again:
give us life that we may call upon your name. (R./)

2nd Reading: Hebrews 10:5-10

Only Christ, our supreme High Priest, can effect reconciliation between us and God

Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, "Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, 'See, God, I have come to do your will, O God' (in the scroll of the book it is written of me)."

When he said above, "You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings" (these are offered according to the law), then he added, "See, I have come to do your will." He abolishes the first in order to establish the second. And it is by God's will that we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Gospel: Luke 1:39-44

Elizabeth recognises the unique child that Mary carries within her

In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy.

Holding our breath

The readings invite a final pause, one further holding of the breath, before the birth of Jesus. The Visitation, in particular, with its explicit and implied encounter(s), may help us reflect on all the encounters of this season, not forgetting "the" encounter to which we are all invited.

Honouring the Madonna

When a mother is expecting, all the focus is on her health. She gets loads of advice -- 'be careful,' 'don't lift that' and 'don't forget your afternoon nap.' Once the baby is born the main attention moves to the baby -- 'who does she look like?' 'what name will you give him?' …and so on. So on this last Sunday before Christmas the Gospel is focussed on Mary, the expectant mother, and in particular, on her visit to her cousin, Elizabeth.

One could say that Mary is even more honoured in the Eastern Church than she is in the West. In the West, after the 16th century reformation, many Protestants stopped honouring Mary. Many shrines were levelled, stained glass windows were broken, statues of Mary shattered, pictures of the Madonna burnt. Still, not all Protestants disowned Mary. A frequently quoted line about her is where William Wordworth refers to her as 'our tainted nature's solitary boast.' Martin Luther had a lifelong devotion to Mary and even kept a picture of her on his desk, though many Lutherans seem unaware of this.

All Christians, whether Catholic or Protestant, like to meditate on the Magnificat, that prayerful song brimming over with anger at the way the world is tilted against the poor. It is Mary's cry for justice: He has filled the hungry with good things/ And sent the rich away empty. This is Mary who inspires all followers of her son to challenge injustice also in our own time and place.

Two great women

The two pregnant women in our Gospel today are different in age, yet both full of joy and concern for each other. Mary goes to visit Elizabeth because of the dangers attendant on so late a pregnancy. That she went with hasted, halfway across the country, to make the visit is a clear sign of Mary's generosity and goodness. Through the light of the Holy Spirit, Elizabeth recognised Mary's privilege as the mother of the longed-for Messiah. She greets Mary in the words we are so familiar with in our Hail Mary. And Mary responds in the equally familiar words of the Magnificat. These two great women understand the miracle of conception and birth. But in each case there was divine intervention in a truly exceptional way. The Gospel says that both were informed of this fact by the words of an angel; they each had a message from God telling them so.

The fact that these two women had this divine intervention is a reminder that our own lives too are a gift of God; what we might call ordinary grace. It is from this understanding that the Church takes its position on all life issues.

At some moments we may recognise the hand of God in our lives. Maybe at the point when we felt we had a priestly or religious vocation or when we finally decided on our partner in marriage. Maybe it was at the birth of a child, a change in job circumstances, or the death of a parent. Maybe it was a moment in prayer, the grace of a sacrament, advice in the confessional, wise words from a friend or relative at a critical moment.

God continues to work with us and for us. God takes the long view and there are periods of seeming barrenness, seeming aloneness. But these are all part of that gestation which is life on earth. We were born into this world and we will be reborn into eternal life.

Every now and then like John the Baptist we leap in this womb which is our life on earth. Every now and then we recognise God's presence, as John recognised Jesus' presence, and we leap with joy. But life is always moving on and God is always with us. It was God caused us to come into being, who sustains and feeds us, and who will welcome us into life eternal. As well as the birth of Jesus, we celebrate our own birth too at Christmas -- a birth, a life that flows towards death and final resurrection.

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Monday of Advent, Week 1

1st Reading: Isaiah 2:1-5

In the Messiah's day, they shall beat their swords into ploughshares

He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!

Alternative 1st Reading: Isaiah 4:2-6

(for use in Year A, when Is 2:1-5 has been read on 1st Sunday of Advent)

On that day the branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious,
  and the fruit of the land shall be the pride and glory of the survivors of Israel.
  Whoever is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy,
  everyone who has been recorded for life in Jerusalem,
  once the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion
  and cleansed the bloodstains of Jerusalem from its midst
  by a spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning.

Then the Lord will create over the whole site of Mount Zion and over its places of assembly a cloud by day and smoke and the shining of a flaming fire by night.
  Indeed over all the glory there will be a canopy.
It will serve as a pavilion, a shade by day from the heat,
  and a refuge and a shelter from the storm and rain.

Responsorial: Psalm 121: 1-2, 4-5, 6-9

R./: Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.

I rejoiced when I heard them say:
'Let us go to God's house.'
And now our feet are standing
within your gates, O Jerusalem. (R./)

It is there that the tribes go up,
  the tribes of the Lord.
For Israel's law it is,
  there to praise the Lord's name.
There were set the thrones of judgement
  of the house of David. (R./)

For the peace of Jerusalem pray:
'Peace be to your homes!
May peace reign in your walls,
in your palaces, peace!' (R./)

For love of my brethren and friends I say:
'Peace upon you!'
For love of the house of the Lord
I will ask for your good. (R./)

Gospel: Matthew 8:5-11

Jesus cures the centurion's servant; foreigners will share in Israel's blessings

When Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, appealing to him and saying, "Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, in terrible distress." And he said to him, "I will come and cure him. " The centurion answered, "Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; but only speak the word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to one, 'Go,' and he goes, and to another, 'Come,' and he comes, and to my slave, 'Do this,' and the slave does it. "

When Jesus heard him, he was amazed and said to those who followed him, "Truly I tell you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith. I tell you, many will come from east and west and will eat with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven."

BIBLE

The power of Hope

In the weekdays of Advent we pray for a future of universal peace. Isaiah predicts that nder the guidance of the Messiah, all nations and races will live in harmony and join in worshiping the true and only God. This future will draw us beyond all narrow racial or national boundaries so that all of humanity becomes one family of faith and love. Are we willing to open our doors and welcome all these people, so different from ourselves?

In the Gospel, Jesus is invited to the home of a Roman centurion – a soldier whose job is to represent a foreign, oppressive power – and he accepts the invitation! When the Roman officer hesitates, feeling unworthy of Jesus' presence in his home, he is praised for his genuine humility. It is worth noticing that the centurion cares for the welfare of his slave, who would have been from some defeated nation. The disciples must have been amazed to see that Roman officer bowing before Jesus, for the sake of his slave!

Jesus praises this foreigner as an authentic, genuine man, a spiritual descendant of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He advises us to look in unlikely places and people to learn to be his true followers today. He tells us too, "I have never found this much faith" in your midst. During Advent let's give some thought to what we can learn from outsiders about how to live worthily in God's sight? If we are open, we can learn so much from unlikely sources.

The centurion's modest but hope-filled request is very familiar to us. Before receiving the Holy Eucharist we repeat it almost word for word. He recognises his unworthiness to have the Lord come to him, yet has total trust in the power of Christ's word.

The centurion's hopeful faith is an inspiring example for us all to follow. We too recognise our need of healing, and we also long for the life-giving touch of the Lord in our lives. We also share his great trust that Jesus can help us, convinced that his word can heal and renew, recreate and refashion us. Out of our poverty we pray with trust, "Come Lord Jesus."

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Tuesday of Advent, Week 1

1st Reading: Isaiah 11:1-10

They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain

A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.

The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.

His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear; but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness the belt around his loins.

The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder's den.

They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious.

Responsorial: Psalm 71: 1-2, 7-8, 12-13, 17

R./: Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever

O God, give your judgement to the king,
to a king's son your justice,
that he may judge your people in justice
and your poor in right judgement. (R./)

In his days justice shall flourish
and peace till the moon fails.
He shall rule from sea to sea,
from the Great River to the earth's bounds. (R./)

For he shall save the poor when they cry
and the needy who are helpless.
He will have pity on the weak
and save the lives of the poor. (R./)

May his name be blessed for ever
and endure like the sun.
Every tribe shall be blessed in him,
all nations bless his name. (R./)

Gospel: Luke 10:21-24

The humble of heart will know God just as Jesus does

At that same hour Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him."

Then turning to the disciples, Jesus said to them privately, "Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it."

Isaiah announced the work of the Spirit and Jesus rejoiced in it. This Spirit seems fragile and tender. If we judge from these two passages of Isaiah and Luke, the Spirit leads to a scene of paradise where the calf and the young lion shall browse together, with a little child to guide them. Such seeming fairy-tales are hidden from the learned and the clever, and revealed to the merest children.

Not just a fairy-tale

The passage from Isaiah may sound like an innocent fairy-tale, but embedded in it is a tragic truth. The stump of Jesse refers to the mighty dynasty of king David that has been cut down like a tree. Nothing remains but a dry stump and some hidden roots. When this tree was cut down by the Babylonians in 587 B.C. the people were shocked to realise that the dynasty was not really eternal. But had not God assured David: "your house and your kingdom shall endure forever before me; your throne shall stand firm forever" (2 Sam 7:16). What they took as the obvious meaning of these words was not what God intended.

Isaiah knew that God must always be true to his word; hence the dynasty in some way will revive. The spirit of the Lord will rest upon the stump and the roots of Jesse, and the people of God will bloom again. This leads to the almost fairy-tale vision of Isaiah about the Messianic age. Perhaps calves and young lions will never browse together, literally, and surely babies should never be allowed to play beside the cobra's den. Yet the dream of universal peace and gentle trust is so wonderful that not even our fairy-tales adequately measure up to it! Surely faith dreams in these creative ways, for Jesus rejoices in the Holy Spirit and says: "I offer you praise, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because what you have hidden from the learned and the clever you have revealed to the merest children."

Sometimes, after we have done our best, that best must collapse so that God's dreams for us may be fulfilled. At the heart of our existence is a mystery which no one knows except Jesus and the heavenly Father — and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal it. This mystery is Jesus himself, a child stripped of his divinity in order to communicate God to us; and still further, a human being stripped of humanity on the cross of death to reveal the fullness of love. This thought may help in times like ours, when our beloved Church seems diminished and in some disarray.

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Wednesday of Advent, Week 1

1st Reading: Isaiah 25:6-10

"God will wipe away the tears from all faces." -- a Messianic vision of the final age.

On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear. And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations; he will swallow up death forever.

Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. It will be said on that day, Look, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation. For the hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain.

Responsorial: Psalm 22

R./: I shall live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.

The Lord is my shepherd;
there is nothing I shall want.
Fresh and green are the pastures
where he gives me repose.
Near restful waters he leads me,
to revive my drooping spirit. (R./)

He guides me along the right path;
  he is true to his name.
If I should walk in the valley of darkness
  no evil would I fear.
You are there with your crook and your staff;
  with these you give me comfort. (R./)

You have prepared a banquet for me
in the sight of my foes.
My head you have anointed with oil;
my cup is overflowing. (R./)

Surely goodness and kindness shall follow me
all the days of my life.
In the Lord's own house shall I dwell
for ever and ever. (R./)

Gospel: Matthew 15:29-37

Jesus multiplies the loaves and fishes, so that all eat their fill.

After Jesus had left that place, he passed along the Sea of Galilee, and he went up the mountain, where he sat down. Great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the maimed, the blind, the mute, and many others. They put them at his feet, and he cured them, so that the crowd was amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the maimed whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of Israel.

Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said, "I have compassion for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat; and I do not want to send them away hungry, for they might faint on the way." The disciples said to him, "Where are we to get enough bread in the desert to feed so great a crowd?" Jesus asked them, "How many loaves have you?" They said, "Seven, and a few small fish." Then ordering the crowd to sit down on the ground, he took the seven loaves and the fish; and after giving thanks he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And all of them ate and were filled; and they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full.

A Paradise created by the Spirit

Isaiah had a great feeling of hope for the future, when the Messiah would bring in God's new age and the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food. For the early Christians, this vision must have seemed on the verge of fulfilment in the work of Jesus -- and especially in his miracles of feeding the people.

