The Second Sunday of Advent

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December 10, 2017

Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11; Psalm 85; 2 Peter 3:8-14; Mark 1:1-8

Recently, a number of people have approached me to ask: Will you teach me to pray? They say they cannot hear God or that the types of praying written about in books does not suit them. They still want something more; something personal, and they do not know how to get it.

Silently, I say to myself: I want them to hear this week’s Psalm – Lord, let them see your kindness. I want them to experience God’s mercy. I want them to know God in whom kindness and truth shall meet, justice and peace shall kiss. They search for a kind, personal God, but they do not know how to meet this God of kindness, but we find this loving God in our Scriptures.

The first words of Isaiah speak of God’s kindness. God is telling the prophet to comfort the people and to give relief to their burdens because their suffering and exile are about to end. As a priest, I want to stand on top of Mount Zion like Isaiah to cry out loudly: Every valley shall be filled in; every mountain made low; the path to the Lord is made straight. Come! Listen. The glory of the Lord will be revealed.

I want to stand like John the Baptist, meeting people in the wilderness of their lives, and declare: Prepare the way, your pathway is made straight. Come to the Lord and do not let your sins keep you from meeting God. No sin, no bad feelings or any guilt about our choices, will keep us from the Lord’s kindness and our soul’s salvation.

I want to answer those people whose sins or suffering separates them from God: God keeps the promise of salvation, and the goal is to be united with you. While Isaiah yelled from the tallest mountain, John met the people in the muckiness of their lives. Any way that reaches a person is acceptable. Come, let’s learn how to pray together because God desires this for you.

From a practical standpoint, it is always helpful to begin prayer within the events of your regular world. Do not make prayer something separate from your daily activities or use language that belongs to someone else. Speak what is in your heart to God. Forget about formulas and rituals. Simply share what is happening with your day because God is in those details. Be as specific as possible.

Let God respond to you. Ask God for kindness and mercy specifically for those areas where you need God’s healing touch. Tell God of your feelings that represent the peaks and valleys of your life. Share fully what is going on with you and then sit back and relax. Watch the valleys be filled in and the hills leveled off. Find yourself in that balance where you can see the glory of the Lord all around you. Know that God is near to comfort you and to proclaim your redemption.

God comes to save you. You, singular. Personally. God is doing it all for you. Why? Because God wants to be close to you.

Scripture for Daily Mass

First Reading: 

Monday: (Isaiah 35) Here is your God, he comes with vindication. The eyes of the blind will be opened, the ears of the deaf will be cleared.

Tuesday: (Isaiah 40) Give comfort to my people. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and proclaim to her that her service is at an end, her guilt is expiated.

Wednesday: (Isaiah 40) Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these things. Do you not know? Have you not heard?

Thursday: (Genesis 3) After Adam ate of the tree, God called to him, “Where are you?” I heard you were in the garden, but I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid myself.   

Friday (Isaiah 48) I, the Lord, will teach you what is for your good, and lead you on the way you should go. Hearken to my commandments.

Saturday (Sirach 48) A prophet named Elijah appeared whose words were as a flaming furnace. By the Lord’s word, he shut up the heavens and brought down fire three times.

Gospel: 

Monday: (Luke 5) After Jesus healed the man on a stretcher, he forgave his sins. The scribes and Pharisees protested and asked, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies?”

Tuesday: (Matthew 18) If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them is lost, will he not leave the ninety-nine in the hills and go in search of the stray?

Wednesday (Matthew 11) Come to me all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart.

Thursday (Luke 1) The angel Gabriel was sent to a virgin betrothed to Joseph to announce that the Holy Spirit would overpower her and she would conceive a son.  

Friday (Matthew 11) How shall I consider you? I played a dirge for you and you would not mourn; I played a flute for you and you would not dance.

Saturday (Matthew 17) As Jesus came down the mountain, the disciples asked, “Why do they say Elijah must come first?” Elijah has come and will indeed come to restore all things.

Saints of the Week

December 12: The feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe is celebrated to remember the four apparitions to Juan Diego in 1531 near Mexico City shortly after the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs. Mary appeared as a native Mexican princess and her image is imprinted on a cloak that was presented to the bishop.

December 13: Lucy, martyr (d. 304), was born into a noble Sicilian family and killed during the Diocletian persecution. In the Middle Ages, people with eye trouble invoked her aid because her name means "light." Scandinavia today still honors Lucy in a great festival of light on this day.

December 14: John of the Cross, priest and doctor (1542-1591), was a Carmelite who reformed his order with the help of Teresa of Avila. They created the Discalced (without shoes) Carmelite Order that offered a stricter interpretation of their rules. John was opposed by his community and placed in prison for a year. He wrote the classics, "Ascent of Mount Carmel," "Dark Night of the Soul," and "Living Flame of Love."

This Week in Jesuit History

·      Dec 10, 1548. The general of the Dominicans wrote in defense of the Society of Jesus upon seeing it attacked in Spain by Melchior Cano and others.

·      Dec 11, 1686. At Rome, Fr. Charles de Noyelle, a Belgian, died as the 12th general of the Society.

·      Dec 12, 1661. In the College of Clermont, Paris, Fr. James Caret publicly defended the doctrine of papal infallibility, causing great excitement among the Gallicans and Jansenists.

·      Dec 13, 1545. The opening of the Council of Trent to which Frs. Laynez and Salmeron were sent as papal theologians and Fr. Claude LeJay as theologian of Cardinal Otho Truchses.

·      Dec 14, 1979. The death of Riccardo Lombardi, founder of the Better World Movement.

·      Dec 15, 1631. At Naples, during an earthquake and the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, the Jesuits worked to help all classes of people.

·      Dec 16, 1544. Francis Xavier entered Cochin.