The days leading to justice love and holiness

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary for the 1st Sunday of Advent remind us to prepare for the both coming of Jesus and the End Times.

Communities prepare

The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah points to a Day of the Lord when justice returns to the people of Israel who have struggled to live with God at the center of their actions.

* [33:14–26] This is the longest continuous passage in the Hebrew text of Jeremiah that is missing from the Greek text of Jeremiah. It is probably the work of a postexilic writer who applied parts of Jeremiah’s prophecies to new situations. The hope for an eternal Davidic dynasty (vv. 14–17; cf. 2 Sm 7:11–16) and for a perpetual priesthood and sacrificial system (v. 18) was not realized after the exile. On the canonical authority of the Septuagint, see notte on Dn 13:1–14:42

In the 1st Letter to the Thessalonians, Paul urges them to maintain lives of love and striving for holiness in anticipation of Jesus return.

In the Gospel from Luke, Jesus speaks of the Coming of the Son of Man as He exhorts us to be vigilant.

* [21:26] The powers of the heavens: the heavenly bodies mentioned in Lk 21:25 and thought of as cosmic armies.

Mary Lee Brock remembers childhood Advent practices and now, as an adult, she wonders how she can, this Advent season, build a Spiritual Crib for Baby Jesus.

I pray for the strength to listen to those I do not want hear, to reorder my priorities to allow myself to be present to those who need some attention, to focus on serving another rather than simply ticking one more item off my to-do list, to act for justice in our community and in our world.

Don Schwager quotes “The coming of the Son of Man,” by Cyril of Alexandria (376-444 AD).

"He says that they will see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Christ will not come secretly or obscurely but as God and Lord in glory suitable for deity. He will transform all things for the better. He will renew creation and refashion the nature of people to what it was at the beginning. He said, 'When these things come to pass, lift up your heads and look upward, for your redemption is near.' The dead will rise. This earthly and infirm body will put off corruption and will clothe itself with incorruption by Christ's gift. He grants those that believe in him to be conformed to the likeness of his glorious body." (excerpt from COMMENTARY ON LUKE, HOMILY 139)

The Word Among Us Meditation on Jeremiah 33:14-16 tells us that “the days are coming” when God will visit his people (Jeremiah 33:14). Let’s dedicate the next twenty-three days to making our hearts as open and welcoming as possible so that Jesus will find a comfortable home there.

Let’s get ready with joy and anticipation, even if it involves some work on our part. Let’s embrace the opportunities to pray a little more, to examine our lives, and to show more love to the people around us.

Friar Jude Winkler expands the understanding of the “Day of the Lord” mentioned by Jeremiah. In Thessalonika, the community awaits becoming one with Jesus when He returns. Friar Jude sees the Gospel of Luke as a reminder to us to “leave nothing unsaid and nothing undone”.

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, declares that understanding the Universal or Cosmic Christ can change the way we relate to creation, to other religions, to other people, to ourselves, and to God. He cites many Christians who have experienced and shared this enlightenment.

The Universal Christ is Divine Presence pervading all of creation since the very beginning. My father Francis of Assisi (1181–1226) intuited this presence and lived his life in awareness of it. Later, John Duns Scotus (1266–1308) put this intuition into philosophical form. For Duns Scotus, the Christ Mystery was the blueprint of reality from the very start (John 1:1). Teilhard de Chardin (1881–1955) brought this insight into our modern world… In the early Christian era, only a few Eastern Fathers (such as Origen of Alexandria and Maximus the Confessor) noticed that the Christ was clearly historically older, larger, and different than Jesus himself. They mystically saw that Jesus is the union of human and divine in space and time; Christ is the eternal union of matter and Spirit from the beginning of time.

This Advent, let us wait in anticipation for the eternally coming Christ.

References

(n.d.). Jeremiah chapter 33 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved December 2, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/jeremiah/33
(n.d.). 1 Thessalonians, chapter 3 - United States Conference of Catholic .... Retrieved December 2, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/1thessalonians/3
(n.d.). Luke chapter 21 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved December 2, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/luke/21
(n.d.). Creighton U Daily Reflections .... Retrieved December 2, 2018, from http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html
(n.d.). Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved December 2, 2018, from https://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/
(n.d.). 1st Sunday of Advent - Mass Readings and Catholic Daily Meditations .... Retrieved December 2, 2018, from https://wau.org/meditations/
(2017, December 30). 2018 Daily Meditations - Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved December 2, 2018, from https://cac.org/2018-daily-meditations/