Today's Gospel tells of the feeding of hungry people. We are all too aware of the obscenity of people for whom there has been no miraculous feeding, dying of starvation in our modern, affluent world. Sometimes, of course, there are moments of humane solidarity, when people know that, with good will, we could feed the world. Whatever we give at times like that resembles the loaves and fishes. When people share food and resources with strangers, they recognize our interdependence on one another. People in the poorest of developing countries have a struggle just to survive. It is easy to feel powerless in the face of the sheer scale of what feeding the world would require, and move on to "compassion fatigue" and then to numbed indifference. Like the disciples, we ask, "How can we feed so many, with so little?"

It might horrify the voters in democratic lands to recognise how the economic logic which sustains our way of life dictates that the most powerless are destined to go hungry. Our developed world makes tough trade agreements, creates food mountains and milk-lakes, and diverts financial and human resources into the arms trade rather than to development and education. Even if our leaders and planners are sensible, humane people, they are -- like ourselves -- caught up in the web of unjust expectations which is "the sin of the world."

Mahatma Ghandi once said, "To the poor man, God does not appear except in the form of bread and in the promise of work." The Eucharist renews the wellsprings of our humanity by a story of bread broken and shared for the life of the world. Can we help those who celebrate the Eucharist with us this Sunday to see a link between it and the hunger of the world? Does our parish support some project in the developing world, or can some local people to be enlisted for such a project? "Gather up the fragments so that nothing gets wasted." Global solutions lie beyond the power of our local parish, which is why we need to remember the lesson of the fragments. If we can put a little new heart into our efforts, that will be something worthwhile. If we can become conscious of our wastefulness of world resources, it may be the beginning of repentance.

On the heights

Elevated ground features in both of our readings today. In the first reading, the prophet speaks of a mountain where the Lord invites all to a great banquet. There will rich food and fine wines, and all mourning, sadness and shame will be removed, and even death itself will be destroyed. Here is a vision which lifts us beyond the world as we know it towards another world where all is as God wants it to be.

Jesus goes up the mountainside and large crowds go up there after him. There in the heights of Galilee, Jesus gives speech to the dumb, mobility to the lame, sight to the blind. He goes on to feed the hungry with very limited resources. He feeds them so well that all ate as much as they wanted, and, even then, there were seven baskets full left over. The vision of Isaiah in the first reading becomes something of a reality in the gospel. Both readings speak to us of a God who wants us to have life and to have it to the full. It was Saint Irenaeus who said that the glory of God is the human person fully alive. In the gospel, the Lord needed others to bring the sick to him; he needed the disciples to help him feed the crowd. He continues to need us if his life-giving work is to get done. Advent calls on all of us to be instruments of the Lord's life-giving and healing presence in the world. In Advent we pray, "Come Lord Jesus." We also offer ourselves as channels for the Lord's coming.

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Thursday of Advent, Week 1

1st Reading: Isaiah 26:1-6

A hymn of confidence in the Lord God, our everlasting rock

On that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah: We have a strong city; he sets up victory like walls and bulwarks. Open the gates, so that the righteous nation that keeps faith may enter in. Those of steadfast mind you keep in peace -- in peace because they trust in you.

Trust in the Lord forever, for in the Lord God you have an everlasting rock. For he has brought low the inhabitants of the height; the lofty city he lays low. He lays it low to the ground, casts it to the dust. The foot tramples it, the feet of the poor, the steps of the needy.

Responsorial: Psalm 117: 1, 8-9, 19-21, 25-27

R./: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Give thanks to the Lord for he is good
  for his love has no end.
It is better to take refuge in the Lord
  than to trust in men.
It is better to take refuge in the Lord
  than to trust in princes. (R./)

Open to me the gates of holiness:
  I will enter and give thanks.
This is the Lord's own gate
  where the just may enter
I will thank you for you have given answer
  and you are my saviour. (R./)

O Lord, grant us salvation;
O Lord, grant success.
Blessed in the name of the Lord
is he who comes.
We bless you from the house of the Lord;
the Lord God is our light. (R./)

Gospel: Matthew 7:21, 24-27

Conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount: A wise man builds his house on rock

And Jesus said to them, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.

"Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell -- and great was its fall!"

A mighty fortress

Today's readings make a thought-provoking contrast. In Isaiah it is God who builds our city, setting up its walls and ramparts to protect it; in the Gospel it is we who build our own house solidly, setting it on rock. While Isaiah summons into the new city all who trust in the Lord, Matthew has Jesus promise salvation to the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. The prophetic text emphasises faith while the Gospel stresses action! There is a line in the passage from Isaiah to harmonise these divergent views : "Our Lord is an eternal rock."

Trusting in the Lord is a major part of Isaiah's spirituality. Today he says: Trust in the Lord forever! For the Lord is an eternal rock. The Lord will surround us who have faith as he does the holy city with "walls and ramparts. " And the Lord himself is that city. He is the rock which sustains us. He is the Holy One, enshrined within us. There is a clash of images here! It means that the Lord is behind and before us, around about us and within us, supporting us from beneath, glorifying us from above.

How to storm-proof ourselves

We can identify with the weather image that Jesus uses in today's gospel, "Rains came down, floods rose, gales blew." Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Apart from weather storms, we can also be struck by storms of a different kind no matter where in the world we live. The church has been through quite a storm in recent years, and the effects are still felt. As individuals, we can find ourselves battling against the elements of life, as we struggle in one shape or form, for one reason or another.

Jesus warns that all of us will at some time face the storms of life, and he wants to help us survive them. When the storms come will we find ourselves tossed about helplessly, or will we be able to withstand the storm and move through and beyond it? Jesus wants to be our rock when the storm comes. If we listen to his words and try to act on those words we will remain standing even when storms break around us. Jesus brings us back to basics, the doing of God's will as he has revealed it for us. If we keep on returning to that focal point, the Lord will see to it that we endure, regardless of the strength of the storm.

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Friday of Advent, Week 1

1st Reading: Isaiah 29:17-24

A promise of good times, when deaf shall hear and blind shall see

Shall not Lebanon in a very little while become a fruitful field,
and the fruitful field be regarded as a forest?

On that day the deaf shall hear the words of a scroll,
and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see.

The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord,
and the neediest people shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.

For the tyrant shall be no more, and the scoffer shall cease to be;
all those alert to do evil shall be cut off;

those who cause person to lose a lawsuit,
who set a trap for the arbiter in the gate,
and without grounds deny justice to the one in the right.

Therefore thus says the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob:
No longer shall Jacob be ashamed, no longer shall his face grow pale.

For when he sees his children, the work of my hands, in his midst,
they will sanctify my name; they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob,
and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.
And those who err in spirit will come to understanding,
and those who grumble will accept instruction.

Responsorial: Psalm 26: 1, 4, 13-14

R./: The Lord is my light and my salvation.

The Lord is my light and my help,
whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life;
before whom shall I shrink? (R./)

There is one thing I ask of the Lord,
  for this I long,
to live in the house of the Lord,
  all the days of my life,
to savour the sweetness of the Lord,
  to behold his temple. (R./)

I am sure I shall see the Lord's goodness
in the land of the living.
Hope in him, hold firm and take heart.
Hope in the Lord! (R./)

Gospel: Matthew 9:27-31

Cure of two blind men saved by their faith in Jesus

As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, crying loudly, "Have mercy on us, Son of David!" When he entered the house, the blind men came to him; and Jesus said to them, "Do you believe that I am able to do this?" They said to him, "Yes, Lord." Then he touched their eyes and said, "according to your faith let it be done to you." And their eyes were opened. Then Jesus sternly ordered them, "See that no one knows of this." But they went away and spread the news about him throughout that district.

His Healing touch

Listening to Isaiah today, we may wonder if optimism blinded his common sense, so much does he focus on things that are not here yet. Was he dreaming as he wrote: "The deaf shall hear, the eyes of the blind shall see, the tyrant will be no more, Jacob shall have no longer be ashamed." A similar impression could be made by today's Gospel. Two blind men are cured by Jesus. The cynic will carp about the ninety-eight others who remained blind! And of course, even today as during the miraculous life of Jesus there are many deaf people who do not get back their hearing, many blind who may never see again, many tyrants still ruling on earth, and many upright people who are put to shame. Isaiah held that in "a very little while" all this misery would cease. Yet we are still waiting for this magnificent transformation.

A detail in the Gospel may help to clarify this phrase "a very little while. " Jesus did not cure the two blind men immediately. They followed him at some distance, calling out, "Son of David, have pity on us!" They caught up with him only when he had arrived at the house where he was staying that night. Only then, when Jesus touched their eyes, were they cured. We too must follow Jesus with our desires and hopes — but also with patience. Jesus waited until the two blind men had caught up with him.

He asked them: "Do you trust I can do this?" When they answered, "Yes, Lord!" he reached out and touched their eyes — gently, lovingly, prayerfully. Jesus can help us only when we have faith in his goodness and let him touch us where we are weak and in need. As he touched them, he said, "Because of your faith, it shall be done to you." We must trust that his love will overcome every obstacle. In a true sense love is blind to the obstacles of fear and selfishness. Once Jesus touches us, Isaiah's words begin to come true. In that "very little while" there is an interchange of love and confidence — and we regain our full selves.

Persistence pays

The persistence of the two blind men was remarkable. They don't just come up to Jesus and ask him to heal them. Rather, while Jesus is walking along they follow him shouting, "Take pity on us, Son of David." They kept shouting until Jesus reached the house to which he was going, at which point Jesus turned to them and said, "Do you believe I can do this?" Their shout was, of course, a prayer of petition, an expression of their faith in Jesus. Their answer to Jesus' question was another expression of their faith, "Sir, we do"

The two blind men repeating their petition invites us to keep on praying for what we need. Like the two blind men, we mainly pray when we're deeply in need. Thankfully, most of us have the gift of sight, but we will have spiritual needs in other ways. There can be areas of blindness in our lives that need healing; we all struggle with weakness and disability of one kind or another, ways in which we are broken and vulnerable. The example of the two blind men encourages us to keep turning to the Lord in prayer, even when he appears not to be listening to us. Our prayer of faith will not ultimately go unanswered.

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Saturday of Advent, Week 1

1st Reading: Isaiah 30:19-21, 23-26

Future days of blessed enlightenment, when the people turn aside from idolatry.

Truly, O people in Zion, inhabitants of Jerusalem, you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when he hears it, he will answer you. Though the Lord may give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself any more, but your eyes shall see your Teacher.

And when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left, your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, "this is the way; walk in it." Then you will defile your silver-covered idols and your gold-plated images. You will scatter them like filthy rags; you will say to them, "away with you!"

He will give rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and grain, the produce of the ground, which will be rich and plenteous. On that day your cattle will graze in broad pastures; and the oxen and donkeys that till the ground will eat silage, which has been winnowed with shovel and fork. On every lofty mountain and every high hill there will be brooks running with water -- on a day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. Moreover the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, like the light of seven days, on the day when the Lord binds up the injuries of his people, and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow.

Responsorial: Psalm 146: 1-6

R./: Happy are all who long for the coming of the Lord

Praise the Lord for he is good;
  sing to our God for he is loving:
  to him our praise is due.
The Lord builds up Jerusalem
  and brings back Israel's exiles. (R./)

He heals the broken-hearted,
he binds up all their wounds.
He fixes the number of the stars;
he calls each one by its name. (R./)

Our Lord is great and almighty;
his wisdom can never be measured.
The Lord raises the lowly;
he humbles the wicked in the dust. (R./)

Gospel: Matthew 9:35 -- 10:1; 6-8

Jesus sends his apostles to spread the gospelto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness. Then he summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness.

He told them, "Go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and as you go, proclaim the good news, 'The kingdom of heaven has come near.' Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment.

Binding up wounds

The Isaiah text seems more exciting than the gospel in today's liturgy. The prophet implies the immediate presence of God: "No longer will your Teacher hide himself, but with your own eyes you shall see your Teacher." Jesus' words in the gospel seem more cautious. He sends out the twelve to cure sickness and disease instead of doing these works of mercy himself. And where Isaiah's vision sweeps universally across mountains and hills, across the heavens where "the light of the moon will be like that of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times greater," Jesus seems to confine the apostolate of the twelve to "the lost sheep of the house of Israel."

