Advent, a glorious time of the year

Advent is a glorious time of the year, during which we are reminded through the prophets of the glorious things our God has and is doing! We are repeatedly made aware of the power of our God and that God's plan of salvation will not be thwarted.

In Jeremiah 23: 5-8, God says to us: "Behold, the days are coming...when I will raise up a righteous shoot" to rule the world. "As king he shall reign and govern wisely, he shall do what is just and right in the land. In his days Judah shall be saved, Israel shall dwell in security.  This is the name they give him: 'The Lord our justice'."

In his days, that is now, (insert a name)  shall be saved, (insert a name) shall dwell in security because the Lord our justice is at work in our world.  Just as, in Jesus' time, it did not look as though the Messiah had come, so, too, in today's world it may look as though God is not at work. In faith we know that He is, just as some of the Jews knew that Jesus was the Anointed One, the One sent by God to fulfill the covenant and build a Kingdom that will last forever, a Kingdom no one will destroy. Powers against Jesus were defeated--Jesus rose from the dead.  Powers bent on destroying God's Kingdom among us in our day will not succeed.  "Every valley will be filled in, every mountain and hill (the obstacles to justice and truth) shall be made low" the prophet tells us in today's first reading, Is.40:1-11.

Come, Lord Jesus, come!

 

Note: this is the last posting on this site. This same message is posted on my blog in www.becomingasister.org.  Scroll down to "Blogs", click on that and my blog is the first one published there.  See you there! 

The coming of the Messiah

In Is 35: 1-10, Isaiah prophesizes about the fulfillment of God’s promise of sending a Messiah to turn the world back to God.  We know that, through Christ Jesus, we will be saved.  Satan, seemingly totally out of control in today’s world, will be overcome. Evil will be destroyed along with those who perpetuate evil and do not repent.  “Here is your God,” Isaiah says, “he comes with vindication” Is 35: 4),  All of us, in some way or another, long to be exonerated now. However, our justification might not happen until we enter eternal life, as it did not happen for Jesus until His resurrection.

Isaiah tells us that when the Messiah enters our lives and our world, our eyes and the “eyes of the  blind will be opened”, our ears and “the ears of the deaf will be cleared” (Is 35: 5).   Wars will cease between individuals, families, nations, cultures, men and women, rich and poor, homosexuals and heterosexuals; human trafficking and drug trafficking, and violence of any kind will cease. With the coming of the Messiah into our personal lives we will create a world in which the integrity of every human being will be honored, each one’s needs will be met.

Am I ready for this Messiah? Am I preparing a path in my life where Jesus is welcome, where the Spirit is heard and God’s instructions followed?  If so, how is that happening? If not, what do I need to change?

Come, Lord Jesus, Come

In today’s first reading, Is. 29:17-24, we read about the promised Messiah. Through the prophet Isaiah, God says to us:

                        In a very short time, Lebanon [the world] will become rich farmland,

and the rich farmland will seem like a forest.

At that time the deaf will hear the words of a book;

                        instead of having darkness and gloom, the blind will see.

                        The Lord will make the poor people happy;

                        they will  rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

                        Then the people without mercy will come to an end;

                        those who do not respect God will disappear.

                        Those who enjoy doing evil will be gone:

                        those who lie about others in court,

                        those who trap people in court,

                        those who lie and take justice from innocent people

in court (Is. 29: 17-21, The New Century Version or the Bible).

How seriously do we take this prophesy.  The prophet Isaiah is not only talking to the people of his day but to us as well.  Truly, the world as we know it will be changed.  God will open the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf. Blindness and deafness to the needs of the poor and oppressed; blindness and deafness to justice will be removed. Leaders throughout the world and in any segment of society, all peoples, great and small,  “shall hear the words” of the Scriptures, the Torah, the Hindu Vedas, the  Quran—the holy books of all religions. Yes, people without mercy will come to an end; those who do not respect God will disappear” (Is. 29: 20).

God has promised and God will do it!  May we not lose faith as we wait for the fulfillment of this prophesy in the world of today!  I believe it. Do you?

Trusting the Lord

In today first reading, Is. 26: 1-6, we are encouraged with words: "Trust in the Lord forever! for the Lord is an eternal Rock."  I am at our province headquarters in Oshkosh, WI.  I came here on the 3rd of Dec. and will be here until the 14th. I came to set up a vocation committee that consists of lay people, SSM Associates and some Sisters.  I said to the Lord on the way here: "Lord, this is a trust walk, an act of faith. I have no idea who I will be interviewing or whether the persons I asked for suggestions have any information for me. The first night at Franciscans Courts, our headquarters in Oshkosh, I went to the library around 7:00 p.m. and around 7:30 a sister who does chaplaincy work at Mercy Hospital in Oshkosh dropped by and gave me a list of names of persons she thought would be good committee members. On returning to my room, the phone rang. It was one of our Associates. She had a list of names for me.  I was overwhelmed. I had been praying the prayer; Lord, bless me this day and I will indeed be blessed!

I have 12 person interested in working with us to promote religious life and priesthood, to put forth effort to make SSMs known. I will be interviewing all of these persons and writing recommendations to the Council.
Our communication specialist who is also a marketing guru has offered to analyze my work and help me develop strategies for more effective use of social media and maintaining ongoing contact with inquirers.

