Almighty and merciful God, may no earthly undertaking hinder those who set out in haste to meet your Son, but may our learning of heavenly wisdom gain us admittance to his company. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
First Reading Bar 5:1-9
Take off the garment of your sorrow and affliction, O Jerusalem, and put on forever the beauty of the glory from God. 2 Put on the robe of the righteousness that comes from God; put on your head the diadem of the glory of the Everlasting; 3 for God will show your splendour everywhere under heaven. 4 For God will give you evermore the name, “Righteous Peace, Godly Glory.” 5 Arise, O Jerusalem, stand upon the height; look toward the east, and see your children gathered from west and east at the word of the Holy One, rejoicing that God has remembered them. 6 For they went out from you on foot, led away by their enemies; but God will bring them back to you, carried in glory, as on a royal throne. 7 For God has ordered that every high mountain and the everlasting hills be made low and the valleys filled up, to make level ground, so that Israel may walk safely in the glory of God. 8 The woods and every fragrant tree have shaded Israel at God’s command. 9 For God will lead Israel with joy, in the light of his glory, with the mercy and righteousness that come from him.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 126:1-2,2-3,4-5,6
R/. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
Second Reading Phil 1:4-6,8-11
My brothers and sisters, 3 I thank my God every time I remember you, 4 constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, 5 because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now. 6 I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. 8 For God is my witness, how I long for all of you with the compassion of Christ Jesus. 9 And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight 10 so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.
Alleluia Lk 3:4,6
Gospel Lk 3:1-6
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, 2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3 He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, 4 as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. 5 Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; 6 and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”
Catena Nova
The prophet Isaiah calls to us: “A voice is crying out in the wilderness: Prepare a way for the Lord, build a straight highway”. This is certainly not an ordinary call for highway construction. The Word of God doesn’t need ordinary road in order to come to us. What we need to construct are inner paths by which the Lord can enter our minds and hearts. The human heart is capacious, but it isn’t often focused just on one goal. In Biblical language, often it isn’t “pure”.... We fill our hearts and minds with God when we turn our backs on seeming goods and fix them on the true goods. Isaiah and John the Baptist call us to decide to change and then give real attention to doing what is good rather than what isn’t. Begin to live for God, to live a good life. Cleanse your inward self from all desire for what isn’t truly good and avoid every sin…. That creates a straight path by which the Wisdom of God can come to you and guard and guide you in good works. Let the Word of God move in you unhindered and give you joy in the hope of Christ’s coming and of Christ’s mysteries. This sets you free for real joy.(Origen of Alexandria)
If the walls of your home were shaking with age, the roofs above you were trembling, and the house, now worn out and wearied, were threatening an immediate collapse of a structure crumbling with age, wouldn't you get out of it as quickly as possible? If you were on a voyage, and an angry, raging tempest violently aroused by the wave fortold the coming shipwreck, wouldn't you quickly seek harbor? Well, the world is changing and passing away; it witnesses to its own ruin now, not by old age, but by the end of things. So shouldn't you thank God, shouldn't you congratulate yourself, if by an early departure you're taken away and rescued from the shipwrecks and disasters that are imminent? (St. Cyprian of Carthage)
Lord, how long will it be? How long, Lord, will you forget us? How long will you turn your face away from us? When will you look upon us and hear us? When will you enlighten our eyes and show us your face? When will you give yourself back to us? .… Teach me to seek you, and when I seek you show yourself to me, for I cannot seek you unless you teach me, nor can I find you unless you show yourself to me. Let me seek you in desiring you and desire you in seeking you, find you in loving you and love you in finding you.(St. Anselm of Canterbury)
The celebration of Advent is possible only to those who are troubled in soul, who know themselves to be poor and imperfect, and who look forward to something greater to come.(Dietrich Bonhoeffer)
In our secret yearnings
we wait for your coming,
and in our grinding despair
we doubt that you will.
And in this privileged place
we are surrounded by witnesses who yearn more than do we
and by those who despair more deeply than do we.
Look upon your church and its pastors
in this season of hope
which runs so quickly to fatigue
and in this season of yearning
which becomes so easily quarrelsome.