But Jesus was no less adventurous than the prophet who foretold him. This son of Nazareth had a profound grasp of the Scriptures, especially Isaiah whom he quoted during his inaugural address in the hometown synagogue (Luke 4:16-22). We know from the temptation scene how anxious Jesus was to break loose as soon as possible and to fulfill all the promises. More than anything else, however, he was obedient to the will of his heavenly father. Even now the spirit of Isaiah stirs within the hearts of some of our fellow-disciples, whose generous hearts are prompted to go to foreign lands. Others are drawn to profound prayer and seek a contemplative way of life. Still others will be fired with hopes so adventurous as to seem impractical and unreal, as they see "the light of the moon . . . like that of the sun and the light of the sun . . . seven times greater!"

Although he worked only with the house of Israel, he was continually giving hints and signals of his heart's desire to embrace the world. The adventurous missionaries help to keep alive similar hopes and desires in our hearts. At home we could become very selfish with all our good gifts, were it not for these labourers who go to the harvest areas of the world. "What you have freely received, give as a gift. " This Advent we prepare to celebrate the new birth of Jesus within our families and parishes. May such good gifts close at home make us desire that our great Teacher no longer hide himself but enable everyone to see with their own eyes.

The Gospels rarely mention the emotions of Jesus. But here, when he saw the crowds he had compassion for them because they were harassed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd. "Compassion" is a powerful emotion by which we identify with the situation of others and are moved to action. Jesus' compassion for the crowd expressed itself in two ways in the gospel. He told his disciples to pray to the Lord of the harvest to send workers into his harvest. These harassed and dejected people need workers to journey with them and to lead them. What he did was to appoint some workers himself. He summoned twelve from his disciples and inspirred them to bring his own life-giving presence to others who would not meet him personally.

Where do we find ourselves in that gospel reading? Sometimes we may be among those who are harassed and dejected. If so, the gospel assures us that the Lord is with us in our valley of darkness; he is always drawing near to us in his compassion. At other times we may be among the workers whom the Lord wants to send into his harvest to journey with those who are harassed and dejected. If so, the gospel assures us that in sending us the Lord will also empower us for the work he is asking us to do.

2nd Week of Advent

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Monday of Advent, Week 2

1st Reading: Isaiah 35:1-10

They shall see the glory of the Lord, and the ransomed exiles shall return to Zion

The desert and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God.

Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who are of a fearful heart, "Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God. He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. He will come and save you."

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in the desert, and streams in the desert; the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water; the haunt of jackals shall become a swamp, the grass shall become reeds and rushes.

A highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Holy Way; the unclean shall not travel on it, but it shall be for God's people; no traveler, not even fools, shall go astray. No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it; they shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there. And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Responsorial: Psalm 84: 9-14

R./: Our God will come to save us!

I will hear what the Lord God has to say,
  a voice that speaks of peace,
  peace for his people.
His help is near for those who fear him
  and his glory will dwell in our land. (R./)

Mercy and faithfulness have met;
justice and peace have embraced.
Faithfulness shall spring from the earth
and justice look down from heaven. (R./)

The Lord will make us prosper
and our earth shall yield its fruit.
Justice shall march before him
and peace shall follow his steps (R./)

Gospel: Luke 5:17-26

Jesus heals the paralysed man, showing that he has authority to forgive sins

One day, while he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting near by (they had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem); and the power of the Lord was with him to heal. Just then some men came, carrying a paralyzed man on a bed. They were trying to bring him in and lay him before Jesus; but finding no way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the middle of the crowd in front of Jesus. When he saw their faith, he said, "Friend, your sins are forgiven you. " Then the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, "Who is this who is speaking blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?" When Jesus perceived their questionings, he answered them, "Why do you raise such questions in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven you,' or to say, 'Stand up and walk'? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins" -- he said to the one who was paralyzed -- "I say to you, stand up and take your bed and go to your home. " Immediately he stood up before them, took what he had been lying on, and went to his home, glorifying God. Amazement seized all of them, and they glorified God and were filled with awe, saying, "We have seen strange things today."

Reason to rejoice

Isaiah sees a vision of the Lord's redeemed people streaming back from exile, across a desert now flowing with fresh water; and the front of this triumphant procession is already entering Zion, the Holy City. In the Gospel by contrast, Jesus is embroiled in a petty theological argument. We do not know what he was discussing, surrounded by a large group of people as well as by Pharisees and teachers of the law. Clearly confusion and consternation set in when several men made an opening in the roof and lowered a paralytic with his mat into the middle of the crowd. Our Lord abruptly stopped the discussion but stirred up an even hotter debate when he said to the paralytic: "My friend, your sins are forgiven you."

For Jesus, the forgiveness of sin was linked with total concern for the other person. To show the full implication of spiritual transformation, he cured the paralytic who then "stood erect . . . picked up the mat he had been lying on and went home praising God. " We realize as well that the sacrament of reconciliation ought not to be confined exclusively to forgiving sins, but should extend into a dialogue for reconciling the penitent with neighbour and with all aspects of life.

The Church's apostolate cannot be faithful to Jesus if it is confined to people's souls alone. To forgive sins requires that we be anxious to help the other person in all areas of his life. It requires that the Church take seriously the social sins of today's world and work vigorously to remedy social injustices. We too must be instruments of love, so that our kindliness toward the physical and material needs of others will induce a charity strong enough to burn away sin. The removal of sin ought to have repercussions across the total lives of others. Sometimes we may first address the sins and faults, at other times it will be more sensible to care first for the physical needs of others, always concerned for their full human dignity.

Bypassing obstacles

Very often in life we come across barriers of one kind or another that we have to negotiate. We set ourselves a worthwhile goal and problems stand in our way. When we head in a particular direction we discover the obstacles that can block our way. The temptation is often to lose heart, to give up or to turn back. In today's gospel, the friends of a paralysed man wanted to get their friend to Jesus but they found that other people were blocking their way; they encountered a significant obstacle or barrier. Rather than give up or turn back, they found a way around the barrier, climbing up onto a roof with their friend and letting him down through the tiles before Jesus. Jesus was very taken by their faith, their persistent faith. Here was a little community of faith, the paralytic and his friends, who kept their focus on the Lord and on journeying towards him, in spite of the obstacles and setbacks they encountered along the way. In many ways this little community of faith can be an inspiration for us this Advent season when we are called to keep journeying towards the Lord, to keep our focus on him, in spite of whatever may be at work in our lives to keep us from the Lord. Jesus surprised them all by first saying to the man, "Your sins are forgiven." The paralytic needed spiritual as well as physical healing and his spiritual healing took priority. As we keep our focus on the Lord this Advent, we look to him for our own spiritual healing.

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Tuesday of Advent, Week 2

1st Reading: Isaiah 40:1-11

Comfort ye my people! -- the promised return of the exiles from Babylon.

"Comfort, O comfort my people," says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins.

A voice cries out: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken."

A voice says, "Cry out!" And I said, "What shall I cry?" All people are grass, their constancy is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever.

Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift it up, do not fear; say to the cities of Judah, "Here is your God!" See, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him; his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep.

Responsorial: Psalm 95:1-3, 10-13

R./: The Lord our God comes in strength.

O sing a new song to the Lord,
sing to the Lord all the earth.
O sing to the Lord, bless his name.
Proclaim his help day by day. (R./)

Tell among the nations his glory
and his wonders among all the peoples.
Proclaim to the nations: 'God is king.'
He will judge the peoples in fairness. (R./)

Let the heavens rejoice and earth be glad,
  let the sea and all within it thunder praise,
let the land and all it bears rejoice,
  all the trees of the world shout for joy
at the presence of the Lord for he comes,
  he comes to rule the earth. (R./)

With justice he will rule the world,
he will judge the peoples with his truth. (R./)

Gospel: Matthew 18:12-14

The shepherd rejoices to find the lost sheep.

Jesus said to his disciples, "What do you think? If a shepherd has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. So it is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost."

And now I'm found

I once was lost, And now I'm found. There is a hidden depth in each one of us which, when it is found by God, our Good Shepherd, will become God's instrument for transforming our existence. We will have joybecause the ninety-nine percent of ourselves will be transformed by this one percent. The lost sheep is that buried, secluded or forgotten part within each of us.
A good example of the lost sheep is seen in the prophet-author of Second Isaiah, telling of his prophetic call that originated in God's heavenly throne room. God calls to the many celestial beings around his throne: "Comfort, O comfort my people!" One after another these angelic creatures shout, as it were, to the earth below:

A prophet of mighty ability replied with the question: "What shall I cry out?" and then began a prophetic career leading to the composition of the most golden poetry in the Bible. Yet, for the prophet himself, the people's return to their homeland, away from the Babylonian exile, turned out to be a way toward rejection and oblivion. His name was forgotten and his exquisite poetry simply added to the scroll of the earlier prophet Isaiah. He was like the lost sheep waiting to be found by the Lord.

Jesus and his first disciples turned to this prophecy. Through it they could see John the Baptist as preparing the way of the Lord, and it helped the disciples find peace after their Master's death by execution, as they read passages like chapter 42 and chapter 53. We look forward to Christmas when Jesus steps anew into our lives to uncover hidden meanings, talents and hopes that can turn our lives around.

Going after the lost sheep could seem a disproportionate or foolish. The shepherd leaves ninety-nine sheep on the hillside while he searches for the one stubborn sheep who has rambled off and is lost. He leaves the main flock defenceless to go looking for the stray. He risks losing the ninety-nine for the sake of the one. The shepherd's attitude is the opposite to that of the high priest Caiaphas who said, "It is better for one man to die for the people than to have the whole nation perish." For Caiaphas, one man's death was needed, so as not to risk the peace of the nation. One individual is expendable for the sake of the many.

The shepherd in the parable certainly was not of that view. He was an image of God, and indeed of Jesus himself. God in Jesus is concerned about the one that went astray. The Lord values each one of us and calls each of us by name. Not a single one of us is discarded by God. The parable invites us to value each other just as the Lord values each of us.

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Wednesday of Advent, Week 2

1st Reading: Isaiah 40:25-31

Encouragement for the weary people, from God, who strengthens the powerless

To whom then will you compare me, or who is my equal? says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and see: Who created these? He who brings out their host and numbers them, calling them all by name; because he is great in strength, mighty in power, not one is missing.

Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, "My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God." Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. Even young men will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.

Responsorial: Psalm 102:1-4, 8, 10

R./: O bless the Lord, my soul.

My soul, give thanks to the Lord,
all my being, bless his holy name.
My soul, give thanks to the Lord
and never forget all his blessings. (R./)

It is he who forgives all your guilt,
who heals every one of your ills,
who redeems your life from the grave,
who crowns you with love and compassion. (R./)

The Lord is compassion and love,
slow to anger and rich in mercy.
He does not treat us, according to our sins;
nor repay us according to our faults. (R./)

Gospel: Matthew 11:28-30

Jesus' yoke is easy and his burden is light

Jesus said to his disciples, "Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

Helper of the weary

The great anonymous prophet of the Babylonian exile (Second Isaiah), was summoned by God to comfort and strengthen the people, whose memories were haunted by the destruction of their holy city, Jerusalem. Their family bonds as well as their familiar ways of life had been shattered. The prophet imagined them saying: "My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God." As we read yesterday, God summoned Isaiah to comfort these desolate people and to announce their return to their own land along the way of the Lord. In response to God's inspiration, he composed the melodious, richly theological poems in chapters 40-55. As he comforted the people, he stirred their hopes.

Whenever we show trust in people, we strengthen them and so make their burden light. If we sense that someone has great hopes in us — not just in what we can do for them but rather in us — we are complimented and buoyed up, almost enabled to soar with eagle's wings!

