(Submitted by me for today’s bulletin as a member of my parish’s Spiritual Life Committee.)

The core message from the very practical James in today’s second reading (Jas 5:7-10) is one word: patience. Here James is counseling early Christians’ whose patience was worn thin because many of them expected the imminent return of Jesus, His second coming.  You have likely heard the adage, “Patience is a virtue,” but this quality was as difficult to practice for James’s contemporaries as it is for us today, especially as we approach Christmas.

The season of Advent is meant to prepare us for December 25^th, the day we celebrate Jesus’ birthday.  This rich period on the liturgical calendar is meant to bring calm, to slow us down a bit, to give us the opportunity to exercise patience, so that we can properly consider the miracle of the Incarnation of Jesus and His birth to a virgin.  It should be a time for increased prayer and devotions and maybe even attending Mass, at least from time to time, during the week.

Unfortunately, far too often in the run up to Christmas, patience’s opposing vice, anger, is increasingly on display, maybe more so than during any other time of the year.  This may be experienced in mall parking lots, in store checkout lines, with online sites that no longer have the desired gift in stock, or in the general hustle and bustle of this time of year.  This is a sad state of affairs in what is supposed to be a season of joy and peace.  It is worth reminding ourselves that Jesus is the reason for the season.

We are encouraged during Advent to recall Jesus’ first coming in the flesh (in the past), His second coming in glory as we profess during the Creed at Sunday Mass (in the future), and His ongoing coming to us in a real and substantial way in the Eucharist at every Mass (right now).

How will you allow this season of preparation to lead you to the patience needed to carve out an appropriate amount of time to contemplate and appreciate our wonderful Savior who redeemed us then, nourishes us now, and will come in glory in the future?

Isaiah (48:17-19) today reminds us of another aspect of our Redeemer that we mustn’t forget: that He is our teacher and leader.  During this time of the year, we get caught up in the good feelings of the babe in swaddling clothes, the manger scene, the singing angels, the humble shepherds, the Stille Nacht — and there’s nothing wrong with doing so — but we must not forget to what this was to lead.  Jesus, thirty years hence, would be boldly proclaiming the Kingdom and giving His hearers — and all future generations — the keys to bring forth and enter into His Kingdom.  At great personal cost He, as a good shepherd should, guided us by telling us how to live and lived it Himself as our exemplar.  Remember these words of Jesus?:

I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6)

Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and those who enter through it are many. (Matthew 7:13)

We turn to The Navarre Bible, Major Prophets for the final word:

[T]his oracle is a “teaching” that applies in every age, and is valid for all nations and every individual:everyone must be converted and follow the way of the Lord. (212)

We must never cease striving to live up to the Lord’s expectations.  Advent is a good season to ponder this.  For those inclined to make New Year’s resolutions, this is prime time to develop resolutions that will bring us closer to God.  This is something we must all resolve to do.

As we do each Advent, we interrupt our regular sequence of readings to celebrate the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The first reading, from Genesis (3:9-15, 2o), gives us the aftermath of The Fall in which God confronts Adam and Eve beginning with the question above and ending with the Protoevangelium (v. 15), the foretelling of the woman (Mary) and the man (Jesus) whose obedience, as opposed to the disobedience of our first parents, will vanquish the sin and death the latter brought to the world..

God’s question is meant to elicit from them their states of mind and hopefully some self-realization of their sinfulness.  So, where are you in this whole mess, God asks the couple?  Well, Adam blames Eve and Eve blames the serpent.  The sin of pride “you will be like gods” (Gen 3:5) leads to excuse making and passing the buck.  No contrition is detected.

The good news is that a savior is coming.  We also anticipate His arrival during this solemn and holy season of Advent.  So, we also can imagine God asking us: “Where are you” in your relationship with Me?  Will we be making excuses and blaming persons and circumstances for a less than peaceful and prayerful run-up to Christmas?  Or will we avoid sin and unnecessary distractions in order to better welcome the Lord?  Advent is not halfway done — let us make the most of the rest of it!

Appropriately, we continue to read from the great foreteller of the Messiah as the anniversary of the birth of the Christ Child creeps ever closer.  Isaiah (40:25-31) practically sings of the glory and majesty of God.  In a certain sense this vision contrasts starkly with the peaceful little scene of the Holy Family in a cave.  Jesus came in all humility with only shepherds and a few travelers (and of course Mary and Joseph) given any sense of the greatness and uniqueness of the event.  His strength and power will become manifest in His public life with His preaching, healings, exorcisms, and crucifixion.  Crucifixion?  Yes.  Jesus says to apostles:

I lay down my life in order to take it up again.  No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again.  (John 10:17-18)

Later, Jesus says to Pilate, who claims to be the determiner of Jesus’ fate:

You would have no power over me if it had not been given to you from above.  (John 19:11)

Christ Before Pilate Again 1308-11, Duccio Di Buoninsegna

There is that word “power” again and again.  Through the Paschal Mystery (Jesus’ suffering, death, and resurrection) Jesus becomes the true power source of our lives.  This posting’s headline emphasizes this fact.  After a long year, we need to take time to recharge our batteries in the Lord so as to be ready for the adventures of a new year.  Be sure to take the time to plug into that power source (with no breakers — do not be afraid of this power surge!) as we approach the joyous time of Christmas (more about this in Sunday’s post).  Let it then be a reminder to not neglect this opportunity to approach Jesus for refreshment, restoration, and renewal throughout the year.  Only by the power of His grace can we have the strength to survive and thrive.