"Trust in the Lord! for the Lord is an eternal Rock!"  How many times the Lord confirms this truth for me! What about you?

"Gotcha"

Today is the feast of St. Andrew, the Apostle.  Jesus is walking by the Sea of Galilee, sees two brothers, Simon and Andrew, fishermen, casting a net into the sea. He yells at them: “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men [people]” (Mt 4: 18-22).  At once, they abandoned their nets and followed  Jesus.

Were they nuts? They were, probably, successful fishermen!  What happened to the boat and the net and the fish?  And this guy who was simply walking by and says “Come, foillow me. I will make you a different kind of fisher,” who was he? Why follow him and abandon a business? And we know that Andrew and Simon did not look back. They stayed with Jesus for three years and beyond, were at the Last Supper, suffered through Jesus’ crucifixion by Romans who occupied their country, witnessed his Ascension into heaven, were present at Pentecost when tongues of fire came down from heaven and rested on them, and, filled with the Holy Spirit, changed from cowardly men to bold proclaimers of the Word, of the Resurrection and of the Kingdom of God in our midst, a Kingdom that Yahweh told the Jewish people would never be destroyed.

 So what happened? How could this be, you ask?  The fact is that once we encounter Jesus personally, nothing in this world is seen in the same way.  The Real is not what the world offers, though advocates of the world’s goods believe so and want us to believe so as well.  Our egos “chase success, power, a good name, achievements, and all the other stupid things we race after. God will always get…[us] on the run,” as He did Andrew and Simon (Rohr, Richard, OFM, Jesus’ Plan for a New World,” St. Anthony Messenger Press, Cincinnati, OH, 1996, p. 38).  As we chase after the things the world offers, not that we do not need those things, “once in a while…[we] glimpse out of the corner of…[our eyes] what really matters. Gotcha” (Ibid.)”

God: the Victor

Today’s first  reading, Revelation 18: 1-2, 21-23; 19: 1-3, 9a, continues with John’s vision. This time he sees a “mighty angel [pick] up a stone like a huge millstone and [throw]  into the sea and said: ‘With such force will Babylon the great city be thrown down, and will never be found again….Because your merchants were the great ones of the world, all nations were led astray by your magic potion.’”  After this scene of the destruction of Babylon, John heard “what sounded like the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying: ‘Alleluia! Salvation, glory, and might belong to our God, for true and just are his judgments. He has condemned the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her harlotry. He has avenged on her the blood of his servants.’….Then the angel said to me, ‘[Write this: Blessed are those who have been called to the wedding feast of the Lamb.”

You and I live in a world that has, in many ways, led people astray.  Extreme efforts to destroy the faith of its inhabitants are exerted by the powerful and mighty in every nation on this planet.  Desolation is spreading throughout the world: natural disasters, wars, violence of every kind, moral abominations, idolatry (worshipping sex, material fortunes, “freedom,” pleasure, power and control, etc.).    “…Flee to the mountains,” we are told in today’s Gospel, Luke 21: 20-28, that is, take refuge in God.  Pray, pray, pray for the conversion of this world.

 

I know in faith that the “Babylons” of this world will be destroyed. I also know in faith that there is a remnant of people in the U.S., in Europe, Asia, in Africa and other parts of the world, as in the time of the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., who will remain steadfast in worshipping the one true God, who will follow the Lamb wherever He goes and are called to the eternal wedding feast. May I be among those chosen few who keep the faith, no matter how bad it gets before Jesus’ return.

Participating in the Victory Jesus Secured for Us

Today’s first reading, Revelation 15: 1-4, shares with us more of John’s vision. He sees “something like a sea of glass mingled with fire. On the sea of glass were standing those who had won the victory over the beast and its image… They were holding God’s harps, and they sang the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb [Jesus, the Lamb of God].

‘Great and wonderful are your works,

Lord, God almighty.

Just and true are your ways,

O king of the nations…

….You alone are holy.

All nations will come

and worship before you,

for your righteous acts have been revealed.’”

 

You and I, as Christians, participate in the works of God. The prayer that opens today’s liturgy asks that the wills of the faithful be stirred up so that we will strive more eagerly to bring God’s “divine work to fruitful completion.”  What a grace that has been earned for us by Jesus’ shedding of His blood and surrendering His will to the will of the Father, which is that we are victorious over the beast!  Jesus has given us the Holy Spirit so that we have everything we need to reverse the tendency within us to rebel against God, to choose our own will over God’s will, to make a name for ourselves as Adam and Eve attempted to do by eating of the fruit of the tree of good and evil in the middle of Paradise, what the people attempted to do in building the tower of Babel, what the Israelites attempted to do in worshipping the pagan gods of the countries that they had conquered on the way to the Promised Land.  We face the same temptations of those who have gone before us. We also are armed, however, with the same graces with which others have been armed and through which they  “won the victory over the beast and its image.”  If we cooperate with the graces we are given today,  we will “bring [God’s] divine work to fruitful completion.”  Yes, we will win “the victory over the beast and its image” because God’s work in us is “great and wonderful.”   I believe that! What about you?