When we truly trust other people and are bonded with them in love, it adds zest to life and lessens the danger of monotony. Then we who are weary will be refreshed. To take this burden upon ourselves in imitation of Jesus, actually refreshes us. It is always a transforming experience to undertake a great work with someone who is gentle and humble of heart. Then his word comes true for us, "My yoke is easy and my burden light."

There is a close correspondence between the image of God in the first reading and that of Jesus in the gospel. In Isaiah God is the one who never grows weary and can always help the wearied and strengthen the weak. In turn, Jesus can claim to give rest to those who are weary and overburdened. So he calls all those whose lives are hard to come to him. The message of both readings fits so perfectly with the emphasis on mercy so dear to our pope Francis.

We are the members of the Lord's body in the world today. It is through us that the Lord's promise to the tired and weary, to the powerless and the burdened, is made real. Our Christian calling is to work with Jesus to bring his great promise to reality. Through our care and compassion others can experience the Lord who is always there to bring strength to the weary. To help us keep going in the ministry of mercy, we need to draw strength from the Christ himself. Isaiah notes how even "young men may grow tired and weary; youths may stumble." We too can easily grow weary of doing good in our efforts to serve others. But we take heart from the promise that "those who hope in the Lord renew their strength." We need to draw on the Lord's strength, to be able to continue serving our neighbours. It is our trust in the Lord that prompts us to be generous in our service. Now is the time to ask the Lord to renew our active love, so that we can be channels of grace and care to others, and help them through the Winter.

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Thursday of Advent, Week 2

1st Reading: Isaiah 41:13-20

The Lord says to his weary people, "Do not fear, for I will help you"

For I, the Lord your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, "Do not fear, for I will help you." Do not fear, you worm Jacob, you insect Israel! I will help you, says the Lord; your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel. Now, I will make of you a threshing sledge, sharp, new, and having teeth; you shall thresh the mountains and crush them, and you shall make the hills like chaff. You shall winnow them and the wind shall carry them away, and the tempest shall scatter them. Then you shall rejoice in the Lord; in the Holy One of Israel you shall glory.

When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue is parched with thirst, I the Lord will answer them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them. I will open rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the midst of the valleys; I will make the desert a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. I will put in the desert the cedar, the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive; I will set in the desert the cypress, the plane and the pine together, so that all may see and know, all may consider and understand, that the hand of the Lord has done this, the Holy One of Israel has created it.

Responsorial: Psalm 144:1, 9-13

R./: The Lord is kind and merciful; slow to anger, and rich in compassion.

I will give you glory, O God my King,
I will bless your name for ever.
How good is the Lord to all,
compassionate to all his creatures. (R./)

All your creatures shall thank you, O Lord,
and your friends shall repeat their blessing.
They shall speak of the glory of your reign
and declare your might, (R./)

O God to make known to men your mighty deeds
and the glorious splendour of your reign.
Yours is an everlasting kingdom;
your rule lasts from age to age. (R./)

Gospel: Matthew 11:7-15

John the Baptist was great, but those in the kingdom are greater still

As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John: "What did you go out into the desert to look at? A reed shaken by the wind? What then did you go out to see? Someone dressed in soft robes? Look, those who wear soft robes are in royal palaces. What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written, 'See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.' Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John came; and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come. Let anyone with ears listen!"

John the Baptist, an ascetical prophet

John's disciples came to Jesus with a question. From his prison he sent two of them to ask, "re you he who is to come, or must we look for another?" Jesus points them to what they had heard and seen him do, miracles of grace which clearly indicated that he was the awaited Messiah, the Christ. After they had left he gave the testimony about John that we have just read, and it is high praise indeed.

What Jesus said about John was intended not only to praise him, but for the people's profit, to revive their memory of John's ministry, which had been well attended, but which was in danger of being forgotten. He reminded them of John's merits "What did you go out into the desert to see?" John had preached in the desert, and despite the inconvenient location the people flocked in crowds to him. If his preaching was worth taking such trouble to hear it, surely it was worth taking some care to recollect it. Jesus puts it to them, "What did ye go out to see?" He notes how John was a firm, resolute man, not a reed shaken with the wind — who would bow to pressure. He was not wavering in his principles but was remarkable for his steadiness in face of Herod's rage.

John was an ascetical, self-denying man, who cared little for wealth or luxury. Was he a man clothed in soft garments? If so, the crowds would not have gone out into the desert to see him, but gone to the royal court to admire the latest fashions. What they wanted to see was a man clothed in camel's hair, with a leather belt about his loins, living a lifestyle in tune with his desert environment.

The stark doctrine he preached there was about the need for repentance. A genuine preacher must not look like a fashionable celebrity. John's appearance was rough and simple, but his message had vigour and that's why people flocked to hear him.

This man was a prophet, Jesus said, "and more than a prophet". John knew that he himself was not the expected Messiah; but Jesus declared that John was more than a prophet. He was the great forerunner who prepared people's hearts to receive the Good News of salvation. John saw Jesus' day coming like the day dawning, when he pointed to him and said, ‘Behold the Lamb of God!'

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Friday of Advent, Week 2

1st Reading: Isaiah 48:17-19

If you kept my commandments, your name would last forever

Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: "I am the Lord your God, who teaches you for your own good, who leads you in the way you should go. O that you had paid attention to my commandments! Then your prosperity would have been like a river, and your success like the waves of the sea; your offspring would have been like the sand, and your descendants like its grains; their name would never be cut off or destroyed from before me."

Responsorial: Psalm 1:1-4, 6

R./: Those who follow you, Lord, will have the light of life.

Happy indeed is the man who follows not the counsel of the wicked;
  nor lingers in the way of sinners
  nor sits in the company of scorners,
but who delight is the law of the Lord
  and who ponders his law day and night. (R./)

He is like a tree that is planted beside the flowing waters,
that yields its fruit in due season
and whose leaves shall never fade;
and all that he does shall prosper. (R./)

Not so are the wicked, not so!
For they like winnowed chaff
shall be driven away by the wind.
For the Lord guards the way of the just
but the way of the wicked leads to doom. (R./)

Gospel: Matthew 11:16-19

Foolish people listened neither to the Baptist nor to Jesus

Jesus said to his disciples, "To what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another, 'We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.' For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a demon'; the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!' Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds."

Welcoming the diversity of talents in the Church

Each person tends to opt for some kind of lifestyle among various possibilities, since God created each of us with a distinctive personality, special preferences, individualized vocations. Because we tend to become overly specialized with strong likes and dislikes, we badly need others to complement what we are lacking. St. Paul even went so far as to say that each of us must fill up what is lacking in the body of Christ! Yet we tend to resist this advice; we do not want to admit our weaknesses. We even become defensive and then aggressive if others detect our inability to perform or control.

Our ability to cure what is with us is suggested by Jesus' words. He quoted a proverb to the effect that we need joyful people who readily dance and compassionate people who readily sympathize. Yet every initiative can be spurned and ridiculed: "We piped you a tune but you did not dance! We sang you a dirge but you did not wail!" Jesus was leading up to this punchline: John the Baptist was seen neither eating nor drinking, and people say, "He is mad!" The Son of Man was seen eating and drinking, and they say, "He is a glutton and a drunkard, a lover of tax collectors and those outside the law!" Many practical conclusions can be drawn from these words, but most of all he is pleading with us to give the other person a chance. We must not judge harshly nor condemn too quickly. Others have every right to that which God provides so plentifully and so freely, namely time.

If we remain united in love, we will be long in patience and slow with judgment. We will persevere through all difficulties and give everyone the necessary time and space to grow and to make his contribution. We will feel a serious need for the help and contribution of others, all the more as we develop our own specialized talents. Only through others will we be truly balanced and integral in our values and attitude.

Dances and dirges

Jesus was a keen observer of people of all ages. He loved to speak about the kingdom of God using practical images drawn from daily life. Today we find him drawing on his observation of children at play in the market square. Sometimes their play simply reflects the joy of life. They happily pretend to play pipes while other children dance to the music. At other times their games reflect the sorrows of life, perhaps what they had seen at the death of an elderly neighbour. Some of them sang dirges while the other children would mourn and wail in response. But some children refused to join in any game; they wouldn't dance when the pipes were played and they wouldn't mourn when dirges were sung.

The unresponsive children reminded Jesus of some dour, unresponsive adults round about him. They would neither mourn in response to the grim message of John the Baptist nor dance in response to Jesus' more joyful message. They dismissed John as possessed and Jesus as a glutton and a drunkard. It is interesting how Our Lord identifies his own ministry with the piper and the dance. His life and his message are good news, the good news of God's love for us all; he plays a joyful tune. We are called to move in unison with the music of Jesus, the music of his Spirit in our lives. We try to attune ourselves to the Lord's rhythm and melody and allow it to shape all that we say and do. That is our Advent calling in preparation for our celebration of the birth of Jesus.

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Saturday of Advent, Week 2

1st Reading: Sirach 48:1-4, 9-11

Lyrical praise of Elijah, whose prophetic word burned like a torch

Then Elijah arose, a prophet like fire,
and his word burned like a torch.
He brought a famine upon them,
and by his zeal he made them few in number.

By the word of the Lord he shut up the heavens,
and also three times brought down fire.
How glorious you were, Elijah, in your wondrous deeds!
Whose glory is equal to yours?
You were taken up by a whirlwind of fire,
in a chariot with horses of fire.

At the appointed time, it is written, you are destined
to calm the wrath of God before it breaks out in fury,
to turn the hearts of parents to their children,
and to restore the tribes of Jacob. Happy are those who saw you
and were adorned with your love!
For we also shall surely live.

Responsorial: Psalm 79:2-3, 15-16, 18-19

R./: Lord, make us turn to you, let us see your face and we shall be saved.

O Shepherd of Israel, hear us,
  shine forth from your cherubim throne.
O Lord, rouse up your might,
  O Lord, come to our help. (R./)
.
God of hosts, turn again, we implore,
  look down from heaven and see.
Visit this vine and protect it,
  the vine your right hand has planted. (R./)

May your hand be on the man you have chosen,
    the man you have given your strength.
And we shall never forsake you again:
    give us life that we may call upon your name. (R./)

Gospel: Matthew 17:10-13

John the Baptist was the Elijah the fore-runner of the Messiah

As they were coming down the mountain, the disciples asked Jesus, "Why, then, do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?" He replied, "Elijah is indeed coming and will restore all things; but I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but they did to him whatever they pleased. So also the Son of Man is about to suffer at their hands." Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them about John the Baptist.

Elijah's great legacy

Elijah certainly caught the imagination of the Jews, because he was taken up from earth in a whirlwind (2 Kgs 2:11); and Jewish tradition expected his return to preach repentance and renewal before the great messianic age would dawn. While John the Baptist imaged the more austere and stern aspects of Elijah, Jesus also saw himself in the role of Elijah, but rather as the persecuted prophet who ushers in the day of the Lord. As tradition was handed on in biblical times, it tended to absorb the aspirations and hopes of each generation. Elijah came to symbolize the longed-for transformation of Israel through God's exceptional intervention.

Today's text from Sirach sees Elijah's greatest legacy as reestablishing unity within the families and tribes of Israel. But unity was and is a most difficult goal to achieve. If a serious division sets in between members of the same nation or family, it seems impossible to restore any kind of peaceful agreement. When religious groups split from one another, we end up with the scandal of division within Christianity, not to mention the violent differences now seething in the Middle East.

Both Jesus and the Baptist encountered fierce opposition. Because John Baptist confronted king Herod for his immoral union with his brother's wife, he was eventually beheaded. Because Jesus strove for dignity and acceptance for people considered outlaws by religious leaders he too was hounded by opposition. Both the Baptist and Jesus stood for common decency and normal human dignity. They worked for unity, and paid for it with the price of their lives.

Jesus identifies John the Baptist as the successor of Elijah, whose return was to usher in the long awaited Messiah. Jesus says of the Elijah-type figure, John the Baptist, that "they did not recognize him, but treated him as they pleased." The experience of the Baptist would become the experience of Jesus himself, as Jesus says in that reading, "the Son of Man will suffer similarly at their hands." Both John and Jesus proclaimed the values of God's kingdom and both of them suffered greatly for doing so. Even as we draw nearer to celebrating the birth of Jesus we are being reminded of the cross that awaited this child. There is a painting of the birth of Jesus that especially impresses me. At the bottom of the painting there is an image of the adult Christ under the beam of the cross looking upon the baby. At Christmas we celebrate the good news that God so loved the world that he gave his only Son. Today's gospel reminds us that God's giving was a giving-unto-death, a giving that cost not less than everything.