Give us the grace and the impatience
to wait for your coming to the bottom of our toes,
to the edges of our fingertips.
We do not want our several worlds to end.
Come in your power
and come in your weakness
in any case
and make all things new. Amen.(Walter Brueggemann)
He did not wait till the world was ready,
till men and nations were at peace
He came when the Heavens were unsteady
and prisoners cried out for release.
He did not wait for the perfect time.
He came when the need was deep and great.
He dined with sinners in all their grime,
turned water into wine. He did not wait
till hearts were pure. In joy he came
to a tarnished world of sin and doubt.
To a world like ours, of anguished shame
He came, and his Light would not go out.
He came to a world which did not mesh,
to heal its tangles, shield its scorn.
In the mystery of the Word made Flesh
the Maker of the stars was born.
We cannot wait till the world is sane
to raise our songs with joyful voice,
for to share our grief, to touch our pain,
He came with Love: Rejoice! Rejoice!(Madeleine L’Engle)
The church set aside this four-week pre-Christmas season as a time of spiritual preparation for Christ’s coming. It is a time of quiet anticipation. If Christ is going to come again into our hearts, there must be repentance. Without repentance, our hearts will be so full of worldly things that there will be ‘no room in the inn’ for Christ to be born again.(Henri Nouwen)
Homily
I often feel out of sync. And never more so than in December. True, if you live in the Northern Hemisphere the cycles of Nature and Liturgy for the most part match up rather nicely. (Though I can’t imagine celebrating Christmas in Florida any more than I could Australia!) Give me all four seasons of Church and Clime, thank you very much. Still, there is a jarring disconnect when it comes to Advent, isn’t there?It’s built in, really. For the Church a new year has begun while the World awaits a New Year on January 1st.And think how during these four weeks in December the Church is doing something rather different than you find elsewhere. Why, there's even a different liturgical calendar.
For everywhere else it’s “the Christmas season” beginning with the Sacred Triduum: the Solemnity of Black Friday, the Feast of Small Business Saturday and the Obligatory Memorial of Cyber Monday. (And yes, there’s the optional memorial of Giving Tuesday.) You can forget somber purple andO Come, O Come Emmanuel. Everywhere else it’s reds, greens and golds whileThe Twelve Days of Christmaswill be over by December 25th -- when the Church is just beginning them. Alas, by Epiphany the Lord’s Nativity will be as long forgotten as Ebenezer Scrooge’s Ghost of Christmas Past!
So, yes, the Church — and I with it — are out of sync. But that’s nothing new. When the prophet Baruch urged Jerusalem totake off your robe of mourning and misery [for] God will show all the earth your splendor: stand upon the heights; look to the east and see your children gathered from the east and the west (I),Baruch was speaking to Jews forced into exile by the Babylonians with years to go before they would return. The prophet’s vision was terribly out of sync with the reality of people torn from their homes, their temple destroyed, living the precarious lives of people in a strange land far from home.
And when Paul wrote his letter to the Philippians saying hewas praying always with joy(II) for them – a letter filled with such references – he was writing from a prison cell somewhere, his life in danger: the joyful tone of the letter quite out of sync with the circumstances he was facing.
And John the Baptist, well, let’s just sayin the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene(G), was no easy time to be alive. Palestine was under Roman occupation, John would soon lose his head by order of Herod, and the promise thatall flesh shall see the salvation of Godseemed terribly out of sync when the Messiah John was preparing ended up on a Roman cross by order of Pontius Pilate.
Now you too might be out of sync in different ways. Some will try to be counter-cultural when it comes to Christmas, though I have some sympathy for the parishioner who complained to me once that she wished Advent didn’t always come at such a busy time of year! (And I confess I have two sides of the house where I live – on one side, yes, Christmas is making an appearance, while on the other, Advent still reigns. Though I assure you the decorations stay up until Epiphany — no Christmas tree thrown to the curb on Boxing Day — if it weren't artificial, that is).
Yet more than such lapses – impossible to avoid in our culture – Advent’s great themes are far more likely to put us out of sync than “the holidays.” Like having concern for today’s counterparts to those Jewish exiles – such as the refugees who have fled Ukraine and Gaza, the hostages still held by Hamas, people facing the threat of deportation from the United States no matter how long they've been here.
