Advent Gospel Reflection Series

Nov 30, First Sunday of Advent

Gaile:
"What I say to you, I say to all: `Watch!'"
"we are the clay and you the potter:
we are all the work of your hands."
Throughout this Advent Season watch how the Potter shapes you so that you will truly be the work of God's Hands.

Bill:
I love the power and poetry of images, like "be alert" and "watch!"

If I can sit with these words and let them take hold of me; then they produce the anticipation desired by the season of Advent. I don’t find our culture very good at anticipation, at waiting. We want to force everything to happen – call our kids on our cell phone to find out where they are rather then letting them come to us.

I am convinced that if we could get better at slowing down (even for only a few minutes each day), we could develop a better openness to receive the gift of "the Christ".

Prayer: may we all find ways to live and celebrate this season in whichever ways bring us closer to God and God’s people.

Anne:
We missed singing rehearsal this week and were asked to come to church early today to practice. A visiting priest was yelling the gospel and homily at the earlier mass.  "Watch" became "watch out!" The gatekeeper would sweep up unworthies without the name of God on their forehead and deposit us outside the walls.

We were edgy during rehearsal, upset by his homily. We were singing "let all creation bend a knee to the Lord."  Some were thinking we wouldn't be around to do that, caught up in the judgment sweep. I sputtered... how can he make these good people feel like this? Maybe the name has worn off the forehead, but see the heart on our sleeve. Our commitment over years is strong.

Moving to our own liturgy was one of those "thank you, God" moments. Our new pastor wasn't going to let the starkness of Mark leave us fallow. In a wonderful teaching moment, the final "Watch!" of his gospel reading was an invitation wrapping itself around us. Be alert in hope and longing, he then said, in joyful expectation...savor these words with me. Advent is a beautiful season. Look for Emmanuel, God present with us now. Access the Spirit the Jesus of history has left us. Take a quiet minute in this busy season and say Marana Tha...come, Lord.

OK, I will do that. Gaile is so right about Advent. I recentered and grew today.

Prayer: Spirit of God, please help our reactions be worthy of the center of our life.

December 2, second Sunday in Advent

Bill:
For me the word of the week is REPENT, which I immediately connect with two other difficult phrases, "I'm sorry" and "I forgive you." I find them both difficult to say and t o hear; but it is so essential to utter them and experience the cleansing healing of their spoken reality. We need to do this for one another for it has made possible the birth of Christ in my life.

Gaile:
Last week the word was WATCH!  This week the word is PREPARE! and to me that usually means figure out the calendar for the next few weeks, think about gift wrapping, and work on Christmas cards.  Carolyn Disco sent me a piece by James Martin, S.J. that was on NPR http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?
storyId=97854252&sc=emaf

entitled More Virgin Less Virgin Islands.  It made me think about how I used to prepare for Christmas when I was in CCD.  Every day I would do either something charitable or a small penance and then put a piece of straw or twigs into a box to fill up the manger for the Baby Jesus.  In addition my family would pick Kris Kindles for whom we would do something nice throughout Advent.  I think I will revive the customs with my grandchildren.  It was a great way to PREPARE!

Anne:
Well, I had one of those back to basics moments listening to what we all call the John the Baptist gospel this morning. I never got past the first sentence to follow an attraction to the hair shirt details of ;(ugh) eating locusts. How many times I headed right for those locusts!

Mark begins his gospel with a simple but crucial announcement to everyman. I've worked hard, folks, to gather information from different sources and here it is in a nutshell... "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus CHRIST." As a not very good homily droned on, it didn't matter. I'd heard an important thing.

I began to think not just about stories of Jesus and witness to Jesus. My mind moved to Jesus as not simply showing us a path, but as the path itself...not just pointing to the gate, but as the gate itself...not just announcing salvation open to everyman, but Jesus the risen Christ as salvation itself coming in glory.

Another translation of this Mark passage uses "about Jesus" in this title, but I was glad of my NAB translation using "of Jesus," this morning. Matthew and Luke don't begin this way and John is very philosophical using "Logos," the pre-existing Word, but the first sentence of Mark offers easy access to grateful warmth on a snowy winter morning.

December 14, third Sunday of Advent

Gaile:
So it's traditional but Gaudete Sunday always says rejoice to me.  I love the rose vestments (a reminder that the Pope sent=2 0a rose to the Queen of Spain on this Sunday.  don't ask me why, I know, but the reason is not a pretty one considering the deaths that it caused.)

And the psalm reading is the Magnificat.  The Baptizer t ells again that the one is coming.  And if the Son of God/man is coming then surely he is bringing God with him to us.  so again I say "Rejoice!

 

Anne:
What word reached out at me listening to the Gaudete gospel today? I'm usually turned on by the rejoice songs we sing and the pink rather than the somber purple. Today was different. I found myself thinking on the word recognize ("whom you do not recognize") and felt the tension between the here and the not yet. Jesus has been here and it was a struggle to be recognized. I thought wouldn't any effort to "make straight the way of the Lord" need to recognize the Holy Spirit in our lives? How do we better articulate a living God who holds our interests in the palm of a hand reaching for us? I think Mother Teresa said that anyone living with a sense of Joy is a witness. Being around people like her and Dorothy Day is a means of recognition. I guess I'm coming from the perspective of association with the good. As Paul would say, live in the Spirit. For the past few days I've been remembering good people I've known, about change and how they affected my life;20must be that Advent quest Gaile spoke of.

Bill:
I have been intrigued by the line "make straight the way of the Lord", because my experience has been that God rarely works in "straight lines." I don't know who said the quote, "God writes straight with crooked lines", but I find that more characteristic of the way he/she works. While I am a planner by nature and temperament, and can be very goal oriented, I try to do it with a sense of humor - it's what I gotta do, but doesn't necessarily have a lot to do with what God's gonna do. Sort of "If you want to make God laugh, make a plan." I often find the best way to figure out what God wants is to meander about, waste time, poke around and see what opens up.

The last reflection on the December 14 gospel, by Bill:
I have been intrigued by the line "make straight the way of the Lord", because my experience has been that God rarely works in "straight lines." I don't know who said the quote, "God writes straight with crooked lines", but I find that more characteristic of the way he/she works. While I am a planner by nature and temperament, and can be very goal oriented, I try to do it with a sense of humor - it's what I gotta do, but doesn't necessarily have a lot to do with what God's gonna do. Sort of "If you want to make God laugh, make a plan." I often find the best way to figure out what God wants is to meander about, waste time, poke around and see what opens up.