At this time of the year, we pray for this generosity, so that we can give to others what God has given to us.

3rd Week of Advent

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Monday of Advent, Week 3

1st Reading: Numbers 24:2-7, 15-17

Balaam predicts the glorious future, the Age of the Messiah

Balaam looked up and saw Israel camping tribe by tribe. Then the spirit of God came upon him, and he uttered his oracle, saying: "The oracle of Balaam son of Beor, the oracle of the man whose eye is clear, the oracle of one who hears the words of God, who sees the vision of the Almighty, who falls down, but with eyes uncovered: how fair are your tents, O Jacob, your encampments, O Israel! Like palm-groves that stretch far away, like gardens beside a river, like aloes that the Lord has planted, like cedar trees beside the waters. Water shall flow from his buckets, and his seed shall have abundant water, his king shall be higher than Agag, and his kingdom shall be exalted.

So he uttered his oracle, saying: "The oracle of Balaam son of Beor, the oracle of the man whose eye is clear, the oracle of one who hears the words of God, and knows the knowledge of the Most High, who sees the vision of the Almighty, who falls down, but with his eyes uncovered: I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near -- a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel; it shall crush the borderlands of Moab, and the territory of all the Shethites."

Gospel: Matthew 21:23-27

When they challenge his authority, Jesus points to John's spiritual authority

When he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching, and said, "By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?" Jesus said to them, "I will also ask you one question; if you tell me the answer, then I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?" And they argued with one another, "If we say, 'From heaven,' he will say to us, 'Why then did you not believe him?' But if we say, 'Of human origin,' we are afraid of the crowd; for all regard John as a prophet." So they answered Jesus, "We do not know." And he said to them, "neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things."

The truth spoken by Balaam's ass

We must be honest with ourselves, with others and with God who is over all. We cannot forever dodge the truth, and bluff our way along. In the case of Balaam, a foreign prophet was hired by Balak, king of Moab, to curse Israel. Yet the messengers of the king of Moab could not induce him to act against the Lord's will. Balaam replied: "Even if Balak gave me his house full of silver and gold, I could not act contrary to the command of the Lord, my God. But wait until I learn what else the Lord may tell me (Num 22:18-19).

Clearly Balaam hoped for guidance from the Lord that would be agreeable to the king. "Wait overnight," he says, "and maybe tomorrow I will learn something else from the Lord!" The story now takes a turn of grim humor. Because Balaam deludes himself with the hope that the Lord might change the message to one more congenial to the king, the donkey on which he was riding went off the road and talked back to its master. When Balaam tries to beat the donkey into submission, the animal answers back: "Am I not your own beast, and have you not always ridden upon me until now?"

The implication is: animals are more docile than humans to the will of God. Where animals respond instinctively to life, people will twist and turn to deny or avoid the obvious. In the last resort we may refuse to answer. Such was the case of the religious leaders in Jesus' day. When they challenged Jesus' authority to heal and to teach, Jesus replied: I too will ask a question [of you]. If you answer it for me, then I will tell you on what authority I do the things I do. What was the origin of John's baptism? Was it divine or merely human?

The leaders feared the people's wrath and would not dare to say that John the Baptist was a fake. Yet under no condition were they willing to agree that John who pointed to Jesus as the promised one could ever have spoken with divine authority. So their reply to Jesus was: We do not know. But if people from all ways of life persistently called John a prophet and remained loyal to him even when it was politically dangerous because of Herod the Tetrarch, then the odds are highly in favour of John that he was a genuine prophet and spoke with divine authority. Common sense and a strong consensus among many good people cannot be denied without denying God, their creator, nor can anyone remain passive or neutral when such a person as John speaks in the name of God.

Sophisticated people, or indeed most of us in areas of life where we may feel educated and secure, will continually be challenged by common folk who speak the honest-to-God truth. Unless we listen to them and seek the truth, Jesus will say to us: "Neither will I tell you on what authority I do the things I do." Lord, grant us an open heart to listen and a willing spirit to respond to you.

"God's House"

The question asked of Jesus in today's Gospel follows from his cleansing of the Temple in Jerusalem, "What authority have you for acting like this?" The religious leders claimed authority over the Temple and they certainly had not given Jesus permission to do what he did, driving out all who were selling and buying in the Temple, overturning their work-tables and spoiling their business. He did not give a direct answer to the question about his authority to do this, but the attentive reader of the gospel knows the source of his authority. From before his birth Jesus was called Emmanuel, "God-with-us."

Because Jesus is God-with-us, he has the right to say how God's Temple should be run. He knew that it was not being run with due faith and reverence.

As we are draw closer to the birthday of our Emmanuel, he shows us how to honour God properly and helps us by pouring the Holy Spirit into our hearts.

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Tuesday of Advent, Week 3

1st Reading: Zephaniah 3:1-2, 9-13

The people's future conversion: the humble shall seek refuge in the Lord.

Ah, soiled, defiled, oppressing city! It has listened to no voice; it has accepted no correction. It has not trusted in the Lord; it has not drawn near to its God. At that time I will change the speech of the peoples to a pure speech, that all of them may call on the name of the Lord and serve him with one accord.

From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia my suppliants, my scattered ones, shall bring my offering. On that day you shall not be put to shame because of all the deeds by which you have rebelled against me; for then I will remove from your midst your proudly exultant ones, and you shall no longer be haughty in my holy mountain.

For I will leave in the midst of you a people humble and lowly. They shall seek refuge in the name of the Lord -- the remnant of Israel; they shall do no wrong and utter no lies, nor shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouths. Then they will pasture and lie down, and no one shall make them afraid.

Responsorial ---

Gospel: Matthew 21:28-32

Parable about two sons: one refuses but obeys; one agrees but disobeys.

Jesus said to them, "What do you think? A man had two sons; he went to the first and said, 'Son, go and work in the vineyard today.' He answered, 'I will not'; but later he changed his mind and went. The father went to the second and said the same; and he answered, 'I go, sir'; but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?" They said, "The first." Jesus said to them, "Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him; and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him.

Respecting non-conformists

The prophet alludes to the deeper level of our existence, where we exist simply as God's creatures. Every human being starts in mother's womb, somehow made in God's image. Our en-souled flesh-and-blood humanity we share with others, whether they be religious or not. Their human nature deserves our respect. The prophet sees human dignity in "a people humble and lowly," and reflects that our very humility attracts God's tender compassion. Therefore he sees great potential in the reduced remnant that survived the exile. "They shall do no wrong and speak no lies; Nor shall there be found in their mouths a deceitful tongue."
Jesus made it his special ministry to reconcile and respect tax collectors and prostitutes, shamed people in the eyes of official religious leaders. Provocatively, he told the parable about a man with two sons, one of whom was outwardly pious and always said and did the right thing. The comparison with the religious authorities was too clear to need further elaboration. The other son was headstrong, disobedient and self-willed, the kind of character whose instinctive reply to authority is a quick "No!" before taking time to think. He was like the tax collectors and the prostitutes whose lives were quite disorderly, at first sight. And yet many of them repented and humbly listened to John the Baptist, who respected them as people whose shame could be lifted and whose dignity could be restored.

What of ourselves? Do we help people keep their dignity or do we prefer reminding them of their faults? The infant Christ recalls our basic humanity as created by God. He requires of his followers to give each person a chance to be truly who he or she is, respecting them as God's image as truly as we ourselves are. Respecting the dignity of others will not wlways be easy. We might suffer the same slur as did Jesus, for being "a friend of tax collectors and prostitutes." Jesus took that slur in his stride, but he suffered for it. We too could be blamed for allowing people a second chance, letting them be our friends, with every right to "call upon the name of the Lord."

People who keep their word

We value people who keep their word to us. We appreciate those who are true to the promises that they make to us. The Lord also appreciates our efforts to be true to the promises we make to him. In the parable Jesus speaks in the gospel today, one of the sons of the father did not keep the promise he made to him. He promised to work in the vineyard but did not. He was not a man of his word. The other son went in the opposite direction; he initially said no but then thought better of it and did what was asked of him. We probably appreciate that quality in people too, the capacity to reflect on an initial decision and to have a change of mind, a change of heart, for the better. The Lord appreciates that same quality in us, the openness to a change of mind and heart for the better. When the Lord calls and we say no, he does not take that initial refusal as definitive, but is ready to wait on our change of mind and heart. The Lord gives us time to think better of our initial response to him. Having moved from a no to a yes, he looks to us to be faithful to our yes. He looks to us to keep our word, to allow our promise to him to shape what we do, how we live.

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Wednesday of Advent, Week 3

1st Reading: Isaiah 45:6-8

The living God, creator of all, than whome there is no other

They shall know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is no one besides me; I am the Lord, and there is no other. I form light and create darkness, I make weal and create woe; I the Lord do all these things. Shower, O heavens, from above, and let the skies rain down righteousness; let the earth open, that salvation may spring up, and let it cause righteousness to sprout up also; I the Lord have created it.

For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens (he is God!), who formed the earth and made it (he established it; he did not create it a chaos, he formed it to be inhabited!): I am the Lord, and there is no other. Declare and present your case; let them take counsel together! Who told this long ago? Who declared it of old? Was it not I, the Lord? There is no other god besides me, a righteous God and a Saviour; there is no one besides me.

Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. By myself I have sworn, from my mouth has gone forth in righteousness a word that shall not return: "To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear." Only in the Lord, it shall be said of me, are righteousness and strength; all who were incensed against him shall come to him and be ashamed. In the Lord all the offspring of Israel shall triumph and glory.

Responsorial ---

Gospel: Luke 7:18-23

Jesus' healing ministry shows him as the One who is to come

The disciples of John reported all these things to him. So John summoned two of his disciples and sent them to the Lord to ask, "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?" When the men had come to him, they said, "John the Baptist has sent us to you to ask, 'Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?'" Jesus had just then cured many people of diseases, plagues, and evil spirits, and had given sight to many who were blind. And he answered them, "Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me."

God's saving power

According to Isaiah, the Lord creates both light and darkness, well-being and woe. These contrary forces meet in another way in the Gospel. John the Baptist, already imprisoned by Herod Antipas and surrounded by darkness and woe, sends messengers to Jesus. The question John asks show the darkness and quandary he felt, "Are you He who is come or are we to expect someone else?" Jesus' reply brings light to John, even in his dark dungeon: "Go and report. . . The blind recover their sight, cripples walk, lepers are cured, the deaf hear, dead people are raised to life, and the poor have the good news preached to them." The Baptist will know that Jesus is the promised one, because of his healing works. Yet these marvelous acts of compassion were denied to John himself, who stayed in prison, soon to be executed because of the scheming revenge of Herodias and the weakness of the Tetrarch.

We too are invited to believe in Jesus as the Lord of life and death, present in both strength and weakness. But being true to him requires a strong faith. When we enjoy prosperity we may easily forget the presence of God. Similarly, amid pain and disappointment we can be embittered and rebel against God. If we are sick, we should believe that Jesus has power to cure us, even should he not do so, just as he left John the Baptist in prison. If we enjoy good health, we must see it as God's gift to be shared and spent for others.

No human reasoning can explain why God creates and directs darkness and woe equally as much as he forms light and well-being. We can investigate the universe without finding an adequate clue to this mystery. It's impossible for us to comprehend God's decisions. The prophet of the Babylonian exile who wrote today's first reading ridicules those who pretend to advise God and to understand his ways. He asks them: "Who has held in a measure the dust of the earth, weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance?" Faced with mystery, the prophet believes that God must have an answer, so sublime that none of us can comprehend it.. The moments of darkness and woe are as much God's creation as the cycle of day and night in which we live.

Must be wait for someone else?