Or concern for the counterparts oppressed by the Herodian tetrarchs Luke mentions: the victims of today’s economy of exclusion who dwell in deserts where poverty, food insecurity, and gun violence howl in the wasteland while tax breaks for the richest among us leave more and more people parched as wealth continues to trickle up.
Or concern for the counterparts who suffer from the cowardice of craven politicians like Pontius Pilate who refuse to taking seriously the scientific consensus about the looming environmental catastrophe, dithering puppets beholden to petroleum interests and their lobbyists along with those who pander to conspiracy theories ready to threaten public health, institutions meant to keep us safe, and elementary freedoms. Trust me, attention to all these concerns will put you out of sync with a whole lot of people in this country and in the good company of Baruch, Paul and the Baptist.
But don’t worry -- the exiles did return and rebuild Jerusalem and its temple; the church at Philippi flourished for centuries, and John’s preaching prepared the way for the Promised of Ages. That’s because hope is the most timely of all Advent themes: Hope thatevery robe of mourning and misery will be cast off; every lofty mountain laid low; for God is leading [us] in joy by the light of his glory with his mercy and justice for company(I) –filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God(II). Who lives and reigns, forever and ever. Amen.
Intercessions (Joe Milner; The Sunday Website)
For the Church: that we may make ready a way for the Lord in our time and make a straight path for God in our hearts, our families, and our workplaces.
For the gift of hope: that the Word of God may bring new hope and courage to us so that we may cooperate with God in confronting evil and working to heal the brokenness in the human family.
For a leveling of the obstacles in our hearts: that God will remove from our hearts resentments and prejudices, free us from vices that blind us to God presence, and dissolve our inability to forgive others.
For freedom and healing: that God will fill in the valleys and make level the lives of all who struggle with depression, addictions, or pride so that they may experience freedom and wholeness.
For all who are suffering: that God may smooth the pathways of those fleeing oppression, guide refugees to places of safety, renew the spirits of those who have experienced abuse, and free those unjustly held.
For all who are ill: that God will heal the sick, strengthen their caregivers, and inspire all who are seeking cures for disease.
For all who are experiencing a rough time in life: that God will open opportunities for those who lack work, give comfort to those who are grieving, and guidance to those who have lost direction or purpose.
For peace: that God will inspire us to respect the dignity promote justice for one another in our families, faith communities, and workplaces.
God of our salvation, you straighten the winding ways of our hearts and smooth the paths made rough by sin. Make our conduct blameless, keep our hearts watchful in holiness, and bring to perfection the good you have begun in us. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. (ICEL; 1998)
Offertory Chant
Offertory Hymn
There’s a voice in the wilderness crying, A call from the ways untrod: Prepare in the desert a highway, A highway for our God! The valleys shall be exalted, The lofty hills brought low; Make straight all the crooked places, Where the Lord our God may go!
O Zion, that bringest good tidings, Get thee up to the heights and sing! Proclaim to a desolate people The coming of their King. Like the flowers of the field they perish, Like the grass, our works decay, The power and pomp of nations Shall pass like a dream away.
But the word of our God endureth, The arm of the Lord is strong; He stands in the midst of nations, And He will right the wrong. He shall feed His flock like a shepherd, The lambs He'll gently hold; In pastures of peace He’ll lead them, And bring them safe to His fold.
Communion Chant
Closing Hymn
Hark! a thrilling voice is sounding. "Christ is nigh," it seems to say; "Cast away the works of darkness, O ye children of the day."
Wakened by the solemn warning, let the earth-bound soul arise; Christ, her Sun, all sloth dispelling, shines upon the morning skies.
Lo! the Lamb, so long expected, comes with pardon down from heaven; let us all, with tears of sorrow, pray that we may be forgiven;
that when next he comes with glory, and the world is wrapped in fear, with his mercy he may shield us, and with words of love draw near.
Honor, glory, might, and blessing to the Father and the Son, with the everlasting Spirit, while eternal ages run.