Like yesterday, the prophet Isaiah (40:1-11) provides another hopeful message to the Chosen People.  After a time of trial Israel’s guilt is expiated.  God, in all of His power, will manifest Himself, yet gently lead them as a shepherd.  Certainly this pastoral image evokes to the Christian reader Jesus who has is often thought of as the Good Shepherd as conveyed particularly in John’s Gospel.  He comes in power and glory but as a humble shepherd guiding the people on the straight path of righteousness.

But it is the headline of this post on which I wish to focus.  From the beginning of that same Gospel of John we know that Jesus is the Word of God from all time.  This Word is living and active throughout time and eternity.  In fact, St. Peter, who spent three years with the Word Incarnate saw fit to reiterate this verse from Isaiah in the first part of his first letter (1 Pt 1:24-25).  No trial of the patriarchs or the Israelites ever toppled the Word.  No Jewish leaders or Romans ever ultimately defeated the Word.  No atheistic or heretical regime ever stamped out the Word.  No earthly force or hellish power will ever conquer the Word.

Remember the end of The Book, Revelation, which says:

Then I saw standing in the midst of the throne and the four living creatures and the elders a Lamb that seemed to have been slain. (Rev 5:6)

The Ghent altarpiece: Adoration of the Lamb (Jan van Eyck 1390 – 1441)

Here we have our shepherd imagery, with the Lamb of God, the Word of God, not defeated by death but resurrected and glorious, erect on a throne, triumphant.

So shouldn’t we get to know this Word better?  We get to know the Word by reading the Word.  “Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ,” St. Jerome famously said.  Let this Advent season begin or renew a lifelong reading plan of the Bible.

The first reading yesterday gives us the entire 35th chapter of Isaiah (vv. 1-10).  It is a beautiful and uplifting passage which contains a promise of redemption for a devastated people.  The land will be healed, and the people too, both physically and spiritually, culminating in the final verse: “They will meet with joy and gladness, sorrow and mourning will flee.”

This provides great comfort for us today as well.  No matter what depths we reach physically, emotionally, or spiritually, we know that we have won through the triumph of the Son of God, the promised one, over sin, Satan, and eternal death.

This from St. Justin Martyr’s Dialogue with Trypho (69, 6) expands on Jesus as fulfiller of the promise in Isaiah (as referred to in The Navarre Bible: Major Prophets, 159):

The spring of living water which gushed forth from God in the land destitute of the knowledge of God, namely the land of the Gentiles, was this Christ, who also appeared in your nation, and healed those who were maimed, and deaf, and lame in body from their birth, causing them to leap, to hear, and to see, by His word. And having raised the dead, and causing them to live, by His deeds He compelled the men who lived at that time to recognise Him. But though they saw such works, they asserted it was magical art. For they dared to call Him a magician, and a deceiver of the people. Yet He wrought such works, and persuaded those who were [destined to] believe in Him; for even if any one be labouring under a defect of body, yet be an observer of the doctrines delivered by Him, He shall raise him up at His second advent perfectly sound, after He has made him immortal, and incorruptible, and free from grief.

Today’s reading from the prophets again brings us the great Isaiah (11:1-10).  While the beginning of this chapter is most famous for giving us the classic Gifts of the Holy Spirit (or at least six of the seven — see verse 2), I wish to focus on the line that occurs in the last verse (in the headline) of the passage read this day.

What a “signal” this descendant of Jesse’s son David was and is!  Even the description of what this long-awaited messiah would be blessed with — wisdom, counsel, understanding, strength (fortitude), knowledge, and fear of the Lord — should be attractive to anyone.  And of course, the entire Gospel message of the New Testament should be compelling to anyone open to it.  So why is it that the world seems to be moving away from Christ?  Certainly one factor must be that the “signal” coming in is distorted for some and is entirely lost for others.

A “noisy” culture tries to do everything it can to distract us from what is most important.  The explosion of media over the last century has mainly worked to block out the message of Jesus or distract us from it (acknowledging that there have been many good efforts to use these media to spread the Gospel).  Conveniences of all kinds have not lessened the busyness of our lives; they have just provided more diversions or allowed us to pursue more activities that pull us away from time to quietly pray and contemplate.

Let not a storm of “interference” cause us to dampen Jesus’ signal or lose it altogether.  Rather, let us keep our “antenna” extended and in good working order so as to continually be “attuned” to Christ and His will and mission for us.