John the Baptist, from his prison cell, sends some friends to Jesus to ask him, "Are you the one who is to come, or must we wait for someone else?" It seems that, sitting in his prison cell, John was beginning to have doubts about Jesus. John had announced that Jesus would be a fiery prophet of judgment, with his winnowing fork in his hand, gathering the wheat into the granary and burning the chaff with unquenchable fire. Jesus had not turned out quite like that. In his opening homily, according to Luke, Jesus declares that he has come to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.

Indeed Jesus was the visitor from on high, the visitor from God, and his work was to reveal the hospitable love of God for all. He turned out to be less judgemental and more hospitable that John had expected, for Jesus' coming was good news, an occasion of joy, especially for those who were broken and battered in body or mind or spirit. When we come before the Lord in our brokenness, in our poverty, in our weakness and need, we will always experience his presence as healing and life-giving and renewing. That is good news for the church, especially in these times.

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Thursday of Advent, Week 3

1st Reading: Genesis 49:2, 8-10

The dying Jacob predicts future glory for the tribe of Judah

Jacob called his sons and said to them:
"Assemble and hear, O sons of Jacob;
listen to Israel your father.
Judah, your brothers shall praise you;
your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;
your father's sons shall bow down before you.

Judah is a lion's whelp;
from the prey, my son, you have gone up.
He crouches down, he stretches out like a lion,
like a lioness -- who dares rouse him up?
The scepter shall not depart from Judah,
nor the ruler's staff from between his feet,
until tribute comes to him;
and the obedience of the peoples is his."

Responsorial ---

Gospel: Matthew 1:1-17

Genealogy of Jesus, back to Abraham

An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham: Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Aram, and Aram the father of Aminadab, and Aminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of King David.

David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph, and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.

After the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Salathiel, and Salathiel the father of Zerubbabel, and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah.

So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations; and from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah, fourteen generations.

Of David's Royal Blood

Matthew poses some questions about Jesus: Where has he come from? What is he here for? And ultimately, who is he, in relation to God and to mankind? His account opens with the genealogy, an ingenious reconstruction, based on a close reading of the Old Testament, to situate Jesus four-square at the heart of Israel's lineage. That it is an artistic, literary construct rather than a soberly factual genealogy, is strongly hinted by dividing the list neatly into three sets of fourteen generations -- one set, from the Founding Father (Abraham) to the heights of royal splendour (David, a man after God's heart); then one from the royal heights to the bitter depths of the Babylonian Captivity; finally, and this time with less guidance from the Old Testament, tracing his lineage from the Captivity down to Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born.

While the mainline genealogy is counted from father to son, on the way, Matthew mentions some surprising women who were unexpectedly incorporated into the Messiah's lineage: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and the wife of Uriah (Bathsheba) -- all of whom prepare the reader for the ultimate surprise: Joseph is not really Jesus' father at all, since Mary has conceived him by the power of the Holy Spirit. Where has he come from, then? Ultimately, and miraculously, from God; though also from Abraham and David, by indirect family links. Later, Matthew will answer his own other significant questions: What is he here for? And who is he? with one single phrase: Jesus is Emmanuel or God with us.

Family background

Today we have perhaps the strangest gospel reading of the whole liturgical year. We might ask, "Why did the evangelist Matthew bother with that long list of forty two names?" But it was clearly important to communicate some sense of Jesus' family tree. There is an increasing interest in family trees in recent times. More and more people want to know their own background. "Who are the people who have helped to make me the person I am?" Each of us is very aware that the story of our ancestors is an important part of our own story. It is that part of our story which is below ground, like the roots of a tree. Matthew was very aware that the story of Jesus' ancestors was an important chapter in Jesus' own story. Jesus had parents, grandparents, great grandparents. Some of the people that Matthew mentions as part of Jesus' family tree were anything but saints. All shades of human nature were to be found there. Yet, God brought the Saviour of the world out of that very imperfect succession of people. There is hope in that realization, especially in these difficult days for the church. The Lord continues to bring good out of experiences that are tainted by sin and human failure. We need to keep on trusting that the Lord is always at work, even in situations that seem on the surface to be very unpromising.

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Friday of Advent, Week 3

1st Reading: Jeremiah 23:5-8

A righteous Branch who will rule with wisdom and justice

"The days are surely coming," says the Lord, "when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. And this is the name by which he will be called: "The Lord is our righteousness."

"Therefore, the days are surely coming," says the Lord, "when it shall no longer be said, "as the Lord lives who brought the people of Israel up out of the land of Egypt," but "As the Lord lives who brought out and led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the land of the north and out of all the lands where he had driven them." Then they shall live in their own land."

Responsorial ---

Gospel: Matthew 1:18-25

Joseph is told of the conception of Jesus, who will save his people from their sins

All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: "Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel," which means, "God is with us." When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.

An Ongoing Mission

God willed that His own eternal Son would be the Saviour of the entire human race. In the lavish language of Jeremiah, we hear about him as the "Righteous Branch will be raised up from David's descendants, and that through him his people will be saved and live in safety. In the Gospel, Jesus is described as the one who will save his people from their sins. To save us is why he came! In order to do so, although he was God from eternity, he chose to take on our humanity, fully and in the flesh, by being born of a mother. That was Mary's major role and mission: to be the mother who served God's saving plan. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church puts it, "to become the mother of the Saviour, Mary was enriched by God with gifts appropriate to her role. The angel Gabriel salutes her as "full of grace" -- totally ready for her great mission in life.

As God prepared Mary for her role and mission, so are we too prepared for what is asked of us. This principle -- that God prepares those whom He chooses for their role and mission -- is true for everyone who is prepared to serve God. We are chosen and called to holiness. God has prepared us for works of service and of live; by giving us Jesus to be our Lord and guide, by calling us to the saving waters of Baptism, by giving us the support of the Church and its Sacraments, and by strengthening us to cooperate with His saving will.

The role of Joseph

In Matthew's gospel, there is no annunciation to Mary, but there is an annunciation to Joseph. That is the gospel. In Luke's gospel, the angel Gabriel says to Mary, "Do not be afraid." In Matthew, the nameless angel says to Joseph, "Do not be afraid." God was doing something new, something extraordinary, in the life of Mary and of Joseph, indeed, in the life of the human race. The unprecedented nature of what God was doing led to understandable fear and anxiety in the lives of those most directly affected, Mary and Joseph. Both of them needed a word of reassurance, "Do not be afraid" at the beginning of this new phase of what God was doing. In times of transition when disturbing events are occurring around us, we all need to hear those words, "Do not be afraid." They are words which assure us of God's presence, God-with-us, Emmanuel, at the heart of all that is happening, even at the heart of his self-surrended on the mount of Calvary.

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Saturday of Advent, Week 3

1st Reading: Judges (13:2-7, 24-25

Manoah's wife yearns for a son. Samson will be dedicated to God

There was a certain man of Zorah, of the tribe of the Danites, whose name was Manoah. His wife was barren, having borne no children. And the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, "although you are barren, having borne no children, you shall conceive and bear a son. Now be careful not to drink wine or strong drink, or to eat anything unclean, for you shall conceive and bear a son. No razor is to come on his head, for the boy shall be a Nazirite to God from birth. It is he who shall begin to deliver Israel from the hand of the Philistines." Then the woman came and told her husband, "A man of God came to me, and his appearance was like that of an angel of God, most awe-inspiring; I did not ask him where he came from, and he did not tell me his name; but he said to me, 'You shall conceive and bear a son. So then drink no wine or strong drink, and eat nothing unclean, for the boy shall be a nazirite to God from birth to the day of his death.'"

The woman bore a son, and named him Samson. The boy grew, and the Lord blessed him. The spirit of the Lord began to stir him in Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.

Responsorial ---

Gospel: Luke 1:5-25

Glorious things foretold of John, son of Zechariah and Elizabeth

In the days of King Herod of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly order of Abijah. His wife was a descendant of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. Both of them were righteous before God, living blamelessly according to all the commandments and regulations of the Lord. But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were getting on in years.

Once when he was serving as priest before God and his section was on duty, he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and offer incense. Now at the time of the incense offering, the whole assembly of the people was praying outside. Then there appeared to him an angel of the Lord, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. When Zechariah saw him, he was terrified; and fear overwhelmed him. But the angel said to him, "Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will name him John. You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He must never drink wine or strong drink; even before his birth he will be filled with the Holy Spirit. He will turn many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. With the spirit and power of Elijah he will go before him, to turn the hearts of parents to their children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord."

Zechariah said to the angel, "how will I know that this is so? For I am an old man, and my wife is getting on in years?" The angel replied, "I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. But now, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time, you will become mute, unable to speak, until the day these things occur."

Meanwhile the people were waiting for Zechariah, and wondered at his delay in the sanctuary. When he did come out, he could not speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the sanctuary. He kept motioning to them and remained unable to speak. When his time of service was ended, he went to his home.

After those days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she remained in seclusion. She said, "this is what the Lord has done for me when he looked favourably on me and took away the disgrace I have endured among my people."

Great things in store for us

There are many interesting parallels in the bible stories about God granting the gift of children to those who longed for them. After years of waiting, Abraham and Sarah were blessed with Isaac, Manoah and his wife were blessed with Samson, and -- in today's Gospel, Zechariah and Elizabeth were blessed with the great fore-runner, John the Baptist.

Luke has annunciation stories to both Zechariah and Mary, in parallel yet distinctive accounts. Each is startled at the angel's appearance. Gabriel instructs each not to be afraid. Each is promised a child and given a hint of his or her child's future greatness.

Luke is careful to locate events in both time and place. After the message to Zechariah in Jerusalem that he and Elizabeth would have a son the mute priest, still not quite believing the news, returns to his home. Elizabeth has more faith and rejoices in her pregnancy, while staying secluded for the first five months. Then, in the sixth month of her pregnancy, the fuller meaning of what God is doing is made clear to her. Her young relative, Mary of Nazareth comes to her to be with her for a time, and share the news of her own blessed pregnancy -- and to lift up joyful praise to God, who is coming to visit his people with saving grace.

Hesitation and hope

The angel Gabriel is sent to Zechariah to bring him the good news that his wife, Elizabeth, who has been barren will soon give birth to a son, and a special son at that, someone whose calling it would be to prepare for the Lord a people fit for him. However, this good news was too much for Zechariah to hear and he could not bring himself to believe the words that Gabriel spoke to him. Perhaps there is something of Zechariah in all of us. We sometimes find it hard to believe good news, perhaps because we are so used to hearing bad news. In particular, we can sometimes find it hard to believe the good news that comes to us from God; or we may believe the good news from God in a general kind of a way, but not as good news addressed to me personally. The dimension of God's good news that we celebrate at this time of the year is that God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, has become God-with-us, Emmanuel, in and through Mary's son, Jesus. This is God's good news addressed to us as a people, and addressed to us as individuals. God is with us in Christ, and Christ is beside us, behind us, before us, above us, below us. This is the good news we are asked to believe and, indeed, rejoice in during these days.

December 17th to 24th

These readings are used in the week before Christmas. The readings for the 4th Sunday of Advent falls are omitted, but may be anticipated or used later on another day, to avoid duplication of those readings which occur on the 4th Sunday of Advent of that year.

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December 17

1st Reading: Genesis 49:2, 8-10

The dying Jacob predicts future glory for the tribe of Judah

Responsorial: Psalm 71: 1-4, 7-8, 17

R./: Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever.

O God, give your judgement to the king,
to a king's son your justice,
that he may judge your people in justice
and your poor in right judgement. (R./)

May the mountains bring forth peace for the people
and the hills, justice.
May he defend the poor of the people
and save the children of the needy. (R./)

In his days justice shall flourish
and peace till the moon fails.
He shall rule from sea to sea,
from the Great River to earth's bounds. (R./)

May his name be blessed for ever
and endure like the sun.
Every tribe shall be blessed in him,
all nations bless his name. (R./)

Gospel: Matthew 1:1-17

Genealogy of Jesus, back to Abraham

Of David's Royal Blood

Matthew poses some questions about Jesus: Where has he come from? What is he here for? And ultimately, who is he, in relation to God and to mankind? His account opens with the genealogy, an ingenious reconstruction, based on a close reading of the Old Testament, to situate Jesus four-square at the heart of Israel's lineage. That it is an artistic, literary construct rather than a soberly factual genealogy, is strongly hinted by dividing the list neatly into three sets of fourteen generations — one set, from the Founding Father (Abraham) to the heights of royal splendour (David, a man after God's heart); then one from the royal heights to the bitter depths of the Babylonian Captivity; finally, and this time with less guidance from the Old Testament, tracing his lineage from the Captivity down to Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born.

