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Third Sunday of Advent 2020: Cover Art and Column

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Third Sunday of Advent

December 13, 2020

Dear Followers of the Long-Awaited-One,

We wait for the promised Light of Christ. This Third Sunday of Advent is traditionally called, “Gaudete Sunday”, which means, “Rejoice”. We do not pretend to wait for Jesus to be born today, because he has already done so. We rejoice because it is half-way to Christmas, the feast of the Incarnation, God-Made-Flesh. We know that Jesus Christ is the long-awaited-one, the Messiah, the Prince of Peace. We rejoice because we already know that redemption and forgiveness are from Christ Jesus. We rejoice because we are redeemed in his passion, death and resurrection.  

John the Baptist is back in the center of our conversation this weekend. John came to testify to the Light, the radiant splendor of Jesus Christ. John still helps us all depend on the Light to find our way out of the darkness and into a place of generativity and justice. John is the mouthpiece of hope and opens the pathway to divine beauty and love in the face of Jesus. Jesus is radiant in forgiveness and justice, his face shines from the glory of heaven. I pray we may find out who we are as followers of Christ, so that we may shed our darkness and learn to follow him.

If we are to hear John’s plea of testimony to the Light, we must first befriend the darkness that surrounds us. This is where our personal prayer comes in. We are all tempted during this season to stray from our own prayer. Even in pandemic, we are busy preparing for Christmas. We are invited to prepare for Christmas by first exploring what it means within our hearts. Every year, I watch parents in particular, struggle to make ends meet and wind up on Christmas Eve, exhausted and frustrated. They feel completely spent and angry. There is nothing left within them. They have given everything to their children and there is nothing left in their own relationship with Jesus Christ.

Along the way of Advent, we all need to create a life of deeper prayer. It is not worth the effort to show our children that Christmas is all about stuff we accumulate so to look better than a neighbor or relative. Maybe this year in pandemic, we could finally take some new realities to heart. I know so many families are so stressed out because our isolation has been so long. However, I believe we still have lessons to learn. I know Jesus, who is among us, shall not leave us empty on Christmas.  We must first muster the courage to be with him in our anguish and in our questions about life.

Perhaps we can take a time out. A time to honestly be alone with God. Not a time in which we plan our table decorations for Christmas Eve or what to give a lost uncle as a gift. I mean a time to face the true reality of life. Put the kettle on, brew some tea, light a candle and find your way to a chair in which you can pray. Sit in the shadows of darkness in your space, see the flicker of light, sip from the cup that warms you. Here, sort through all you have been through during these past months.

For any of us to rejoice, we must first cultivate our need for Jesus. I don’t know about you, but I need God more than ever in the questions that swirl within me. I find a new depth of need in this ongoing pandemic, when I face my own loneliness of heart, when so many people are distant, when it becomes difficult to speak to friends and to feel their touch. We all must settle into the desire to find Jesus in this Advent season. Rouse desire for hope. Raise awareness of the gifts God gives. Befriend the desire in others who long to be heard, recognized and who most especially long to belong in this world. Be grateful for the life that is yours and not the life you think you should have now. Gratitude leads to much rejoicing.  

So how can you settle into the warmth of rejoicing? How does the cold world teach you to rely even more on your relationship with Christ Jesus? Hold up to the Light the longing for your teen to be sober. Hold on to your cousin’s request for healing from cancer. Listen to your little one who struggles to learn online. Find in your heart the beauty of God across the globe, those who need you more than ever. Feel your own life and breath, your own body that is alive in this world.

John says that he is not worthy to untie the sandal strap of the Master. I hope we can come to Jesus with such humility and dependence. Jesus calls us deep into the mystery of Advent waiting to satisfy our human hunger and to heal our human hurts. Advent is a unique opportunity to be at-home in God. For this, I rejoice.

God give you peace.

Fr. Ron

The Second Sunday of Advent 2020: Bulletin Art and Column

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Second Sunday of Advent

December 6, 2020

Dear Believers in the Christ,

Mark 1: 1-8 reveals the forerunner of Jesus. John the Baptist, a cousin of Jesus cries out on behalf of the Kingdom. His voice echoes across generations. Be ready. Be prepared. Remain open-hearted. Our salvation is at hand. Baptism becomes our new identity. Our sin melts away in the forgiveness of Christ.

John spends his life facing into the direction of the Kingdom of God. His very soul points to Jesus, the Messiah. He knows and feels the Light.  He wants the best for us as well, his mighty hand points toward love. The Kingdom is close upon us. I love John because he knows who he is and what his life is all about. He lives a selfless life. His simplicity speaks in the hot desert. His clothing and food are both for sheer survival and nothing else. John speaks to me even more in my aging. His hot breath proclaims the Kingdom. His strong voice washes over valleys and desert mountains even in our time when society is drenched with corruption, insincerity and injustice.

John’s voice is a hot torch. His manner challenges the rich and comfortable. His tenacity stretches for generations. John becomes the spokesperson for Kingdom riches. In his simplicity, he has no room in his heart for duplicity and dishonesty. John, the first New Testament prophet, is mightier than corruption, and stronger than hatred. John is my favorite scriptural super-hero.

John rattles our notions of Advent. Advent is the time when we muster the courage to pray and work for all that is unjust and unsettled. We rouse such hope because the Incarnation changes everything. God-with-us, the meaning of the Incarnation, summons us to find God in all things. It is only our sin that separates people. The Incarnation is a reminder that all people are one. All people are united in this unbelievable gift on the earth.

Advent is the time we pray for justice in our world and Church. Christmas, that is the Incarnation, is meant for all people in equal measure. This is why we pray for the hungry, the abused and the uneducated. This is why our hearts go out to those who have been abused or who have to fight for their place in the Church.  This is why we give gifts, because we have been given the gift of God’s Son from heaven. Justice is an expression of love that is the Kingdom we celebrate at Christmas.

Our task is to model our lives after John. We need to point to those who most need acceptance, forgiveness and hope. If we are to read this gospel in Advent, then we are to live this reality far into a new year. We have been bombarded with illness, injustice and violence during this past year. I pray that we can cling to John’s camel hair garment and learn to follow him in the heat of the deserts we face in our world.

On every Second Sunday of Advent, the gospels invite us to consider John. However, this year feels different to me. We need him more than ever. We need a steady ride on this rollercoaster of pandemic and racial violence and political divides. John must speak out louder this year, because we just don’t seem to hear him rumble the forests with sounds of reform, repentance, and remorse for wrongdoing. 

John does not present a childish Advent. His presence in the scriptures does not console at first glance. There is no Hallmark Christmas card that bears his image or no meme of his on social media. John is not a cozy winter fire. He is a fire of pure love for the marginalized and those who experience injustice and hate. He is not waiting for a child to be born. His is waiting for all the brokenness of the world to be united in the coming of the Savior. John’s voice is hoarse in his crying out. He is exhausted by his challenge.  

John says to us that he is not worthy to untie the sandals of the Master. His humility sends chills down my spine. I so desperately want to see what he saw. I want to see the face of the Messiah, Jesus, who is the Christ. If we can repent and believe, we shall hear the voice of the One who loves us beyond imagining. When justice flourishes in our world, upon the globe on which we all live, we shall see the miracle of Christ redeeming us. We shall find ourselves at the end of John’s finger, touching the face of the Beloved. And that, shall be called, Christmas!

God give you peace,

Fr. Ron