While the mainline genealogy is counted from father to son, on the way, Matthew mentions some surprising women who were unexpectedly incorporated into the Messiah's lineage: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and the wife of Uriah (Bathsheba) — all of whom prepare the reader for the ultimate surprise: Joseph is not really Jesus' father at all, since Mary has conceived him by the power of the Holy Spirit. Where has he come from, then? Ultimately, and miraculously, from God; though also from Abraham and David, by indirect family links. Later, Matthew will answer his own other significant questions: What is he here for? And who is he? with one single phrase: Jesus is Emmanuel or God with us.

This is the hardest gospel passage for public reading. Why must we be burdened with that long list of forty-two names? Matthew's community treasured family trees and wanted a record of Jesus' origins, right back to the distant past. Our own times have seen a growing interest in genealogy, with ore and more people researching their own genetic background. "Who are the people who have made me the person I am?" Each of us knows that our ancestors are an important part of our own story. The are the part of our story which is below ground, like roots of a tree. Matthew used the story of Jesus' ancestors to throw light on Jesus' own story. Like us, he had parents, grandparents and great-grandparents. Some of the people mentioned in Jesus' family tree were anything but saints. All shades of human nature were mixed there. Yet it was out of that very imperfect succession of people that God brought the Saviour of the world. There is still hope for us, indespite the scandals that have defaced our church. The Lord continues to bring good out of human imperfection and failure. We need to trust that the Lord is always at work, even in situations that seem on the surface to be hopeless. With God there is always hope.

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December 18th

1st Reading: Jeremiah 23:5-8

A righteous Branch who will rule with wisdom and justice

Responsorial: Psalm 71: 1-2, 12-13, 18-19

R./: Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever

O God, give your judgement to the king,
  to a king's son your justice,
  that he may judge your people in justice
  and your poor in right judgement. (R./)

For he shall save the poor when they cry
and the needy who are helpless.
He will have pity on the weak
and save the lives of the poor. (R./)

Blessed be the Lord, God of Israel,
who alone works wonders,
ever blessed his glorious name.
Let his glory fill the earth. Amen! Amen! (R./)

Gospel: Matthew 1:18-25

Joseph is told of the conception of Jesus, who will save his people from their sins

The Mother and Step-father of Jesus

God willed that His own eternal Son would be the Saviour of the entire human race. In the lavish language of Jeremiah, we hear about him as the "Righteous Branch will be raised up from David's descendants, and that through him his people will be saved and live in safety. In the Gospel, Jesus is described as the one who will save his people from their sins. To save us is why he came! In order to do so, although he was God from eternity, he chose to take on our humanity, fully and in the flesh, by being born of a mother. That was Mary's role and mission: to give birth to the redeemer of mankind. In order to become the mother of the Saviour, Mary was enriched by God with gifts appropriate to her role (Catechism of the Catholic Church). The angel Gabriel salutes her as "full of grace" — one who by God's grace was made ready for her great mission in life.

As God prepared Mary for her role and mission, so are we too prepared for what is asked of us. This principle — that God prepares those whom He chooses for their role and mission — is true for everyone who is prepared to serve God. We are chosen and called to holiness. God has prepared us for works of service and of live; by giving us Jesus to be our Lord and guide, by calling us to the saving waters of Baptism, by giving us the support of the Church and its Sacraments, and by strengthening us to cooperate with His saving will.

St Matthew does not report any annunciation to Mary, but does describe an angel's message to Joseph. St Luke, on the other hand, has God send a messenger to Mary, who begins with the words "Do not be afraid." In Matthew, the angel says to Joseph, "Do not be afraid." God was doing something new and extraordinary in the life of both Mary and of Joseph, something vital for the life of the human race. The conception of Jesus was a miracle of grace that raised anxious questions in the hearts of those most directly affected, Mary and Joseph. They each needed reassurance, "Do not be afraid!" to cope with the challenge they faced. In times of transition and change, we all need this reassurance, "Do not be afraid." We put our trust in God's presence, in Emmanuel, God-with-us, just as Mary and Joseph needed to do.

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December 19

1st Reading: Judges (13:2-7, 24-25

Manoah's wife yearns for a son. Samson will be dedicated to God

The woman bore a son, and named him Samson. The boy grew, and the Lord blessed him. The spirit of the Lord began to stir him in Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.

Responsorial: Psalm 70: 3-6, 16-17

R./: My lips are filled with your praise, with your glory all the day long

Be a rock where I can take refuge,
a mighty stronghold to save me;
for you are my rock, my stronghold.
Free me from the hand of the wicked. (R./)

It is you, O Lord, who are my hope,
my trust, O Lord, since my youth.
On you I have leaned from my birth,
from my mother's womb you have been my help. (R./)

I will declare the Lord's mighty deeds
proclaiming your justice, yours alone.
O God, you have taught me from my youth
and I proclaim your wonders still. (R./)

Gospel: Luke 1:5-25

Glorious things are foretold about John, the son of Zechariah and Elizabeth

Hesitation and hope

There are many interesting parallels in the bible stories about God granting the gift of children to those who longed for them. After years of waiting, Abraham and Sarah were blessed with Isaac, Manoah and his wife were blessed with Samson, and — in today's Gospel, Zechariah and Elizabeth were blessed with the great fore-runner, John the Baptist.

Luke is careful to locate events in both time and place. After the message to Zechariah in Jerusalem that he and Elizabeth would have a son the mute priest, still not quite believing the news, returns to his home. Elizabeth has more faith and rejoices in her pregnancy, while staying secluded for the first five months. Then, in the sixth month of her pregnancy, the fuller meaning of what God is doing is made clear to her. Her young relative, Mary of Nazareth comes to her to be with her for a time, and share the news of her own blessed pregnancy — and to lift up joyful praise to God, who is coming to visit his people with saving grace.

An angel is sent to Zechariah to bring him the good news that his wife, Elizabeth, who has been barren will soon give birth to a son, and a special son at that, someone whose calling it would be to prepare for the Lord a people fit for him. However, this good news was too much for Zechariah to hear and he could not bring himself to believe the words that Gabriel spoke to him. Perhaps there is something of Zechariah in all of us. We sometimes find it hard to believe good news, perhaps because we are so used to hearing bad news. In particular, we can sometimes find it hard to believe the good news that comes to us from God; or we may believe the good news from God in a general kind of a way, but not as good news addressed to me personally. What we celebrate with Elizabeth is that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, has become God-with-us, Emmanuel, in Mary's son, Jesus. This is God's good news addressed to us as a people, and addressed to us as individuals. God is with us in Christ, and Christ is beside us, behind us, before us, above us, below us. This is the good news we are asked to believe and, indeed, rejoice in during these days.

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December 20

1st Reading: Isaiah 7:10-14

King Ahaz refuses to ask a sign of the Lord; Isaiah promises a child to be called Immanuel

Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, saying, "Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven." But Ahaz said, "I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test."

Responsorial: Psalm 23: 1-6

R./: Let the Lord enter; he is king of glory.

The Lord's is the earth and its fullness,
the world and all its peoples.
It is he who set it on the seas;
on the waters he made it firm. (R./)

Who shall climb the mountain of the Lord?
Who shall stand in his holy place?
The man with clean hands and pure heart,
who desires not worthless things. (R./)

He shall receive blessings from the Lord
and reward from the God who saves him.
Such are the men who seek him,
seek the face of the God of Jacob. (R./)

Gospel: Luke 1:26-38

The annunciation to Mary, who will conceive and give birth to Jesus

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel as sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, "Greetings, favoured one! The Lord is with you." But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end."

Pondering the Good News

The Annunciation story is full of splendid promise, radiant with a bright future. God's messenger tells of a coming Saviour: "He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High… He will reign forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end." Setting these lines alongside all the other echoes of joy in Luke's opening chapters, and we have the happy prospect of a God who wants every human being to be saved — to have a share in God's own endless fullness of life.

Go's message to Mary met with total acceptance – "I am the handmaid of the Lord, let God's will done to me." Knowin herself to be highly favoured, she responds from a glowing heart and with all her soul to her priveleged calling. The young woman, Mary of Nazareth, is not simply the mother of Jesus; she is his perfect disciple also, living by his Gospel vision for humanity. Like him, she devotes herself to God's purpose for her life. The gospel indicates that at first she struggled to discern God's purpose for her life. She was disturbed by the idea that without having "known" a man (i.e. being a virgin) she could conceive a child and wondered how the angel's promise could be fulfilled. At the birth of Jesus she would ponder the words of the shepherds. Years later when the boy Jesus went missing in Jerusalem, she puzzled over his words to herself and Joseph. It was her habit to ponder and reflect, to discern what God willed from her at each stage in her life.

We can be inspired by her example. Like Mary we struggle to know what God wants for us in everyday life. We try to generously do what is right, as Mary did, even if we have doubts and questions. One can be faithful without fully knowing what God has in mind for us. As we follow the path of discipleship as Mary did, we look to her for help and ask her to pray for us, sinners, now and at the hour of our death.

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December 21

1st Reading: Song of Songs (2:8-14

Lyrical love-poetry from king Solomon, about the beloved who is coming

The voice of my beloved!
Look, he comes,
leaping upon the mountains,
bounding over the hills.

My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag.
Look, there he stands behind our wall,
gazing in at the windows,
looking through the lattice.

My beloved speaks and says to me:
"Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away;
for now the winter is past,
the rain is over an gone.
The flowers appear on the earth;
the time of singing has come,
and the voice of the turtledove
is heard in our land.
The fig tree puts forth its figs,
and the vines are in blossom;
they give forth fragrance.

Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.
O my dove, in the clefts of the rock,
in the covert of the cliff,
let me see your face,
let me hear your voice;
for your voice is sweet,
and your face is lovely."

Alternative 1st Reading: Zephaniah 3:14-18

A hymn of joy to God my Saviour

Sing aloud, O daughter Zion; shout, O Israel!
Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter Jerusalem!
The Lord has taken away the judgments against you,
he has turned away your enemies.
The king of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst;
you shall fear disaster no more.
On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem:
Do not fear, O Zion; do not let your hands grow weak.
The Lord, your God, is in your midst, a warrior who gives victory;
he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing
as on a day of festival. I will remove disaster from you,
so that you will not bear reproach for it.

Responsorial: Psalm 32: 2-3, 11-12, 20-21

R./: Cry out with joy in the Lord, you holy ones; sing a new song to him

Give thanks to the Lord upon the harp,
  with a ten-stringed lute sing him songs.
O sing him a song that is new,
  play loudly, with all your skill.

His own designs shall stand for ever,
  the plans of his heart from age to age.
They are happy, whose God is the Lord,
  the people he has chosen as his own.

Our soul is waiting for the Lord.
  The Lord is our help and our shield.
In him do our hearts find joy.
  We trust in his holy name. (R./)

Gospel: Luke 1:39-45

The mutual encouragement of Mary and Elizabeth

Close, spiritual friendship

There's an intimacy and depth of feeling in both readings for today. The Song of Songs pours out some of the lovely, lyrical love-poetry written by King Solomon for his young bride from Egypt, describing the overflowing emotions of love between them at the time of their nuptuals. In Luke's account of the Visitation we sense the mutual spiritual friendship bonding Mary with Elizabeth, as they ponder how God has blessed both of them, and through them so many others who would come live life more fully because of John the Baptist and of Jesus.

Sharing faith is not always easy. An evangelical preacher once said, "When I tell people about my joy since becoming a Christian, they may scoff that faith is just a crutch for weak people! If Jesus is a crutch, then give me two!" We need to share what we have felt, and it can benefit both ourselves and those with whom we share our deepest experiences.

Mary and Elizabeth felt the saving grace of God flowing through their lives — and were not afraid to encourage each other by saying so. Many of us were raised on the principle that ‘God helps those who help themselves' and that displays of need are out of place in the pursuit of holiness. Maybe we need to learn again what Elizabeth says so clearly: that God is a gracious God, and it is a blessed thing to believe in that graciousness.

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December 22

1st Reading: 1 Samuel 1:24-28

Hannah dedicates her young son to a life of service to God

When she had weaned him, she took him up with her, along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour, and a skin of wine. She brought him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh; and the child was young. Then they slaughtered the bull, and they brought the child to Eli. And she said, "Oh, my lord! As you live, my lord, I am the woman who was standing here in your presence, praying to the Lord. For this child I prayed; and the Lord has granted me the petition that I made to him. Therefore I have lent him to the Lord; as long as he lives, he is given to the Lord." She left him there for the Lord.

Responsorial: 1 Samuel 2: 1, 4-8

R./: My heart rejoices in the Lord, my Saviour.

My heart exults in the Lord,
I find my strength in my God.
My mouth laughs at my enemies
as I rejoice in your saving help. (R./)

The bows of the mighty are broken,
  but the weak are clothed with strength.
Those with plenty must labour for bread,
  but the hungry need work no more.
The childless wife has children now
  but the fruitful wife bears no more. (R./)

It is the Lord who gives life and death,
he brings men to the grave and back.
It is the Lord who gives poverty and riches.
He brings men low and raises them on high. (R./)

He lifts up the lowly from the dust,
  from the dungheap he raises the poor
to set him in the company of princes,
  to give him a glorious throne.
For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's,
  on them he has set the world. (R./)

Gospel: Luke 1:46-56

Mary's hymn of praise and thanksgiving, the Magnificat

In the house of Zechariah, Mary said,

"My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,
for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.
His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy,
according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants forever."
And Mary remained with her about three months and then returned to her home.

Dedicated to the Lord's service

Having longed for a son, and being finally blessed with the boy Samuel, the grateful mother, Hannah, wants nothing more than that he serve the Lord all his days. Her prayer is very touching: "I have lent him to the Lord; as long as he lives, he is given to the Lord." Dedication to God is the highest purpose of life, and it can be pursued in many and various ways. In our Catholic tradition, we honour Mary's as the hightest example of totally devoted life, apart from and parallel to her son's complete self-giving. The most perfect expression of Mary's dedicated heart is found in today's lovely hymn of praise, the Magnificat. Here we see her rejoicing in the God who has filled the hungry with good things, and raises up the lowly.

Venerable Bede wrote of the Magnificat: "Whoever devotes all his thoughts to the praise and service of the Lord, proclaims God's greatness. Observance of God's commands, moreover, shows that we have God's power and greatness always at heart. Our spirit rejoices in God the saviour and delights in the mere recollection of our creator who gives us hope for eternal salvation."

This is especially so for Mary, whom we revere as Mother of God (Theotokos). Chosen for a unique maternity, she overflowed with love for the son she so gladly conceived. Above all other saints, she alone could fully rejoice in Jesus, her saviour, trusting that the Saviour sent from above would be born of her body, a privelege for which she was forever grateful. Mary attributes nothing to her own merits but refers all her value to the gift of the one whose essence is power and who fills with greatness and strength the small and the weak who believe in him.

In her joyful prayer, Mary acknowledges the great things that God has done for her. At Christmas we acknowledge the great things that God has done for us by sending his Son into the world. A great deal has come to be associated with the feast of Christmas. However, at the heart of the feast is the acknowledgment of the gift that God has given us in his Son. We acknowledge that gift and we give thanks for it. Christmas is the celebration of God's greatness and generosity. Mary's prayer suggests that it is above all the lowly and the hungry who are will experience God's greatness and generosity. It is the lowly who are exalted and the hungry who are filled.

We approach the feast of Christmas hungry for God's gift of his Son, the bread of life; we approach this feast out of a sense of our poverty and emptiness, knowing our need to be filled with God's presence and God's coming. Mary herself was one of the lowly, one of the poor in spirit who hungered for what only God could give. In these difficult days for the church, we approach this feast of Christmas in a spirit of poverty and humility, trusting in the great things that God can do for all of us.

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December 23

1st Reading: Malachiah 3:1-4, 4,4-6

God will send a fore-runner to prepare for the final day

The Lord God says this: "See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight -- indeed, he is coming," says the Lord of hosts.

But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap; he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.

Look, I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of parents to their children and the hearts of children to their parents, so that I will not come and strike the land with a curse.

Responsorial: Psalm 24: 4-5, 8-9, 10, 14

R./: Lift up your heads and see; your redemption is near at hand.

Lord, make me know your ways.
Lord, teach me your paths.
Make me walk in your truth, and teach me:
for you are God my saviour. (R./)

The Lord is good and upright.
He shows the path to those who stray.
He guides the humble in the right path;
he teaches his way to the poor. (R./)

His ways are faithfulness and love
for those who keep his covenant and will.
The Lord's friendship is for those who revere him;
to them he reveals his covenant. (R./)

Gospel: Luke 1:57-66

The birth of John the Baptist

Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. Her neighbours and relatives heard that the Lord had shown his great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him Zechariah after his father. But his mother said, "No; he is to be called John." They said to her, "None of your relatives has this name." Then they began motioning to his father to find out what name he wanted to give him. He asked for a writing tablet and wrote, "His name is John." And all of them were amazed. Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue freed, and he began to speak, praising God. Fear came over all their neighbours, and all these things were talked about throughout the entire hill country of Judea. All who heard them pondered them and said, "What then will this child become?" For, indeed, the hand of the Lord was with him.

The Converter of Hearts

Christians have seen in John the Baptist the messenger, promised in the prophet Malachi, whose task was to prepare the way so that "the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple." In other words, John was the messenger of the covenant, now offered to us all, in the Jesus in whom we delight. John is honoured in all four Gospels, for his service of preparing hearts and minds to receive the message of Jesus. Luke, above all, highlights how John was received with joy — as a great gift not just to his parents and relatives, but to the humble people generally. A spirit of joyfulness and praise runs through all of the story surrounding John's birth. And are our hearts open to John's message? Does the Lord whom he proclaimed wish to enter our lives, our homes, our world? The answer is clear and unmistakable: Yes, He does! How do we know? Simply by listening to what God is saying to us in the Scriptures, and in our community gathered in prayer.

Centuries before the birth of Jesus, the prophet Isaiah described the Messiah or Saviour as Someone who would live among His people and be one of them. The very name given to the Messiah points this out: "Emmanuel," which means "God is with us." In today's reading from Isaiah, we are reminded that the Lord wishes to live among us. "Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel. " What was foretold by Isaiah came to be fulfilled as we hear in today's Gospel, "All this took place to fulfill what the Lord has said through the prophet: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means God is with us."

The promised Messiah or Saviour is none other than God, who in his Son Jesus took on our human nature, became one like us in all things except sin and dwells among us. "And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us" (cf. Jn 1:14). Does the Lord wish to enter our lives, our homes, our world? Indeed, He does! He did that on the first Christmas and He continues to do that if we let Him.

The naming of a child can cause some dispute in a family. Different people have different preferences for naming their children; but in the end it is the choice of the parents. Their relatives and neighbours expected Zechariah and Elizabeth to be conventional and call their little son Zechariah, after his father. But Zechariah and Elizabeth felt this was not the name God wanted for their child.. At this moment in history, convention was ignored, for God was doing something new. This child would be different to other children. Relatives and neighbours rightly wondered, "What will this child turn out to be?" John the Baptist's priveleged role was to prepare people for the coming of One greater than himself, One who would be called Emmanuel, God-with-us. The grace of God was working in a new way, making a new covenant with his people and with all of humanity. It is this wonderful gift that we celebrate at Christmas, and it never ceases to fill us with joy and gratitude.

December 24

1st Reading: 2 Samuel 7:1-5, 8-12, 14, 16

David is promised a "house" or dynasty

Now when the king was settled in his house, and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies around him, the king said to the prophet Nathan, "See now, I am living in a house of cedar, but the ark of God stays in a tent."; Nathan said to the king, "Go, do all that you have in mind; for the Lord is with you.";

But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan: "Go and tell my servant David: Thus says the Lord: Are you the one to build me a house to live in? Now therefore thus you shall say to my servant David: Thus says the Lord of hosts: I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep to be prince over my people Israel; and I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth.

And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may live in their own place, and be disturbed no more; and evildoers shall afflict them no more, as formerly, from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.

Responsorial: Psalm 88: 2-5, 27, 29

R./: For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.

'I have made a covenant with my chosen one;
I have sworn to David my servant;
I will establish your dynasty for ever
and set up your throne through all ages.' (R./)

He will say to me: 'You are my father,
my God, the rock who saves me.'
I will keep my love for him always;
for him my covenant shall endure. .(R./)

Gospel: Luke 1:67-79

Zechariah prophecies the future of John the Baptist

Then John's father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke this prophecy:

"Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
for he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them.

He has raised up a mighty saviour for us
in the house of his servant David,

as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,
that we would be saved from our enemies
and from the hand of all who hate us.

Thus he has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors,
and has remembered his holy covenant,

the oath that he swore to our ancestor Abraham, to grant us
that we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies,
might serve him without fear,
in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;
for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,

to give knowledge of salvation to his people
by the forgiveness of their sins.

By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us,
to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way of peace."

A new understanding of God

After being made speechless for doubting God's word, the father of John the Baptist suddenly regains his voice, to loudly proclaim the fulfillment of God's promises to Israel. His is a song of Advent, as we wait for the light that has already come and is still yet to come. Before God's messenger (Gabriel) appeared to Mary, he came to Zechariah with a startling promise like that first made to Abraham centuries before. Elizabeth and Zechariah's advanced age is a clear parallel with Sarah and Abraham, when they too conceived their long hoped-for son, Isaac. Zechariah belongs to a priestly rank in Israel and Elizabeth too is a descendent of Aaron's priestly family. Thus the son they will raise is destined to lead people towards God. Then too, Gabriel promises that John will be filled with the spirit and power of Elijah, a great prophet who turned his people to repentance (Malachi 4:5-6). Zechariah's doubt at Gabriel's words parallels Sarah's unbelieving laugh at the idea that she could bear a child at her age (Genesis 18:12-15).

King David wanted to build a house for God to dwell among his people. Instead God built a house to dwell in – the House of David which will be the sign of God's living presence. The ultimate fulfilment will be in the new temple which Jesus will build up: we who are the temple, the living stones of the temple of the presence of God among his people. The climax of the Benedictus, the prayer of Zechariah.is

"By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us,
to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way of peace."

Of course, Luke's gospel was written after the life and death of John, and after the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. John had been imprisoned before his execution – he had sat in darkness and in the shadow of death. And yet the "dawn from on high" has broken for all of us in darkness and the shadow of death, and we are guided into the way of peace.

The background to Zechariah's song is the biblical belief that God's promises are fulfilled. When at first Zechariah doesn't believe, he is rendered mute until the day the promised event occurs. Eight days after John's birth, Zechariah and Elizabeth take him to be circumcised, following the ritual commanded to Abraham (Genesis 17:12.) When the time comes to name the child, Elizabeth insists that he be given the name John, as God had prescribed. His friends turned to Zechariah, who confirmed the name — and immediately he regained his speech and began praising God, whose promises are always fulfilled.

Zechariah's song can become our own, this Christmas Eve, as we pray for a more personal awareness of God in our lives. We see light on the horizon, and wait in hope for it to become the full, dazzling light of God's incarnation in Jesus Christ. We live between the already and the not-yet. A light has dawned but hasn't yet reached the darkness in and around us. As disciples of Christ we live in a kind of Advent-waiting, knowing that the divine light has come to our world, yet still awaiting for it to shine in fullest measure. We may even doubt that such a glorious future is possible. But with Zechariah, we can also look up at the dawn, as the first shimmering of the radiance that God has in store for his people.